Thom & Carol's Adventures: Where the He.. is Pahrump Valley?

Our week in Pahrump was terrific. First of all, who knew Pahrump would be a great place to spend the 4^th of July? With a combination of the small town festival in the park with arts, crafts and food vendors and the night ending with a spectacular fireworks show, I couldn’t have written a better script. The bill of fare for the holiday was, of course, hamburgers and hot dogs. Capping out the celebration, there was an additional fireworks show and much larger put on by the local casino which was about 300 yards down the street from our park. This show was larger and right above our heads. It looked like the bursts were going to land on us. Fantastic!

Day trips included Death Valley, all parts, the Amorgosa Wildlife reserve and Opera House, and a winery, believe it or not.

As one might expect, we, as native Californians had never been to Death Valley. It’s one of those places that pictures don’t really do it justice. You have to be there to enjoy the beauty of the desert. Visits included Scotty’s Castle, the Artists Pallet and the Furnace Creek Inn and Resort.

Resort was fabulous and surprising busy, even in the middle of summer with average temps at 115+ degrees. Very nice RV Park, cabins golf course, good restaurant and bar as well as a fabulous museum, with the story of Death Valley development and mining operations. We were told that Europeans are the bulk of the visitors during this season. This would be a good long weekend trip to consider for the future.

Artists Pallet is a one way drive through canyons and mountains with multiple geologic formations and colors illustrating the development of the valley from volcanic, seismic and flooding action.

Scotty’s Castle, in initially built by a Chicago businessman because of an elaborate con by “Scotty”, later continued because of their friendship and mutual love of the desert landscape and climate is an amazing story. Now a National Park, the guided tour was informative and entertaining. Our guide definitely loves his job, something that makes the tour that much more fun.

Amorgosa Wildlife Reserve in Nevada near the California border is a marshland refuge for animals and fish in the middle of the desert. To us, not being environmental students or experts, it strikes us as strange how a marshland can survive in an otherwise total desert climate. A giant oasis, I guess?

More interesting to us was the Amorgosa Junction where a ballerina from Europe while touring Death Valley decided that an abandoned rest stop was the place she would live and retire would become her home. On the property, she created, opened and performed a theatre opera house. Since the audience would not be large, she created her own audience by painting them on the walls of the theatre to watch her performance. Clearly, she is a multi-talented artist and her life’s passion for theatre makes for a “must see” out of the way place if you’re in the area.

Finally, we had to visit the winery in Pahrump. As wineries go, similar to the Arizona wineries. They are certainly not Napa Valley, but nevertheless fun. If you’ve never visited a winery, the passion of the owners and pride in their vintage is what makes the stop interesting.

For those of you who like to gamble a bit, we had two casinos right down the street from our park. Both reminded me of the “old days” when you got great and reasonable meals in the restaurants, smaller minimum bets at the tables (usually $2) and “play or pay” question when sitting at the bar. For those who do not know, casinos bars generally have multi-game gambling machines at your seat. If you’re playing, the drink is free, or you can pay for the drink. I usually play and have some fun at blackjack for bets as low as 25 cent or as high as $5 while chugging down some ice cold O’Douls. I also had a one pound chicken fried steak dinner for $10…… just what I needed for weight control, but what the he.., you need to splurge once in awhile !! By the way, this is Thom, not Carol talking here!!! I probably did not need to tell you that. Carol’s new passion is Coronitas, 8 ounce ice cold beers. She can put “em” down like a pro…

Enough rambling for now. We’ve been a week in Walker River Resort, Smith Nevada and have some interesting day trip to report on our next post. Miss you guys!

Thom & Carol

I'm going to try and download a video of the Opera House later this weekend.