Fun In The Sun, Lake Meade

 

This last week here at Lake Meade has been very busy. I think we spent one day here at our boondocking spot. The other days we have been out exploring. The solar on the rig has kept up really well. Of course being gone all day and not using any electricity helps.

We did have two cloudy days where the solar wouldn’t get us back to full charge, but with a little bit of help from our Honda generator one evening we were able to get back where we wanted to be. We have 600 amps available but we do not want to go past 50 percent capacity, so this gives us about 300 amps we could use a day (if we needed). If we did use 300 amps in a day our solar charging the next day would not re-coup all of that and we would not be at full charge.

Usually we average between 90 and 150 amps a day depending on the day. We normally turn on the inverter in the morning for a few hours but the only thing I am running is the router and computers. Then we turn everything off and during the rest of the day the batteries will get charged while we are out playing. In the evening we are power hogs, the pc’s are going, the tv, the receiver and satellite receiver are going for three to four hours.  The solar is working great. 

Here are a few pictures from this weeks activities.

Hoover Dam

The picture below is from us standing on the Memorial Bridge walkway.

We did take the one hour tour through the dam and it was well worth the money. This dam was built back in the 30’s and what an engineering marvel it is.

One of the generator rooms

One of the air vents

Here is the vent cover Max is standing next to from the outside.

It looks like a shield in the middle of the picture.

The Memorial Bridge

Water intakes

The dam is impressive and is worth the trip to see it. Take the early tour because it does get crowded.

The rest of the week we have been taking some back roads with the Jeep and hiking some short hikes, Here are a few pictures from the week.

Following the old Mormon trail, about a 30 mile backcountry road. The old Spanish Trail, known later as the Mormon Road, first traveled by Spanish explorers in 1776. The Spanish used it as a link between their New Mexico and California missions. Later, the mountain men followed the trail to California. The Mormons developed the trail into a road during their westward expansion after settling in Utah.

Anniversary Mine and the Narrows

This is an old mining area where they use to mine Borax. at the end of the wash area is a really nice slot canyon to hike. We hiked this with our friends Steve and Joan and some of their co-workers.

Steve and Max climbing to the mine entrance.

Obviously we did not go very far in.

The beginning of the slot canyon

At the end we even saw Big Horn Sheep and a couple babies.

We even saw a wild Burro up close and a couple of wild horses from afar.

After our canyon hike we went into a small town with Steve and Joan and had a nice dinner at a little Chinese restaurant, then we visited at our boondocking spot for awhile to end the evening.

We did a lot this week and had a great time in this area. Currently we just moved over into a campground to take on water and to do laundry. Today (Thursday) we will be moving down towards Laughlin Nv at a neat boondocking area right on lake Mohave. While there, we will visit the Laughlin area and maybe take a trip down to Oatman. There is so much to see and do.

Enjoy Your Day!