Grand Canyon / Meadview 21.9.18

Unfortunately today Calvin and our path separated again. He had to go back to Hesperia (by bus) and our journey took us to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon, to Meadview. Here we treated ourselves to a special treat, namely staying at the Grand Canyon Western Ranch, which is located in absolute seclusion amidst untouched nature. You can sleep either in large tents on field beds or, like us, in smaller wooden cabins with a bit more comfort, such as a bathroom ;-)

A stark contrast to the loud, flashy, and unreal world of Las Vegas. Here, you could only hear the sounds of nature and could quickly switch off. The view of the first rock formations of the Grand Canyon was magnificent. We sat on the rocking chairs of the small veranda until sunset and admired the changing colors of the sun on the rocks. 

When it was dark, a large bonfire was lit and Cowboy Dave played his guitar and sang along. If you wanted, you could roast marshmallows 😊

We slept deeply and soundly that night, as there were no external noises to be heard. We would probably have slept less well if we had known that it is absolutely normal to encounter the occasional tarantula in these cabins 😱 Fortunately, we were spared this encounter 😅

The next morning, for the first time during this trip, we put on long pants as we headed into the wilderness on horseback. With Cowboy Jerry on his huge warmblood and our horses Eggdrop and Honeycomb, we went into an area where even our local horses, which are experienced in off-road riding, would have broken all four legs 😬 Due to the great heat early in the morning, neither the 8 mustang mares, nor bears, mountain lions, coyotes, mountain wolves, or at least one of the countless rattlesnakes could be seen. All these animals live around the ranch. Also the small herd of bison, which we saw and photographed at their designated resting place 😁

After these 1.5 hours in the western saddle, the thought of getting two such "mountain goats" to explore the Westerwald as pseudo-cowboys actually briefly crossed our minds 😂

Unfortunately, our time at the ranch was already over and we set off on the several-hour journey to Death Valley, but with a little detour to Lake Mead, which we had only seen from a distance before 😊 The rest of the drive to Beatty on September 22, 2018, was uneventful and not worth photographing.....