The Journey Home, March 2015

Making our way back home...
Our journey that we embarked upon On Aug 1st, 2014 is slowly coming to an end. After spending some time in Apache Junction, Phoenix we are now heading north towards home.  We left Phoenix on February 26th and drove to Bullhead City, Arizona to spend a day visiting with relatives. The signage picture was taken in Kingman, Arizona.




 

Driving to Bullhead City we always enjoy seeing the rock formation that resembles a middle finger sticking up to the sky.   



Photograph of Nevada Solar One, with the Las Vegas Valley beyond the mountains behind it. Highway 95 running beside the solar plants.

                            
Just before entering Las Vegas on Highway 95 we saw a solar panel plant. Nevada Solar One is a concentrated solar power plant, with a nominal capacity of 64 MW and maximum steam turbine power output up to 74 MW, spread over an area of 400 acres (160 ha). The projected CO₂ emissions avoided is equivalent to taking approximately 20,000 cars off the road annually. The project required an investment of $266 million USD, and the project officially went to operation in June 2007. Electricity production is estimated to be 134 million kilowatt hours per year. It is the second solar thermal energy (STE) power plant built in the United States in more than 16 years, and the largest STE plant built in the world since 1991. It is located in Eldorado Valley in the southwest fringe of Boulder City, Nevada, and was built in that city's Energy Resource Zone, which requires renewable generation as part of plant development permits.










And across Highway 95 from the solar panel plant is miles and miles of high tension electrical poles, supplying electricity to Las Vegas and area.

Driving into Las Vegas, NV 

The 2013 population of the Las Vegas metropolitan area was 2,027,828. The city is one of the top three leading destinations in the United States for conventions, business, and meetings and is one of the wealthiest major cities in the country. In addition, the city's metropolitan area has more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any other city in the world, and is a global leader in the hospitality industry. Today, Las Vegas is one of the top tourist destinations in the world. Located on the basin floor of the Mojave Desert it is surrounded by mountain ranges on all sides.

Travelling on the Interstate 15 between Mesquite, NV and St. George UT.

We are staying at a park in St. George, Utah which  is a city located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Utah on the Utah-Arizona, Nevada border. The city lies in the northeastern-most stretch of the Mojave Desert, 117 miles (188 km) northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada and 303 miles (488 km) south-southwest of Salt Lake City on Interstate 15.

 Today we visited Snow Canyon State Park, a 7,400 acre scenic park tucked amid lava flows and soaring sandstone cliffs in strikingly colorful desert environment. Sand dunes, up to 2,500 feet thick, eventually cemented into stone. Burnt orange to creamy white color in color, Navajo sandstone, the predominant rock in the park, is what remains of the ancient desert sea. Over time, water cut and shaped the sandstone to form canyons. Cinder cones erupted causing lava to flow down these canyons filling them with basalt.

 

 Throughout the park you can see lava boulders.

 Beautiful views of the canyons in orange to creamy white Navajo rock.

 On our way out of the park you can see the fresh snow on the mountains surrounding St. George.