And besides the beauty, the park offers an amazing insight into the lives of the ancient Native Americans who used to inhabit the area. The park is littered with petroglyphs. There was something so inspiring about them. I felt so connected to the past when I viewed them.
These people were telling us a story. Who knows exactly what they were saying, but there were a lot of suns and big horned sheep. Some appeared to be directions: go to the big rock, take a left, walk for two miles, and there will be sheep.
The sandstone formations themselves were also beautiful.
But dear lord was it hot.
So, as the Munschs do, we found water to dip our bodies in. It turns out that the park is only 12 from Lake Mead. If that wasn't big enough, we were in trouble.
Swim gear on we headed down a road to Echo Bay. The drive was erie. You could tell that the area once teamed with people, but that those people had shuttered everything and left years ago. A marina sat dry and full of tires. A restaurant and motel were boarded up. Even the restroom's windows were busted out. Needless to say, we were a little nervous about our choice now. It seemed like the perfect backdrop to a Scooby Doo mystery.
But we were hot dang it. And we could see water just ahead so we trudged onward. Finally we came to a parking lot where a handful of boat toting pick-ups were parked and we saw two girls in bikinis walking down towards the water. So at least we weren't the only people here. That was somehow reassuring.
Life jackets and sunscreen on, we stumbled down the gravely slope toward the murky aqua colored water of Lake Mead. At the waters edge we started sinking. In an effort to find a less sinky spot we made our way around the small bay. At his point we ran into the bikini girls who's legs were covered in mud from sinking so far. Okay. We're not going where they were. We'd lose Marcus in the mud.
We dropped our things and got in. Moods lifted immediately upon entry.
Water is amazing. It calms me down, cools me off, and just makes me happy. I want to be near or in water as much as possible. My ultimate goal is to travel as much as possible and live where I can hear water moving outside.
I am not picky about my water (except the murky lakes around Sioux Falls). I will get in rivers, creeks, streams, pools of all shapes and sizes, the ocean, giant fountains, hot tubs, and bath tubs. Temperature is not of great concern (except at the city pool where I want to yell at children for walking too quickly and getting me wet before I'm ready). I need to ease in. I'm one of those people. My counterpart and opposite in so many ways (thank god) Jason, dives in head first. Everywhere. Small creek. Jason lies down in it. He always claims its better to get the shock over in an instant. It's so interesting that this is his approach considering that every move he makes is well researched and thought about. He never jumps into anything. Except water. And I'm the most jump right in kind of person there is. Except water.
I digress. Once we felt adequately cooled off we carefully climbed out so as not to be sucked into the mud up to our necks and started slip sliding back up the gravel sides to the car. Approximately 20 steps out, we were all complaining about the heat again. In all fairness it was 109 degrees. You dry almost instantly in that kind of dry heat.
Unfortunately when we got back to our camper, the air conditioner had barely made a dent in the sweltering heat. And it was 8:30 and we hadn't eaten. Suffice it to say minds were being lost all over the place.
We roasted hot dogs and climbed into bed all sticky where we tossed and turned all night in the heat.
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