Lake Mead & Hoover Dam

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It was about a 3-hour drive from Zion River RV Resort to the Lake Mead RV Village. For the most part a pleasant drive. The only slightly hairy part was the last stretch of Interstate 15 in Arizona before entering Nevada. There were some steep slopes here.

Originally we were going to stay a month on Lake Mead, but changed our reservations to only 4 days. We’re home sick now, and the temperatures are HOT. Continuous triple-digits limits outdoor activities.

Our spot near Lake Mead

However, as soon as we arrived, we saw how beautiful it was, the color of the landscape, lake, and sky. We’re glad we came.

HOOVER DAM

On our 3rd day, we took a trip to nearby Hoover Dam about 7 miles from our campground. It’s a lot of concrete . . .

One of the dam’s power plants

Lake Mead’s Bathtub Ring — the New Normal

Lake Mead Water Level when we visited

Campground Internet Report 2

Updated on September 10, 2019 — Methodology added.

We’re at our last stay in our West Coast trip. It’s our 43rd campground in 8 states and Canada.

We’ve been keeping track of our Internet use since we started our journey a little over three months ago on April 1st.

I published first Internet report in June after we had visited 16 campgrounds.

MY FINAL CONCLUSIONS

Again, I’ll repeat what I said previously in June: any conclusions are tentative as 43 campgrounds is just not enough data. That said . . .

• “Satellite Internet isn’t necessary because cellular reception is available at the vast majority of campgrounds” – this is a common statement found on web RV forums. I only had to use my HughesNet Gen 5 dish in 3 of the 43 RV parks we stayed because there was no Verizon and AT&T cell service and no campground WiFi available. Would I sign up for HughesNet Gen 5 service again? I’m not sure now.
• “Campground WiFi is crappy” – another popular web forum notion. Though I wasn’t expecting much, I found campground WiFi to be much better than I thought it would be. For example, 67% (29 of 43) of the campgrounds we visited had at least “usable” WiFi, that is, you could use it for web browsing. In addition, 42% of those 43 campgrounds had WiFi fast enough for streaming video on a regular basis.
• “Verizon is better than AT&T” – I’m not finding that to be true. Based on these 43 campgrounds, I would not drop my Verizon plan (unlike what I said in my 1st report) because Verizon service was much more available than AT&T (91% compared with 77%).

NOTE: The “Streamability” percentages in this 2nd report are “stricter” than in my 1st report. In my 1st report the percentage was based on total availability. The 2nd report is based on the total number of campgrounds. For example, in this report Campground WiFi Streamability is 42% (18 of 43). In my first report, Campground WiFi Streamability would be calculated as 62% (18 of 29).

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METHODOLOGY

Equipment: VM6200 (AT&T Mobley) and a USB730L Cat 6 LTE modem (Verizon) with 2×2 internal MIMO and Carrier Aggregation connected to a Cradlepoint MBR 1200B router. No exterior antennas or cellular amplifiers were used.

Testing: Internet speed was measured once when we arrived at a campground, typically between noon and 3 pm. Speedof.me was used to measure Internet speed on a 2017 iMac using the Chrome web browser. For each Internet source (AT&T, Verizon, campground WiFi, and HughesNet Gen 5), two Speedof.me tests were done. The 2nd test results were used.

Zion

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We arrived at Watchman Campground in Springdale around 2:30 pm on Tuesday, August 27th. We stayed 4 glorious nights and left on Saturday for Zion River Resort where we are now . . . until we leave tomorrow (Saturday, September 7th).

View from Watchman Campground

This is my favorite park and it’s pretty high up on Jan’s list too. We were in Loop B, Site B2, a secluded campsite next to the camp amphitheater and trail along the Virgin River. We backed into our electric only site. It’s 50A so we’re happy as the arrival temp was 102 degrees, and we needed to use both air conditioners.

Our Site B2 in Loop B

Though Watchman Campground does not have full hookups, only electric, and in fact the campground itself only has bathrooms — no showers (so bring a lot water), despite all of this, it is a gem.

We’re a few steps away from the Virgin River which is great for human and dog swimming. Walk a bit farther, take a foot bridge across the river, and you’re in Zion Canyon Village:

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On our first night we walked to the Zion Brewery for dinner.

It’s good

DOG DAYS

Flirt is a water dog. From day one. We’ve had four Golden Retrievers, two males and two females. Jack and Flirt are the water dogs. Jack had no common sense. When we lived on a lake, he jumped off our dock and started chasing ducks towards the middle of the lake. We rescued him. Flirt, on the other hand, has become a thoughtful, conservative swimmer. Polite.

Swimming in the Virgin River

From time to time we put her out . . .

Dog shoes (hot asphalt protection)

But Flirt rebounds and takes the “command chair” to survey her domain . . .

Flirts chair

THE NARROWS

We were in Zion National Park about 2 years ago. We stayed 6 days at the Zion River Resort . . . which is only 10 miles or so from the park, but you have to get up early in order to get a parking spot in the park.

This time we spent our first 4 days IN Zion. A big difference.

This time we decided to attempt hiking up The Narrows.

So we did. I think we only hiked less than a mile into The Narrows, but a great experience . . .

Zion Shuttle – End of the Line at The Narrows

We dressed right

It’s a walk before you get into the water

Up The Narrows

. . . and up

The woman on the right started cracking up as soon as the woman on the left began pushing on the other lady’s ass

THE HELICOPTER RIDE

Expensive, but the best. On Tuesday morning, September 3rd, we hopped on one of the Zion Helicopters for a 35-minute aerial tour of the area around Zion. Priceless.

I hadn’t been on a helicopter since I medevaced a German Shepherd sentry dog while I was in Korea in 1971. So it’s been a while.

Well, we LOOK confident

We had GoPro video of our flight, and I’m only able to post 2/3s of the movie. It’s just too big to upload, but you’ll get the idea.

Yellowstone

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We camped near Yellowstone National Park from August 11 through the 22nd. However, before arriving in the area we stocked up on groceries in Helena, MT:

$500 of groceries

YELLOWSTONE HOLIDAY RV CAMPGROUND

We stayed at Yellowstone Holiday RV Campground for 4 nights. The campground is right on the shore of Lake Hebgen:

Tom & Flirt on the shore of Lake Hebgen

YELLOWSTONE GRIZZLY RV CAMPGROUND

We stayed here from August 15th through the 22nd. Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park was one of the best RV campgrounds we’ve been . . . spacious, clean, great service, close to Yellowstone’s West Entrance, and the largest dog run I’ve ever seen.

That Grizzly statue scared the bejeezus out of Flirt when she first saw it at night

#272 was our camp site

The dog run was an opening in the park’s fence that led into a national forest

Plenty of places to poop

YELLOWSTONE TOURS

Just like Glacier National Park, we decided to let others do the driving and we both signed up for Yellowstone tours. We did this reluctantly because the tours were 8 hours long . . . a lonnnnnng time to sit on a bus or van. Also, we both couldn’t go at the same time because we couldn’t leave Flirt alone that long. So Jan took the 1st tour, and I did the 2nd. Both tours turned out to be really good.

Along the Firehole River

One of many Yellowstone Moonscapes

Upper Falls in the “Grand Canyon” of Yellowstone

Glacier has Red Buses, Yellowstone has Yellow Buses

Tom’s tour bus

Bison or Buffalo

Earthquake Lake

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In mid-August we took a day trip to Earthquake Lake. The lake was formed 60 years ago when a 7.3 Richter scale earthquake caused an 80-million ton landslide that dammed the Madison River to form Earthquake Lake.

Submerged tress still remain

A visitor center was built on the landslide debris

View of the landslide scar from the visitor center

The visitor center offered an interesting perspective on the 60-year-old event. On one hand it presented a comprehensive overview of the landslide that killed 28 people, but the center also sold trinkets like earthquake T-shirts and coffee cups. A bit cringey. So I had Jan buy a T-shirt for me.

Seriously?