Macabre Blog – Talking about Wickedly Decadent items

Howdy from Nevada ghasts and ghouls. The Macabre Mercantile staff went on a road trip just north of Las Vegas to the Valley of Fire state park.

This is a beautiful drive through sandstone mountains and rolling hills. It’s amazingly colorful and the shapes carved by the wind are breathtaking.

We took several side routes through the park to see all the cool sights. We didn’t get pictures of Fire Canyon because it was hard to stop along the road there but OMG that side road is worth it if you’re ever in the VofF. Fire Canyon has a line of dark red mountains running down the center and they are jagged and almost look like flames being fanned by the wind.

We took in lots of sandstone, some plants and of course our hell hound Kali managed to get into a picture.

After a lunch break, we headed into Lake Mead recreational area for a leisurely drive home instead of going back to the highway and while there we saw something intriguing…. symmetrical rock stacking in the desert. No HUMAN could have created such perfect stacks just off the road – nope, no way. It HAD to be aliens!

One funny side note, one of the pictures shows a cactus with pink flowers.
Right after we got home we noticed that the very similar cactus in our cactus garden had finally put out yellow flowers. Synchronicity FTW!

Here’s a few pics, click on them to see the larger version for detail. If you ever get a chance to go, please do so, it’s worth it. I know we intend to return.

Today we took our hellhound Kali on a road trip to Death Valley. We visited some fun place in NV and crossed into CA to see some cute wild burros.
Once more we stopped at the Area 51 diner for a rest stop and this time we got a Tee shirt to commemorate the event. We also got gas at the CHEESIEST gas station evar: Fort Amargosa.
The desert out that way is beautiful and full of so much color. The mountains are really pretty since some have snow cover at the higher elevations.
We even passed Creech Air Force Base and got to see some drones buzzing around – that was neat.

We saw the ghost town of Rhyolite just off the main road but it was getting late and we passed it up this time. After seeing some photos of it online we want to go back – it looks CREEPY.
Another ghost town out there is Chloride City CA which is a bit off the beaten path and we’re not sure if our little car could make it there over the rough roads but that’s another one for a future trip as well.

Here’s a couple of pics of the area which really do NOT do justice to how beautiful it is.

Until our next adventure – stay wicked!

Today the Macabre Mercantile staff decided to take a roadtrip to the historic town of Oatman.
Who knew that the town would be packed to the gills with tourists early on a Tuesday afternoon?
We couldn’t stop but we got to see all the burros wandering the streets and ooh and aah at the quaint buildings as we drove through at 3 MPH.
We kept going since we missed our opportunity to be touristy and drove down Historic Rt 66.
It was a fun drive. The road is very narrow through the mountains east of Oatman, AZ and has TONS of switchbacks as it climbs and then descends over 3000 feet again and again.
The views were amazing.
We passed the Colorado Mine and then a bit futher spotted an old abandoned mine. Media Minion climbed up the steep hill to take a peek into the opening – he was not insane enough to try to go in.
The pic of the car is taken from the mine entrance so you can see how high up it was.
We followed RT66 almost all the way to Kingman, AZ. Fun ride, if you’re ever out that way, you should drive Rt 66.

Until our next adventure…..

Get your kicks…

Even more Oatman burros

Oatman Burros

Abandoned mine entrance

The Macabre staff went to visit the Grand Canyon. We tried to do this years ago with a couple friends and mistakenly went to the North Rim which it turns out is closed in Winter – to this day we will swear that there was a giant tarp over the canyon to close it and just refuse to believe it really existed (ok just silly hyperbole but you get the point)

We traveled to the South Rim (open year round)  figuring that the crowds would be a lot smaller in the cooler weather. Being from the northeast our intrepid staff had no issues with the temperatures. A daytime temp of 46 was still warmer than December back in the mid-Atlantic.

We camped in Mather Campground the first night, burned some wood, had some cocktails in the woods and then set out the next day along the Desert View drive to see all the overlooks of the canyon culminating with the Desert View tower.

I wish that the camera could really show the scale and depth of the canyon. There are points where, from the rim to the river at the bottom, the elevation changes by as much as 5,000 feet.

The colors are spectacular and we saw a lot of cool wildlife – at one point a herd of deer wandered along the road stalling traffic. We saw the biggest crows we’ve ever seen in our lives. These things were almost the size of our dog and utterly fearless. They would come into our camp looking for scraps and not flee even when a human with a dog approached them. We kept seeing signs for mountain lions but none ever showed their faces.

The Desert View tower is a spectacular structure which is modern but made to look like ancient native construction. It has 5 floors with views of the canyon but you better be in shape to climb all the steps – which by the way are very narrow and gave Media Minion a real challenge with his size 12 feet. It’s full of traditional art, actual artifacts and there were even a couple Hopi craftsmen in the lobby level demonstrating their craft.

If you ever get the chance to visit the canyon – do so;  you’ll love it.
We hope to do a trip to the West Rim at some point and Media Minion would love to go down into the canyon someday.

As always, click on an image for a larger version.

Media Minion takes HORRIBLE selfies.

The Macabre Mercantile staff decided on an excursion that was not so spooky. We traveled to the northern side of Vegas to beautiful Floyd Lamb park at Tule Springs.

This is a historic 2,040-acre (830 ha) park in Las Vegas, Nevada. The park is centered on Tule Springs, a series of small lakes that formed an oasis in this part of the Mojave Desert. One of the larger urban retreats in the Las Vegas Valley, Tule Springs was once considered to be far out of town but is now encroached by development. The park includes the Tule Springs Ranch, Tule Springs Archaeological Site, Tule Springs Wash and four ponds available for fishing. (from Wikipedia)

We love going there just to enjoy nature and look at the cool animals. There are peacocks galore, geese, ducks, rabbits and this time we even spotted a road runner.
We took a couple pictures of peacocks and rabbits but the road runner was WAY too fast for a good picture and the geese were busy chasing each other to get to the ranger with the food so no pics there.
We also visited the historic adobe house which used to serve as a way point back in the old days.