April 18

Gusts of 60 mph winds met me at Lake Mead NRA after I exited the plane in Las Vegas. Yes, I retraced my path from January. The reason is that the Passport Cancellation Stamp for Tule Springs Fossil Beds NMon is at the Lake Mead VC. Tule Springs was created in 2014. Therefore, it has been nearly ten years, and the park has no VC, no facilities, no nothing, except for a couple of trails, one each at the two “entrances” to the park. The park is intended to preserve thousands of Pleistocene fossils, the geological age being between 12,500 and 100,000 years ago… otherwise known as the “Ice Age”. When I last visited in 2016, there were no trails, and only one signpost, saying the area was a NPS unit. So, a couple of additions, but at this pace, it may be another 12,500 years before significant infrastructure is in place to accommodate visitors. Coyotes and jackrabbits were around 12,500 years ago, so good to see their species continuing to survive in this environment.

The hike I took in Tule Springs was shorter than the 1.5-mile hike I did at Lake Mead. Back in January I was not able to take the old railroad trail from the VC to Hoover Dam. Three tunnels were created to allow a railroad track to be laid from Boulder City to the dam site. This was the primary source for materials to be delivered to the construction area. One gets a wide view of the lake while on the trail. The “bathtub ring” can still be seen on the canyon slopes, even though historic snows and rains came down in the Rockies this past winter, as well as in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. Plenty of lizards running about the rocks, soaking in the sun’s warmth.

On a side note, Las Vegas Blvd was in full-swing, with plenty of tourists walking the streets and overhead walkways. I stopped in the MGM Grand to try my luck at Roulette. Great game that Roulette.