After my overnight in Vegas it was nice to be headed back out into the wilderness. I drove southeast to Boulder City and then dropped down into the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
(I have a link to a place I stayed overnight at the bottom of this blog.)
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| Map of Lake Mead National Recreation Area. |
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| Boulder Beach Campground. |
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| Las Vegas Bay Area. |
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| Las Vegas Bay area. |
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| Pointing at Map. |
The Lake Mead National Recreation area is huge and has a bunch of great camping areas with hookups and they are relatively cheap! Ten bucks at some places like Boulder Beach. Five with a golden age pass. I was impressed. Karen and I will definitely spend time here in the future.
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| A primitive boondocking access road. Bumpy! |
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| Designated Primative boondocking sites. |
There are many designated boondocking sites in the vast recreation area. I'm not exactly sure how they work but it appeared they were free to use after paying your park entry fee. This little orange house symbol designates a primitive camping area. Some of the areas had one site basically, some had wide areas where many RVs could fit.
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| Callville Bay Campground Area |
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| Callville Bay Marina Area |
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| Callville Bay Marina Area |
Callville Bay was a pleasant area with some nice RV campgrounds.
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| Echo Bay area campground |
Forever Resort company runs an RV Village at Echo Bay. The best sites cost $30 a night (plus county tax) for full-hookups. Forever also rents houseboats out of Callville Bay. It would be fun to park an RV and take a houseboat out on Lake Mead for a few days. They aren't cheap to rent. It looks like about $500 a day in May, $600-700 in mid-summer. Split with some friends, it might be doable.
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| Echo Bay area. |
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| Stewart's Point boondocking area. |
I drove down a bumpy dirt road to Stewart's Point, which is a boondocking area with a pit toilet. Stewart's Point can hold a lot of RVs. It's right along the shoreline and seemed like it would make a great RV boondocking spot. I plan to find out one day.
Somehow I passed popular Government Wash on my drive. I wanted to see this boondocking area. I've read a lot about many RVers staying here. You can stay 14 days by just purchasing a $10 weekly pass, it appears. What a sweet deal! So close to "civilization" and yet so far!
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| Valley of Fire State Park view. |
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| Valley of Fire State Park view. |
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| Atlatl Rock Campground in Valley of Fire State Park. |
Next, I cruised on up to the Valley of Fire Nevada State Park. It's amazing and stunning. If Nevada hadn't made it a state park, I am sure it would be a National Park. It's $20 to drive in and well worth it. The park has a spectacular campground - the Atlatl Rock Campground - that I will definitely return to with Karen. She will love it. She loves red rocks!
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| View towards Overton, Nevada from Snowbird Mesa. |
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| Camping at the edge of Snowbird Mesa. |
Towards sunset I headed to Snowbird Mesa (a.k.a. Poverty Flats) just south of Overton, Nevada. It's a popular boondocking site where I have read that many folk stay all winter long. I can see why. It's a great spot with fantastic views. I parked on the edge of the mesa facing the road to Overton below. After setting up my chair and fire ring, I was set and greatly enjoyed the evening. I heated up a hot dog (soy dog) over my fire and enjoyed it. What a fantastic view.
There were fellow boondockers all over the mesa area around me, but still no one was too close to anyone else, which made it nice.
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| A nice looking history museum in Overton Nevada. |
The next morning I headed into Overton. It's a really cute little town. They have a nice grocery store. I spotted this history museum from the road and pulled in to take a close look at the building. The site was once an Indian village. I plan to return and take a tour with Karen.
It's was time to return to Las Vegas and meet Karen at the Flamingo Hotel. I parked the van behind Bally's again and left it there for a few days while we were at the Flamingo.
I was happy that I had the chance to take a quick tour of so many cool boondocking spots along the Colorado river corridor. It gave me confidence that a full-time RV lifestyle was not only possible, but really practical and totally enjoyable. I will return!
Karen plans to write a post about the Vegas visit and then our return home via the Grand Canyon where we were trapped for a couple nights due to snow.
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Snowbird Mesa (a.k.a Poverty Flats) near Overton, Nevada MAP:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/36°29'07.0"N+114°26'48.2"W
Ah, yes the northern part of AZ can play weather games (speaking from experience) We stayed at Government Wash for a few days last October. I still can't believe how low the lake is.... sad.
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