Viva Las Vegas

We stopped in dusty Phoenix to check the weather and make a final decision on the North (to Grand Canyon) or West (to California) question. Forecast lows for the Canyon were all perishingly cold, so a unanimous decision was made to head West.

First stop was the Joshua Tree National Park, where we spent a couple of days scrambling amongst the huge granite rocks and namesake trees, further feeding Francesca's career aim to be "a rockclimber and a mummy"

We crossed a few more miles of desert to visit another National Park - the Mojave Desert Preserve and, in particular, the Kelso Dunes.  The impressive 700ft dunes should have given us a clue to the nature to the terrain....but apparently not.   We set off 4 miles down a dirt road and followed some tracks to a camping spot but ground to a halt in soft sand. We spent the late afternoon digging out with a toy dustpan!  Oh how we laughed...After an hour and a half, we successfully extracted ourselves (with the aid of some rusted iron sheeting) and promptly tasked ourselves with extracting the cork from a bottle of wine.  Evening guests included a kit fox and a cute little kangaroo rat who seemed particularly interested in the wine bottle.

Having clambered up the dunes and run down to make them "sing" we left the Mojave and headed for the bright lights of Vegas.  Friends from Ottawa, Steve and Debbie, made us very welcome at their new home, where we had a lovely evening, plus a night in real beds!  The following afternoon we tramped the length of the Strip watching circus acts, dancing fountains and snoozing lions.

Having seen just about all that Las Vegas Boulevard had to offer under 7s, we took a trip back to Arizona and the Hoover Dam, before taking up Debbie and Steve's great recommendation to visit Red Rock Canyon.

We are now in Parhump, NV - not a tourist destination in itself, but only 50 miles from Death Valley. Slave drivers that we are, we haven't broken up from school for the Christmas holidays yet...