Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Start: Tucson, AZ
Finish: Boulder Beach Campground (NPS), Lake Mead NRA, Boulder City, NV


We left Tucson Tuesday AM with the aim to visit a new NPS site, collect the NPS Centennial stamps at several park sites and visit Death Valley NP during the 'super bloom' that had been reported extensively. I was thrilled with the flowers I had seen and photographed during our Spring trip last March, so I was curious what a 'super bloom' looked like in comparison.


We took a new route through Phoenix to Wickenburg, the Google recommendation. The route took us north through Phoenix, up I-17 to W. Carefree Rd, AZ 74, across to Morristown, just east of Wickenburg on US 60. For a mid-day route through Phoenix it worked very well. With the growth of Sun City and surrounding towns in the NW Phoenix metro area, this route was faster, as it has less traffic lights.


We arrived in Nevada, gaining an hour as we crossed into Pacific Time Zone, to Lake Mead National Recreation Area in time for me to pick up a Junior Ranger booklet for this site. I worked on it at camp, Boulder Beach campground, just down the road from the visitor center. The evening light was gorgeous as we settled in for the evening.


Across Lake Mead



Only at a Vegas area NPS campground would you find the message about not using casino tokens to pay for camping.