Sunset from my campsite
I was camping in Pahranagat NWR, enjoying the warm weather following a challenging trip south this year. I planned to spend a week at Pahranagat. I have been here before, so I knew this was a nice area. There were some areas to explore I had not been to yet. I’d find out too, there were things I didn’t know about to see too. I still had a leaking tire to deal with, but other than that I was free to explore around the area, working my way further south to eventually meet up with friends in the Quartzsite area. Would I have other problems along the way? Read on to find out.
The Pahranagat Valley is one of the first lower areas you will hit coming south in Nevada through Wells and Ely. Coming straight south from Twin Falls, ID I would tend to do one long days driving, as the whole area is higher and colder. If I wanted to break up the travel, I could detour east toward the Great Salt Lake area like I did in Fall 2023 yet never blogged about. That area is a little warmer owing to the warming effects of the lake. I was camped in one of the more northerly areas I could comfortably stay the winter. It’s not as warm as further south, but going north the ground rises quickly and things are a lot colder. I’m told the lake will occasionally freeze a bit in the coldest winter weather, but most of the time the lows remain at least close to freezing with the days often quite pleasant. You’re an hour north of Las Vegas, with a similar climate.
The Pahranagat Valley is a bird flyway owing to its many springs creating open water for birds to sit on. I saw many birds from my campground and on my hikes, but they were usually far away in terms of photographing. The lake has a nice trail circumnavigating it. I did that hike both ways. I think it’s about two hours around if you are taking your time. Your hike around the lake will take you through desert terrain and Poplar forest, with fall colors while I was there.
You can also hike over to Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters from the campground, a nice hike passing creek and hills for some more varied scenery. The Headquarters also serve as an interpretive center, with nice displays showing you the native and natural history of the area. There is a good indoor display too for those days weather is inclement. Lisa was a fountain of knowledge for the area, letting me know about the latest interpretive feature to open in the area: Black Canyon Trail, just across Highway 95 from the HQ.
Black Canyon petroglyphs
There is an easy walk with views of water, trees, hills and petroglyphs. The signs along the way explain the area. There are even a set of binoculars setup so you can view some of the petroglyphs on the hills further away. They really don’t want you climbing anywhere off the trail to get a closer view, but you don’t have to. Some of the closer ones are quite photographable with a moderate zoom. I’d recommend this stop especially for less mobile people – you’ll feel like you are out in the middle of nowhere with relatively little walking.
I spent some time shopping for tires. I had noted Carolyn’s RV Life had gotten AT tires for better offroad performance. You can take a hit on paved road performance, with things like quicker wear, road noise, and poor tracking. Carolyn went with the advice of the tire shop to get non-AT tires for the fronts – less noise, better tracking. I decided to go the other way and get ATs all round. Having slide off road due to lack of any steering grip, I was more willing to to deal with the downsides. I decided that Big O Tires out of Mesquite with their house brand “AT II” tires was the one to get, having waited for Black Friday deals before shopping. 4 for the price of 3 was a decent discount. For fun, I looked up the equivalent tires at Canadian Tire. I wish I hadn’t, as I found out they had a sale on too, coming in less for tires than what I would have spent with Big O. So much for “everything is cheaper in the United States”.
Leaving my junky spot
I drove down to the Mesquite area, camping in a spot I’d been to before. It is junky and gets a fair bit of ATV traffic going by, so I was planning on exploring an alternate after my tires were done. But for now, into Mesquite I went the day after American Thanksgiving. While I was waiting for my tires to get done, I had an opportunity to to explore on foot around Mesquite. The town punches above its weight in terms of tourist attractions, but it is a developing snowbird town. There are casinos, golf courses, an art museum, and two historical museums. I stuck to the museums, as they were along the main drag of town, walking distance from the tire shop. Mesquite isn’t that big, but it is stretched out, being constricted by the Virgin River and its valley.
My first stop was the art museum, which I found more by chance – I knew there was something here, but ended up wandering around until I found the right door. It’s not big, but the artworks were interesting to me at least. Down the main street I went, to the Heritage Museum. Unfortunately, it was closed so on I went to the next museum, the Donkey History Museum. I was expecting something eclectic, but ended up with something more kitch. Its is still worth a visit, they do have a lot of information on Donkeys along with some good displays. I was just about done touring the Donkeys when I got a call that my tires were done. It was pretty quick service, considering they are first come first serve and they said it would be an hour or two to get in.
 Doubt the real ones wore hats |
 One of the kitch shelves |
 Know your Equine shoes |
Oooooh, shiny.
So, back to the tire shop I went. I’ll have to return for that Heritage Museum sometime. The building looks interesting, having been the town’s former hospital. My new tires looked good, but the finishing touches were sloppy. There was a missing stem valve cover. The tire pressures were wrong, despite there being a list in the driver’s side door pillar, like most vehicles. Getting on the road was the acid test – would the tires be OK? I’m happy to report that they track just fine, and there is only the slightest bit of extra hum at highway speeds on certain tarmac. I’ll take that for the extra traction.
Of course, I immediately put the tires to the test checking out a new spot near Beaver Dam, east of Mesquite, just over the state line into Arizona. The road in wasn’t the gnarliest road I’d been on, but it was enough of a test that I was satisfied my tires were not going to fall off anytime soon. My explorations took me to a new boondocking spot on a ridge with a view. There were a few Joshua Trees around, and the Virgin Mountains to look at across the valley from me. Most importantly, this spot did not have junk piles all around, and looked to be lightly camped on. Indeed, there were fewer ATVs that went by, also at a greater distance as this spot was a bit more off the road.
I spent a bit of time exploring around the area with the Grom Motorcycle. There are a lot of ATV trails in the area, with some that you could drive down with an RV. Be careful, there are sand traps that you will get stuck in even if the road looks fine. I was particularly interested in seeing the Thelma and Louise monument. While this spot is not the one in the movie, it is the same idea of a road ending at a cliff dropping way, way down. The decorations are a mix of expected and unexpected. There some interesting markers memorializing locals of the area. I was glad I took the bike over 
here as the roads are pretty bad, as well as not obvious as to which one takes you to the monument. It’s a cool little spot if you want a longer walk from Beaver Dam, or are on an 4×4 cruise through the area.
I was happy to have tires I didn’t have to check every gas stop for pressure, although that isn’t a bad idea. I decided that one more stop south before getting to the Quartzsite area would be about right. The weather was getting a bit chilly at the end of November, 2024 so I decided to book it to a spot not far from the Colorado River. I was on the Arizona side of the river, across from Needles, CA. I had scouted out a spot to try to avoid a problem I had previously: shooting everywhere. There is a gas power plant with some BLM land to the east of it. I figured to camp on the BLM part as close to the power plant as possible. I hoped that there would be no shooting near a power plant.
Arriving at the plant, I could see two things I had been worried about would not be an issue. The power plant is natural gas, so no smells and little smoke. There also was only a gentle whooshing sound from the cooling towers. That actually was a nice white noise sound to fall asleep to at night. I could see a huge Mesquite tree on the aerial which turned out to have been camped in. You read that right, it was large enough with foliage to the ground and an entrance to an ‘internal’ area with a couch, table and room to dance. But the area around the tree was a bit unlevel, so I went down a bit on a faint track. I could see holes in the ground, so was being cautious of the ground. I’m moving back and forth a bit to level when I back up just a little further than before. Going forward, I felt the motorhome hesitate a bit in that dreaded manner of a wheel spinning.
Sure enough, I have started to dig in a bit on the left rear tire. But I am level at the moment, and the spot I’m on looks good. I decide to park it and call the rig “potentially stuck”, next week’s problem. I’d have plenty of time to collect rocks and boards from around the area and give myself the best chance of getting out of there. At least I wasn’t out in the middle of nowhere, being only a short distance off pavement beside a power plant. In the meanwhile I had a new area to explore, hopefully without shooting. Join me next time when I have some adventures around here, and potentially get myself unstuck.
