November 10 -- Gold Butte's Falling Man "Reloaded", And I Ordered "Discovery II"...

"Reloaded" as in I've been there before, in February of this year. It's another place here in SE Nevada that deserves repeated visits...As it's a 50 mile-plus drive to Gold Butte, which is southwest of the town of Mesquite, I left at 0530. I planned on doing the drive-thru at the MacDonald's here in Overton, so I went up to the ordering machine, ordered my usual 2 burrito meal -- and got no response, though the screen DID say "Please place your order here." Hmmm...I parked and looking inside; a worker was cleaning the floor. HMMM...I looked at the opening times on the window -- open 6AM...Well, don't I feel a fool?! Apparently not all MacDonald's are open at 5am. Well, I'd had a banana a "cutie" earlier, so that would tide me over until I hit the Mickey D's in Mesquite, though that meant driving out of my way for a few miles (the turnoff to Gold Butte is about 10 miles down the I-15 from Mesquite). I grab my breakfast at Mesquite and head over to Riverside, which you may have heard of in the news; seems like there's a fellow named Bundy there (I see a sign advertising "Bundy's Melons" as I drive along the Gold Butte Byway) who is a fellow that has a beef with the BLM, and probably government agencies in general. He has a "Camp Liberty" there, and when I drive out of the Gold Butte area yesterday I see a bunch of motor homes with American flags, so something will probably be going on there tomorrow -- Veteran's Day. I drive past Bundy's place along the byway and reach the BLM info post --

Where there is a basic map of the Gold Butte area and its "roads" -- 

As you can see, Gold Butte is pretty close to Lake Mead; further on down the byway I take a photo where you can see the lake in the center distance -- 

When I'm near the east entrance to the Valley of Fire, I can actually see this area from there. In a straight line, it's only about 20 miles, but to get there by road it's the 50-plus miles. Still, the drive is a great one, one of Nevada's classic byways, though the paved surface is a little rough...Here's another photo looking west from the paved part of the Gold Butte Byway, with the colorful rocks of the  Valley of Fire -- 

At Whitney Pockets the road turns to dirt for the rest of the way to the site of the mining town of Gold Butte. It's a good road as far as dirt roads go, wide and well-graded for the most part; this is looking back to the colorful rocks of Whitney Pockets -- 

There are some sandy spots where the washes intersect with the road, though, and a few areas of cuts created by running water, probably from the heavy rains of late September. Here's the road looking south -- 

The turnoff to Little Finland -- my original destination -- is the way to "Devil's Throat" -- 

And just what IS "Devil's Throat", you ask? Well, it's a sinkhole -- a huge one --

As it's fenced all around, it's hard to see down to the bottom -- but I, and now you, did -- 

Nice as I got the near-full moon in the shot, too... :o) As I mentioned, my original plan was to go to Little Finland, a truly special, otherworldly area that looks like rock spaceship that has just been dropped into the Nevada high desert. I've been there before, too, earlier this year, but this time I was concerned about the condition of the road to Little Finland -- part of it is in a wash -- so I opt to go to Falling Man instead. (I find out once I get back to Discovery that one of my Facebook friends who is a member of Friends of Nevada Wilderness, living in Las Vegas, was at Little Finland this past weekend, and she said the road was fine, so out to Little Finland I'll go on Wednesday.) I head back north along the Gold Butte Byway and pass beautiful high-desert scenery, again with the Valley of Fire in the distance -- 

Here's one of the red rock "jumbles"  that dot the landscape here -- 

I arrive at the Falling Man parking lot, pack the Canon 40D for landscapes and 7D with the 500 f/4 for wildlife -- and find that both batteries to the 7D are dead. Which is not a bad thing, so now I can concentrate solely on landscapes -- and hope I don't see a Golden Eagle along the hike, wouldn't that just figure when I do NOT have the 500mm lens with me (as it turns out, the only birds I saw were Rock Wrens, so I wasn't too heartbroken on not having the 500 with me).  The Falling Man area of Gold Butte is Technicolor rock, or as my friend, Kurt Kuznicki of Friends of Nevada Wilderness would describe it, "Pink Floyd" in its variety of colors. Along the trail at Falling Man -- 

Since I couldn't bring the 500mm lens with me, I brought my binoculars, which is a good thing to have here as there are Native American petroglyphs all over the area. This area is called Falling Man for a good reason -- 

One of the most unusual petroglyphs to be found anywhere. Is this the depiction of an actual event -- a man falling? Judging from the high places where you see rock art scratched into the rock, I wouldn't be surprised if some Native American Da Vinci fell to his death...The trail leads over sandstone pocked with pockets, one still with water -- 

 Now let's see how good your eyesight is..."Newspaper Rock", closeups of which will be coming up, is in this photo. I'll give you a big hint -- it's a dark rock in the center. See it? This is why binoculars are essential to have for petroglyph spotting...

Looking back along the trail, with the Virgin Mountains in the distance -- 

The trail comes up to a ridge, and you see a folded, jumbled landscape before you; the trail descends into this -- 

Now you're down in a wash, and off to your left is another example of ancient rock art, "Sheep Panel" -- 

It's a procession of desert bighorn sheep, some with atlatls (a primitive yet effective weapon the ancients used) in them. There are also some drawings whose meanings are more mysterious -- 

I go up the sandy wash; this is looking back -- 

Still LOTS of green here, and flowering plants...And the textures, forms and colors are on display, even at your feet -- 

I come across this exquisite flowering plant -- in November!  -- life and beauty in the harsh desert -- 

The landscape along the wash is Technicolor, eye candy -- 

The wash eventually opens up and becomes somewhat commonplace, so I head back  and have lunch at the sheep panel, passing more interesting rock formations -- 

It's now getting close to 1pm, and I have a "date" in Mesquite that afternoon, so I head back and see "Newspaper Rock" -- 

The glare was pretty strong from the sun, and there is shade to deal with, too, so I used my Singh-Ray  neutral grad filter to cut-down on the glare and even out, as much as possible, the shade part of the rock panel from the sunny part. I think it worked well...I then pass by a panel way up high; when you see the location of many of these panels, it's no wonder some of the "artists" might fall...

I head out of Gold Butte and go to the Lance Camper dealer in Mesquite to discuss ordering, and purchasing, a 2015 Lance 1685. My current travel trailer, "Discovery", is nearly 4 years old and while "she" is in excellent shape and condition, there are many things that I'd like to have that weren't available when I bought her in late November 2010 -- a ladder  to get on the roof, a bike rack, and solar panels, to name just a few, and of course there have been improvements in design and constructions in the intervening 4 years. So I when I leave the dealership, I end up the proud soon-to-be owner of a factory-ordered,  2015 Lance 1685 (click on that for a You Tube video showing the exterior and interior) with all the bells and whistles that I'll need for another few years on the road -- and a trip up the Alaska/Canada Highway starting in June 2015...