Our Nest on Wheels

A Change of Seasons

There is a season for everything under the sun. During the time that we traveled in our motorhome we were mostly trying to stay under the sun, and out of the rain, snow, wind, etc. When your house has wheels, you don't have much of an excuse to be in bad weather; just point those wheels towards some place that's nicer. For the past...

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May 6, 2023 by Steve and Jane Vogel

by Steve

Galapagos - Penguins

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There are very few places in the world where you can swim with penguins. Most penguins they are found in really cold places, like Antarctica. The Galapagos Islands are one of the few places where you can swim with penguins in temperate water, like 80 degrees. Another is the Tanganyika Wild Animal Park in Kansas. (I think those animals wake up every day...

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Jul 22, 2022 by Steve and Jane Vogel

Arizona

Two pictures that tell the story - update to "Where Did the Water Go?"

In November 2021, we wrote "Where Did the Water Go" after our October visit to Lake Powell on the Arizona/Utah border. At the time we were shocked by how far the water level had fallen in the 3 years since our previous visit. In November, it looked certain that the lake level would drop below 3525 feet (above sea level). 3525 feet is considered a critical level, as the ability to generate power decreases dramatically below that level.

Well, on March 15 of this year, Lake Powell did drop below 3525 ft, forcing the Bureau of Reclamation, who runs the dam, to act. They decided to buy a little time by increasing releases from some upstream dams, like Flaming Gorge, while reducing releases from Lake Powell. This plan has achieved a bit of the intended result, and Lake Powell levels have risen again.

This image shows the Lake Powell water level for the past year. Unfortunately, this plan only raised the water level by 17 feet, and it is still 18 feet lower than a year ago. And we are now into that time of the year when the lake levels drop for the next 9 months. You can access the Lake Powell water database here, and see a variety of graphs and data. One key item to note is that the rivers that feed Lake Powell are running at 33% of their normal volume for July 16.

The rise in water level at Lake Powell has come at the expense of the water level of Lake Mead, the next reservoir downstream, behind Hoover dam. You may have seen recent news headlines about the level of Lake Mead falling below the first water intake pipe for Las Vegas, or of the low water level exposing things that have been hidden below the surface for decades, like a dead body stuffed into a barrel. See more shocking photos here.

This image shows the Lake Mead water level for the past year. You can see that it has dropped below the level of 1050 ft, which is the critical level for the water intake valve for Southern Nevada. Without greater inflows from the Glen Canyon dam at Lake Powell, we can expect Lake Mead to continue to drop. You can access the Lake Mead water database here.

Lake Mead and Lake Powell are the two largest water reservoirs in the US. At least that's their rank when they are at capacity. I'm not sure where they fall now that they are at about 27% of capacity. (Full list here) Millions of people in the southwest depend on these two dams for electric power and drinking water. But there simply isn't enough water to go around, so drastic cuts are going to be needed in the near future. The biggest user of Colorado River water is agriculture, so I would expect that the biggest impacts will affect what types of crops can still be grown and at what cost. And I would expect that 100-year-old water rights may need to be re-evaluated.

Stay tuned, we'll see where things go from here.

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Jul 19, 2022 by Steve and Jane Vogel

by Steve

Galapagos - Birds

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I've never been much of a birder. It's odd, I suppose, for someone who name is "Vogel," but birds have never been a big interest of mine. But things are a little different in the Galapagos. The birds there have no fear of humans. They don't fly away when you come near. Mostly they ignore you, but sometimes you may have something of...

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Jul 15, 2022 by Steve and Jane Vogel

by Steve

Galapagos!

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Remember when the pandemic hit in March 2020? Suddenly we couldn't (or shouldn't) travel. For people like us who travel all the time, this really upended things. We wrote about it at the time. What it really did was focus our attention on the places that we couldn't go. And made us realize that we need to visit the places we want to...

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Apr 7, 2022 by Steve and Jane Vogel

Fun in Kanab

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Kanab, Utah.We had never been to Kanab, or at least have never stayed there. We may have driven through it on the way to Zion National Park many years ago. But this year, while working our way south to Tucson, we decided to stay in Kanab for a few days and see what there is in the area. And it turns out that...

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Jan 15, 2022 by Steve and Jane Vogel

Another Concentration Camp??

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Delta, Utah.Not exactly a destination. This small town is located on the western side of Utah, about 90 miles from the Nevada border. It's technically not on the loneliest road in America, as that is only in Nevada, but as there is nothing much on Hwy 50 from Delta to Ely, it's sort of the unofficial start of the loneliest road.We stayed in Delta...

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Dec 17, 2021 by Steve and Jane Vogel

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Our Nest on Wheels

A Change of Seasons

Galapagos - Penguins

Two pictures that tell the story - update to "Where Did the Water Go?"

Galapagos - Birds

Galapagos!

Fun in Kanab

Another Concentration Camp??

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