vacation pics

With my father, I recently was able to visit my brother John and sister-in-law Vicki in Las Vegas. These are a few photos from our trip to sites in Nevada and Arizona, and include Red Rock Canyon NRA, Valley of Fire State Park, Mount Charleston, Meteor Crater, and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Lake Tahoe

This is a short video clip showing a visit to Lake Tahoe in April 2005. There are some photos from this visit on my blog at the following link: http://archaeologist-pa.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_archaeologist-pa_archive.html

Visit to the Silver State

I recently accompanied my father on a trip to see John and Vicki in Reno, Nevada. It was great to see them, and we had a wonderful time. Here are a few photos highlighting some of the things that we did while on our visit...

John and Vicki took us on a road trip to the Lake Tahoe area, which is about an hour's drive from Reno. The scenery encountered en route was impressive enough, but seeing the lake itself was the icing on the cake. It's easy to see how the rich and famous shell out big bucks to vacation in this area... 

A shot of the rugged terrain surrounding the lake. Many of these roads are impassible during the winter. 

The wind was really kicking up during our visit, as you can tell from looking at John and Vicki in this photo 

A shot of the lake, whose surface is at about 6225 ft. above sea level. This is the second deepest lake in the U.S., with an average depth of 1,000 ft. and the deepest part at 1,645 ft.

More interesting facts about Lake Tahoe from the U.S. Geological Survey: The water in Lake Tahoe could cover a flat area the size of California 14 in (36 cm) deep. This amount of water is enough to supply everyone in the United States with 50 gallons of water per day for 5 years.

My family was kind enough to indulge in my searching for two geocaches, one of which was near where John and Vicki live in Reno. This cache was located in a canyon that was reputedly haunted. We didn't find any ghosts here, nor did we find the cache on our first visit. Luckily it was close enough that we were able to return again on the following day...

This is a photo of my Dad taken from the same spot on our second visit to find the cache. Note the snow left over from the previous evening's storm. 

Vicki searches for the cache site 

I hurry to find an item to leave in the geocache container, as "muggles" (non-geocachers) close in on our location. 

A photo of White Lake, north of Reno. This isn't a bad photograph - the color of the water really appears to be as white as the snow capping the mountains in the distance. 

White Lake can also be seen to the left in this photo. We found the color and appearance of this body of water to be of interest, but unfortunately I couldn't find out much about it on the internet.

It is possible that White Lake may be an endorheic basin - a watershed which does not drain. A high level of solar evaporation leaving behind a concentration of salts and other minerals may be the cause of its white color.

On the way to Virginia City, we stopped at a scenic overlook that was dedicated to an early road builder. This shot depicts the basin in which Reno lies. It can barely be seen in the distance, to the right of the photo. 

A breathtaking view. Photos of this cannot do justice to the experience of being here... 

Dad at the overlook. The mountains in the distance were capped with snowfall. As we climbed higher in altitude, we finally reached that level where snow covered trees on the side of the road. 

Vicki admiring the scenery at the overlook 

Vicki spotted these wild horses outside of Virginia City 

Downtown Virginia City... This was a great place to spend the day, admiring the historic architecture, browsing through shops and boutiques, and reading historic plaques...