Slowly catching up in Kingman, AZ: Finding out about Fulgurite in Laughlin, NV

 

I'm far behind with my blog entries, mostly because we spent several days at the homes of friends and neighbours who spend their winters in Arizona. Now, we are definitely on the way home, even if it will take a few more days until we are there. We stayed in Kingman, AZ overnight – yes, the city on Route 66 where we had lunch at Mr. D'z Diner not even two weeks ago. It is no warmer than it was then, but during the time in between we did enjoy some heat and encountered the most lush desert, most profuse desert bloom we have ever seen. It was still at its beginning, and once the poppies are out in full force it'll be incredible. I wish I could see that ...

There is no reason for lament, however: I found many plants I had never seen before and whose names I will try to find out once we are home. We had wonderful hikes in areas that seemed barren and forbidding at first and had their own beauty once I started looking closer. We also had interesting animal encounters – but more about that in due course. 

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After we dropped Dorothee off at the airport in Las Vegas on the 16^th we stayed one night at the “New Pioneer” hotel/casino in Laughlin, the 'mini Las Vegas' where we spent a couple of nights last spring as well. We had decided on this town because we didn't want to drive too far that day, and the location right beside the Colorado River is quite nice after driving through much desert. We only wanted to do a short hike, so instead of going to Grapevine Canyon, which would have required a drive of more than 20km on a dirt road, we turned off the highway just outside of Laughlin to take advantage of the hiking trails around the Davis Dam. This dam stretches the border between Arizona and Nevada and creates Lake Mohave, about 110km downstream from the Hoover Dam. 

A couple in the parking lot, whom we had asked for tips which trails to walk, showed us an interesting find, or rather something they had been looking for specifically. It resembled pieces of coral, maybe, or, faintly, antlers, at least in shape though not in texture. This was Fulgurite, 'fossilized lightning', which can be created when lightning strikes sand; we had never heard of it before. Although the man showed us the hillside where they found their pieces we weren't so lucky. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture, but here is a link to the wikipedia article: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgurite 

We hiked to the hill that overlooks Davis Dam, then a bit downhill towards Laughlin. The hillsides were purple from low, creeping verbena, and I was especially happy to find a couple of desert lilies - Hesperocallis undulata - in bloom, but it was quite windy and not overly pleasant to walk. A heavy thundershower in the area had washed out sections of the trail, and there was still water standing in some spots. These rainfalls had caused major flooding in other areas, but what a relief to finally get these rains to help with the extreme drought many areas here in the southwest have been dealing with in the last few years.

Desert Lily, also called Ajo Lily because the bulb tastes a bit like garlic