Blue Point Springs in the Valley of Fire

         We met Charlie  and  Terry  Oliver at the  grocery store  in Overton one  morning and they  were going to guide us  on a  ride  in the  Valley  of Fire. Peg and I were  pretty  excited  because  they  have wintered down there for the  past  3  years and  knew  of  some  awesome  rides that  had some  scenery  that  most  people  never  got  to see. Especially  those  without  horses  and  mules.
        We  drove  out  towards the  Valley  of  Fire State park and parked  in a turnout  just  before  entering  the  Park proper. The  sign read Blue  Point  Springs. I've  got  to  tell you that  I didn't  see  water  anywhere! One  of  the  big problems  as  I've mentioned  before  in the  blogs  is  that  there  aren't  a  whole  lot  of  places  to park your  stock trailers  in the  park. We  managed to park our  trailers  in the  turnout against  the  curb but  were  awfully  close  to highway traffic when the  mules  were  tied  to the  trailers.

                             Alan, Peg and  Pinky  waiting to take  off  on another  adventure!

       Charlie letting us  know  where  we were  headed  and what  we  could  expect  on the  ride.

                              Charlie lead  most of  the  ride  on his  Appy mule "Angel Eyes"

The  ride  out  of the  turnout  started  out  pretty  flat looking and  I thought that  this  was  going to be  the view  for most  of  it and it would  be  boring. Was  I ever  wrong!

                  Terri on her  Morgan gelding. In no time  we  were  getting closer  to the  Red Rock

Of  course  we had  to climb on them.

Elisabeth  on her  Welsh Pony  "Romeo"

Elisabeth and  Peg  lead  for awhile.

                  The thing  that  I learned  about this  place was , What appears  to be  flat seldom is…

                                            And  we  continue  down into the  "basement"…

                                               Charlie  and Terri stop to admire  the  view

                                                 Some  of  these washes  are  pretty deep

                                                                        A dead end …..

                                                 out of  that  wash and  off to another

I cannot  imagine  how  much water must  run down here in a storm but, Know  that this  wouldn't  be a  good place  to see it from….

                                          Elisabeth and  Alan taking a  break during  the ride

                                          Alan , Foxey  his  mule and Pinky  rock crawling

                                           I really enjoyed  this ride on my new  mule LuLu

                                                     Charlie and  Alan rock crawling

                                                         LuLu and  I even got  into it.

                                                Another  rest  from a good vantage  spot.

                         It was amazing  what good traction we had  crawling around the  rock.

                                                 This  guy is  so much fun to ride with!

                                                  This  wash was a  bit  harder  to ride

                                                         Terri leading  us down the wash

When you ride  these  washes that are  deep , you really  need  to have a  working  GPS or  something to let  you know  where  you're at. Sometimes you can travel a  Long way before  you're able  to to climb out of them because of the  sheer walls.

Another thing that you really don't  want  to do is  ride  under the  undercuts  in the  banks. We  seen several places where  tons on bank came crashing  down.

                       For the  most  part, we tried to stay in the  middle  of the  wash because  of that.

                                        Alan coming  down through  the slick rock in a wash.

                                               Alan and Peg coming  down into the  Wash

                                                                     Mule ear shot!

                                                                    Rock Crawlers!

                                               Charlie  trying  to get  Angel Eyes  up there

     The  ride ended  when the  wash got  to the  highway. We rode  up along  a  bridge and an area that looked  like it was  slated for a  parking area. Which by the  way  would've  made  a  really nice  place for trailer  parking for  stock use. Too bad  because  that  is  one  drawback to riding  this area. I want  to personally  Thank Charlie and  Terri Oliver, Alan Gillman, Elisabeth Schmitz-Burchartz and Peg Diefert for making  these great  memories by  sharing  this  ride  with me.The  total ride  length was  10.67 mi.

One place "to hang your hat"

     One  thing that  is  always asked  of  us is "Where did  you stay?" or " where  did you camp?". Well, I want to share  this  gem with you! There  are  about  three or  four  "Good" places  to sty with your  horses  in Logandale and Overton when you're  visiting the  Valley  of  fire. While  We  normally  prefer  staying on BLM lands  because we (a) like  to boondock and  (b) it doesn't  cost anything to stay there  for 2 weeks a visit We found a  great  place.
     That  place is the  Fairgrounds  at  Logandale. You can find  directions here. We really  liked  this facility  because  it was  quiet and had  pretty  much  all we  needed for our  6 day  stay except  and RV dump.
 They  had  a  large Arena  that  We could  put all of  the  animals  in at once to let  them run and  roll after  the  long drive  from Apache' Junction.

The  overnight  pens stalls  are  very  nice and  clean too. They are  $10.00 per animal per  night. We elected  to keep all of  ours  in the  outdoor pens  which were  just  $5.00 per night.

 These  out door open pens are much bigger  and  we  found  that all of the  animals  are  more  relaxed if they  can see  one another.

The  overnight  stalls are  just $10.00 a  night

There are  4 back to back rows of  stalls but, only  rows A & B are designated for overnight  use.

Theres a  coldwater wash rack if  you need to wash your  horse.

The  big Arena

The  lights  are  on at  Dusk and  automatically  shut  off  at  10 PM.

  We were able  to hook up to the  water and  power  for our trailers for free  too. The manager told  us  since  there wasnt no signage  installed  yet; we  could have  it for free. The  cost once the  signs  are  installed  will be $15.00 per night. So,  for 2  mules  for the  six days, it costs us  $60.00.

It  is really  close to town and  the  trails. We'll be  staying  here again for sure!