B&W   COLOR   ARCHIVE

OK, this is not new information: traveling and camping within the Covid Era demands a couple constants! Stay outdoors and stay away from crowds! And we continue to find Nevada is a pretty good place to do that. For the second Thanksgiving in a row we visited its 'public recreation and preserve' crown jewel - the magnificent Valley of Fire State Park. It easily holds it own with most National Parks we've visited (36 and counting) and offers up numerous diverse and dramatic landscape visuals, hiking opps and plenty of room to roam within its 70 square miles. The downside — the place is only 50 miles out of Las Vegas - a population and architectural cluster bomb with lots of busy people in a real big hurry! Timing is critical when navigating your way under, over, sideways and through Sin City. As a sidebar, there are many descriptors for Las Vegas and here's one of my favorites. 'Las Vegas, the most expensive toilet in the world that still can't flush'.

Size wise, Death Valley, at 3,000 square miles is one of the 800 lb gorillas in the National Park 'room' for sure. Factoid: It's the 5th largest in the US but is dwarfed itself by the Alaskan parks. We were shut out camping there last year by high winds and rain but for the most part had excellent weather this time around. Carol's and my only complaint (a minor one) was the mediocre take-out 'Turkey Bird lunch box' from a restaurant in the park's hub, Furnace Creek. I know, I know...if that's you're worst problem, you're doing ok.

Highlights beyond the two major parks included a couple nights in the tiny desert town of Shosone just outside Death Valley National Park. We also dug a little deeper our second time around the Lake Meade Recreation Area and discovered the gorgeous Palm Oasis of Rogers Spring. Next came visits to the quirky town of Nipton and the eye-warping destination of Nelson - both in Nevada. Thanks Joan Berger! Nelson is packed to the hilt with the largest collection of vintage artifacts (by far) I've ever come across. Scattered across 10 or so acres are well preserved wooden structures , mining artifacts, buses, cars, appliances, signage, mannequins and even crashed aircraft remains. It was a bonafied gold mine and certainly the man-made 'found abstraction' photography highlight of the trip.