WINTER IN NEVADA

28 Mar 2022 Leave a comment

by Betty Huffman in Life Style Adjustments, Retirement, RV-ing, Traveling, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

After all the Christmas chaos with family, we headed west from Aubrey, TX, to the great state of Nevada. We arrived at NevadaTreasures RV Resort, Pahrump, Nevada, on Jan. 10. Some RV friends from Wisconsin were also there for the winter. We looked forward to reconnecting with them.

As soon as we arrived, we both came down with COVID. It must have been the omicron variant because our symptoms were mild, but we were “out of commission” for a little over a week after arriving.

Pahrump has a population of about 44,000 people. It is located in Pahrump Valley in NYE County. It is about 62 miles west of Las Vegas. Of course, it has several casinos! Pahrump is surrounded by the Spring Mountain Range to the east and the Nopah Mountains to the west.

Here is something else interesting about the Pahrump Valley. Take a look at these signs. I have NEVER seen signs like this before!

Yes! That’s a picture of a donkey!
I thought these homemade signs were really cute! They have wild horses and wild donkeys freely roaming around Pahrump Valley. Some times you even see them within the city limits. I never could get a good photo of any of them.

After resting a bit and reconnecting with our friends from Wisconsin, Darrell and Malia, we were ready to explore the surrounding area. Our first day trip was to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

The desert has its own unique beauty. Since it was winter when we visited, the desert was still pretty brown. I wish we could have visited in the spring when all the desert plants are blooming (but then it would MUCH HOTTER-no thank you!). Here are some of my pictures with a few captions.

If you zoom in, you can read about the ancient pupfish that live in the area. They are really small; they are about the size of minnows.
Devil’s Hole
We could see the pupfish, however, there was no way for me to zoom in enough for them to show up in a photo.
Believe it or not, but there is SOME water in the desert! This is Crystal Spring.
You can barely see Crystal Spring.
This is the new Visitors Center. It had a lot of informative inside. Behind the center is a boardwalk around a beautiful section of the desert where you can see more pupfish.
Part of the boardwalk. You can see the Visitors Center in the top left corner. It was about a mile hike around the whole boardwalk.

While there, I tried to imagine what the refuge would look like with everything blooming and the animals coming back to life from winter hibernation. I bet it is really exciting and pretty.

So, for now ….. “On the Road Again!”

Betty

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