good-times-rollin: March 2013

...the wide-spreading branches...

Spring is in the air!

The Coolabah (eucalyptus) Tree.

The smooth bark...

...and the long narrow leaves.

A few days ago, we met Joan and Steve at the Ethel M Chocolate Factory and Botanical Cactus Gardens. There wasn't much to the factory tour, except we did get a free sample! But, the gardens were quite pretty!

Mescal Bean...or Texas Mountain Laurel is an evergreen. It has large purple flowers and rich green leaves.

An interesting aloe plant...

Can you guess the name of this cactus?

The Twisted Acacia Tree has small yellow, fragrant flowers along the branches.

The leaves are small and fern like with a straight reddish thorn.

It's amazing to me the birds build their nests in the cactus. Isn't nature just amazing?

If you look closely, you can see the making for the nest in the bird's mouth.

An Ocotillo blooming.

A busy day for the birds! Wish I had Judy's skills!

We enjoyed the day. The gardens were very well maintained with lots of variety. We headed to Olive Garden for lunch. Here's to new friends and the hope that our paths cross again.

Happy Easter to all.

Joe and I enjoyed another day of hiking and 4 wheeling with Joan and Steve...this time to Anniversary Mine and Narrows. A gravel road leads to the old mines and the narrows. At the end of the road, it looks like it dead ends. This is where we parked.

On the right bank, up a steep incline, you can walk to the old Anniversary Mine ( 1922-1928). Today, the Anniversary Mines are located on 223 acres of privately owned land inside the Lake Mead NRA. Even though the land is privately owned, individuals are allowed to use it for hiking and other recreational activities at their own risk.

Back in the day, these were tunnels for mining cars.

The picture below shows where the narrows begin. This land was laid down as sheets of mud in the bottom of some vast lake where ancient animals roamed.

The mud turned to stone, and earthquake activity jumbled the area and turned the lake bed on edge.

Visitors today see several mountain-sized ridges of sandstone, limestone and mudstone of various colors.

The ridges have been steeply tilted up...some nearly verticle.

Water collected in small basins are called "tanks" . The picture above is an example of a tank.

Lovell Wash cut through the ridges, creating spectacular narrows that are about 500 yards long, hundreds of feet deep and only a few feet wide. In many places you can touch the walls on both sides.

Steve led us up, down and all around to the top of a cliff overlooking Lovell Wash. There are wide spots here that can be used for parking. What a magnificent view!