Paddling Lake Mead

If you're going to stay at Lake Mead, you should try to get out on Lake Mead.  We take that seriously, and so we launched our kayaks on Lake Mead early on Thursday, April 27, 2017.  Here we are, ready to paddle:

Our route would take us around Big Boulder Island, Little Boulder Island and all their attendant islands, a total of about 5.5 miles.  In the satellite view below, our paddle route is marked in yellow.  Our RV campground is on the left and labelled "Big Boulder Campground."  At the bottom center of the photo is the Lake Mead Las Vegas Marina, which we passed on our way back to our starting point, which is the leftmost point on the yellow route in this photo:

The day was very windy as we started, and the waves washed over the bows of our kayaks and even into our cockpits as we started out.  Within minutes, we were far from shore, with our Jeep looking mighty small down by the water:

We decided our first objective should be a circular structure located on Big Boulder Island.  When we arrived at the shore of the island below the structure, we looked up at it in uncertainty - we still couldn't figure out what its purpose had been:

Working our way around Big Boulder Island, we found many beautiful coves, many with unusual rocks washed down from the peaks that the islands formerly represented before Hoover Dam flooded the canyons and valleys (not to mention inhabited and archaeological sites) that now lie under Lake Mead.  Kathy found a treasure trove of rocks and minerals, including some beautiful galena-laden stones.  Meanwhile, David looked about for other things, such as this merganser-type duck who insisted on not being perturbed by our presence.  He never fled or flew away, just bobbing calmly on the water as we paddled nearby:

Kathy was very excited about some of the small islands, and out-paddled David to the smallest, outlying islands:

The shores of the larger islands had many unusual rock formations and caves:

At the highest point on Big Boulder Island, a white cross stands solitary - an unexplained memorial to an unknown person:

We eventually reached a calm harbor where we beached the kayaks to have lunch.  As soon as we landed, David spotted this lizard, sitting regally on his rock above us, inspecting us to determine our possible intentions as we invaded his desert kingdom:

After David snapped the lizard's photo, he turned around to get this shot Kathy and the kayaks at our lunch spot on Big Boulder Island:

We had a wonderful, peaceful, quiet lunch, gazing out on the far shores of Lake Mead.  As we prepared to re-launch upon the lake, we took this selfie:

Our route took us into more coves on the islands, one of which was graced with clear, green water, willow trees and colorful sandstone beaches:

Halfway along the far side of Big Boulder Island, we came to a sandbar that barely connected its western section with its smaller eastern section.  In the photo below, just this side of the sand bar (with the Lake Mead Las Vegas Marina in the background), a flock of five ducks saw us approach and started swimming away.  We caught them just before they left our area.

After exploring the far side of Big Boulder Island, we paddled out around two tiny islands and then started back along the near shore of Big Boulder Island.  We were greeted by this reflective scene including one of the peaks of Big Boulder Island:

The island kept giving us beautiful visions:

Eventually, it was time to beat a return to our Jeep.  We paddled straight across to the marina, paddling along the "big rubber tire" breakwater, and then straight from the marina, past the fishing pier, and back to our Jeep.

It was a wonderful 4-hour paddle, and we returned to our RV with tired shoulders and arms, but heads full of beautiful views of Lake Mead that we could never have otherwise have seen.  Now, it's on to Boron, California and the first stop on our majestic trek up US 395 and US 97 to the Okanagan Valley!