Lake Mead

I finished my book this morning sitting outside in the lovely warm sunshine! After lunch Sharon and I set off to give Kymba a walk at Lake Mead before completing the day by doing a large food shop at the Commissary on the American Air Base (the equivalent of the NAAFI in UK).

We headed east from Las Vegas and the scenery was quite different from the north west route we took to Mount Charleston where we had been in a wide, flat desert valley flanked by hills. Today we were very quickly in amongst large arid, brown hills and this continued until we reached what is called the Lake Mead National Recreation Centre. When we arrived at one of the parking areas near the Lake I was astonished that, despite being a lakeside venue, the view resembled a moonscape. The ground was totally arid and very stony with the only signs of vegetation being dried up, spindly skeletons of plants still presumably attached by their roots. There was no sign even of any cacti which had been present in the desert valley near Charleston.

A handful of RV's (very large motor homes) were randomly parked in the area where we eventually stopped. Once we released Kymba from the boot of the car she immediately dashed off to find the water while we followed more tentatively as the ground was really stony and difficult to walk on. We spent a good while here to let Kymba have some good exercise and then made our way back to the car. A couple of men were sitting outside a nearby RV and asked us what kind of dog Kymba was and were amazed that she was a Golden Retriever as she is so much lighter than the breed over here. One fellow turned out to be a former professional photographer and frequent visitor to the Lake. He told us that only ten years ago the level of the lake had been at the water mark which you can see on the far side as a white strip in the hillside, and that the water had been receding ever since, although apparently this year it has started to make a bit of a recovery. The Lake was formed by the construction of the famous Hoover Dam - which we hope to visit tomorrow - which controls the distribution of water from the great Colorado River. We left the lakeside as the sun was sinking causing the hills opposite to turn a gorgeous brick red. There has rarely been a proper sunset since I arrived as the sky has been devoid of clouds and the sinking sun merely leaves a pink glow in the sky silhouetting the hills and mountains in front of it.

We did our food shopping en route home and arrived back quite tired but having enjoyed another great day.