Snow and wind and low temps forced us to re-think our original route through Flagstaff and go through Las Vegas as we make our way to Arizona. This is the first time we drove to Las Vegas. Ari and I have both been to Las Vegas at least a dozen times for conferences and vacations, but we have always flown in and then used the monorail or taxis to get around.
It felt a bit surreal going from St George - a small city with mostly Stepford Wives vibe - mostly white middle class families, lots of churches, and extremely clean and tidy - to Las Vegas, which has a grungy feel to it. Casinos appeared to be open. More people were walking around wearing masks than in St George. Utah is having a higher rate of COVID-19 than Nevada right now, so the difference in social distancing is making a difference.
A wind storm started shortly after we got settled in at the High Canyon Ranch about 30 minutes south of the strip.
Lennox in his corral at the High Canyon Ranch
Mercy in his corral
The corrals at the ranch were good sized with plenty of room for the horses to move around and had some shelter from the winds.
The ranch provided water hook-up and electric to a 110V 20 A. We opted to avoid using the microwave to avoid flipping a circuit.
There are trails to ride from the ranch, but I wanted to ride in Red Rock Canyon. You can trailer to trail heads about 10 minutes from the ranch.
Patricia recommended that we eat at the Cottonwood Station in Blue Diamond, a small town about 10 minutes away. She claimed that they served the best thin crust pizza she had ever eaten. She also boasted that they had a great outside deck with a nice view of the canyon.
This sign is located as you enter the small town of Blue Diamond. There are herds of wild burros and wild horses in the area.
So, of course, we wanted to try it out. I have had a lot of bad pizza in my life. The worst pizza by far was Chuck E Cheese pizza, which just was awful. This pizza was the second worst. It was NOT thin crust pizza. It was flat bread pizza, and it tasted like cardboard smeared with tomato sauce. We did eat outside on the deck (something we prefer to do any way with COVID-19). The deck was nice, but the views weren't that great. Service was very good.
I really enjoy food and at my age I am counting down the number of meals I have left in my life. I was seriously pissed that I wasted one of my remaining meals on this place.
High Canyon Ranch just went on the market, so I don't know what it's future is. Hopefully, the new owners keep it as a horse motel because the location close to the canyon is really excellent.
The storm continued into the following day. The wind was so high (around 40 mph), we didn't feel like it would be comfortable to ride, so we opted to make it an "errand" day. I went into Las Vegas and did laundry and grocery shopping. There are slot machines even in laundromats and grocery stores.
By Monday morning, the wind had settled down and the temps were up to the mid-50s, so we decided to hit the trails before we started to our next stop.
We opted to ride from the Late Night Trailhead. Patricia highly recommended this trailhead.
I am not sure why I trusted her recommendation after the pizza incident, but we opted to give her the benefit of the doubt. The nice thing about this trailhead is that there is a large trailer parking area where LQs can fit easily.
Mercy has been suffering from a cinch sore. This sore is annoying both of us. It is right where the cinch for the saddle goes. I didn't ride Mercy the entire time we were in St George in hopes it would heal.
I have tried all sorts of salves and medicines, even trying to wrap the area with vet wrap. So far, Blu-Kote, a spray that is an antiseptic, appears to be working the best.
Ari was really happy with the ride.
We rode the Mustang Loop. It was a flat, easy ride. We kept the horses barefoot and they did fine. The scab came off Mercy's cinch sore, even though I had put some gauze and padding to protect it. But it does appear to be healing better.
After the ride, we headed to Kingman, AZ for our next stop. Along the way, we stopped at this scenic overlook to appreciate Lake Mead.
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