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Friday 19 April 2013

Leaving Las Vegas - slowly heading home.

Leaving Bonnie Springs Ranch 

We stopped at a cute little town along Hwy 95 

We overnighted at the Tonopah Nevada fairgrounds 

Picture of our rig at the Tonopah Nevada fairgrounds  
The next day our plan was to go and see Virginia City 

It is a bit of a drive up
Virginia City  the town is at 6200 feet
 

Very cool old buildings

The school

Lots of cute shops and restaurants 


Museum 

They have not done a lot to the board walks on the main street. You have to watch for pot-holes. LOL I fell in one. 

Leaving Virginia City 

It is a long twisty road into Reno NV 

After leaving Nevada we crossed into California found a great spot to camp for the night on Eagle Lake
We set up our shock fence on the hill side of the road on a pull through. Camping is allowed in this area. We were going to ride the lake shore in the morning but it was really cool so we headed to Oregon.  

Map of the lake we camped around the "Point Senior" area

Bend Rodeo grounds
 We got to Bend Oregon and looked for the fairground. Found out that Sisters has a rodeo once a year and that there was fairground up Hwy 20. When we got there we saw huge gaits found they were not locked so headed in. Someone was there and let us stay but normally the gaits are locked and there is normally no one on site. So we were lucky. There was no snow when we arrived and we hoped to ride some of the trails system behind the grounds. We were told that the town of Sisters along with some of the horsemen had put over 85 miles of trails in the area and 2 horse camps. There is a great web site that I have links to from the Oregon Page on my web site Called Oregon horse campsites and trails they also have a facebook page to please visit both to find some good riding In Oregon!! 
We ended up not riding because we woke up to all this snow in the morning after the caretaker had told us they never get snow this time of year LOL  
We decided to head out of the High desert of Oregon and head towards Portland and North Plains were a friend of ours had a 130 acre ranch and room for our rig and horses. 

The roads were clear but there had been snow that night

This is a view of my friend Bonnie's ranch from above. 

All the dogs came to greet our dogs. :) 

Just beautiful views from Echo Glen Equestrian Centre

There are about 8 to 10 miles of trails going in-out and around Echo Glen Equestrian Centre 
This is the stallion at Echo Glen Equestrian Centre his name is Corteo  he is by my late stallion Coeur de Lion who rests in peace under a big tree on this fabulous property. 

Another view from above

Coeur de Lion's resting place under this big tree. 

The lower fields are full of happy playful horses

You will find at least 3 Pyrenees dogs on the property. This 3 year old  female was a rescue as her  owner had died and she guarded his body for 14 hours before anyone found him. She is very sweet but a little lost. She is well loved and will come around with time.


We left Portland this morning April 19th and are heading towards the Canadian boarder home. 

Monday 15 April 2013

"RED ROCK CANYON" NEVADA

We had a few good rides the few days we were at Bonnie Spring Ranch. We had to get our health papers redone before heading to Canada. We contacted Desert Pine Equine in Las Vegas and made an appointment for a health exam on both our horses. It took 4 days for the paperwork to get back for California so we had a few days to ride and visit the Las Vegas strip. We even caught a show "America's Got Talent". It was a great show with some of the top acts from 2012. The weather was a little wet and windy our second day but that was the day we took the horses to Desert Pine. The next few days were lovely. 

You can not miss the entrance to  Bonnie Spring Ranch

We had the whole rodeo grounds to ourselves

Here is a picture of the Bonnie Springs Hotel 

Riding to Blue Diamond and around the back to Bonnie Spring Ranch

There is a trailhead and parking lot for horse trailers between Bonnie Springs and Blue Diamond

You can see the small town of Blue Diamond ahead where there are green trees. 

First place we see when we get into town in a Fire department and Ron the retired "Firefighter" gets his picture with the fire truck.

The little store in Blue Diamond

A shot of the town from the back as we were leaving. 

More desert flowers 

Happy Trails 

We have to ride all the way back to the red rocks you see in the background. 

There is a cool Joshua tree forest on the other side of Blue Diamond. There are lots of trails in every direction made for horses and Mountain bikes. 

Almost back 


You can see the ranch in the back ground. This was about an 8 mile circle. From Bonnie's to Blue Diamond and then around the back and home again. :) Nice ride. 

Then is was off to the big city of Vegas to meet up with Ron's son Kerry and go for dinner 

The strip is always busy

Fountain at the Wynn

In the Wynn hotel

We only play $5 once it is gone we are out of there :)

Fountain in the Palazzo 

OK I told Kerry and Ron to smile this is what I got from them LOL 

Then after dinner Ron and I saw a show. This was the only picture I was able to take until after the show. Loved Tom Cotter. 

Lightwire was a great as well as the Olate dogs

The next afternoon once we got our horses health papers we headed out of Vegas.