Not technically in Canyonlands National Park, the Needles Overlook gives a 270° view of the park’s Needles District. It’s about a 22 mile drive (one way) off of US 191, southwest of Moab, Utah. IMHO, the view rivals Grand Canyon’s rim. At the canyon bottom below, you can barely make out the gray-turquoise of the Colorado River, which carved out Canyonlands and the Grand Canyon further south.
This is where I left Liz’s seed ball, rather than in the official borders of Canyonlands. But I don’t think she’d mind.
I would have totally missed out on this incredible place if it weren’t for Spenser, a traveling Mainer who helped me get Kennel un-snowbound a couple weeks ago. He recommended – just about insisted – I visit Needles Overlook. So glad I listened!
Pattern Energy’s Spring Valley Wind Farm, on BLM land at the intersection of US 50 and 93, is Nevada’s first wind-generated electricity production facility. The 152 MW facility comprises 66 2.3 MW Siemens turbines. It began commercial operation August 2012.
That’s pretty much all there is to tell. But I had to snap a photo. Not only is it a gorgeous location, but every time I see windmills on a ridge, a concentrated solar power (CSP) plant, or any kind of alternative energy facility, it fills me with hope.
Politically, the USA is torn about our energy future and the future of our nation and the world under Global Warming. The Republican party as a whole rejects scientific consensus, which just boggles my mind. As the late U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “You’re entitled to your own opinions. You’re not entitled to your own facts.”
Yet even while all this controversy continues, alternative energy is springing up all over the country. In my travels, I not only see the large facilities, but I see ranches and farms with their own alternative energy power. I see more suburban houses with photovoltaic panels on the roof. There is more and more of the right technology.
I don’t have the eagleeye view on whether this is enough to curb the worst outcomes of Global Warming, but it gives me hope. And it makes me proud to be an American.
No, this isn’t Mars and it isn't science fiction. It’s the Ivanpah Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) facility – the largest CSP plant in the world to date. It’s in the Mojave desert in Nipton, Calif., close to where I-15 crosses the California-Nevada border.
Source: "Ivanpah Project Facts," BrightSource Energy
Basically what you’re looking at are three fields of “heliostats” (curved mirrors), reflecting and concentrating the sun’s rays onto their respective solar receiving towers. The tops of these towers get so hot that they glow white! All that heat is transformed into superheated steam, which runs electrical-generating turbines, just like a traditional power plant. To give you sense of it’s size, I took the somewhat blurry photo above from more than 15 miles (24 km) away. The facility covers about 3,500 acres (14.2 km2), and the towers are about 459 ft. (140 m) tall. BrightSource Energy's 392 MW Ivanpah plant by came online in 2014 to much hooplah, but it’s had it’s problems and detractors. First, it was incredibly expensive: $2.2 billion. Of that, $1.6 billion came from a loan guaranteed by the U.S. government. After all that money, it only produced 40% of the predicted electricity in its first year of operation. Some people consider it a boondoggle. But by the first quarter of 2015, they’d increased output by 170%. To run Ivanpah, though, it takes a lot of natural gas. … Gas? But I thought it’s solar, you say? Apparently, they have to preheat the water every morning. During that time, their CO2 output is twice what California energy standards normally allow for the amount of fuel they’re burning. The state gave the plant a special dispensation. On balance, however, that natural gas only would have produced 124,000 MWh of electricity in a conventional plant, compared to 524,000 MWh at Ivanpah, a more than fourfold increase in efficiency. The other ongoing concern is the perhaps hundreds of thousands of birds killed yearly by the concentrated solar rays. They’re just fried up in the sky. The power company is working on ways to keep the birds away. Hopefully they’ll succeed in reducing those deaths. I consider, though, as sad as it is, that many, many more birds will die if we don’t get ahead of global warming. It’s a calculated sacrifice. I feel the same way about windmills. Mind you, I think we ought fund a bunch of ornithologists to find a solution!
This gorgeous, FREE campsite (with vault toilets!) is just off I-10 near Bowie, Ariz. The maximum stay at the Indian Bread Rocks Picnic Area is 14 nights. I found this Bureau of Land Management (BLM) site thanks to Freecampsites.net. Having lost a week waiting for a new tire rim in San Angelo and wanting to get to Saguaro National Park as quickly as possible, I only stayed the night and didn’t even meet the few other campers parked there. I got in at about 4:30 p.m. in the evening and left about 6 a.m. the next morning. Shame. Maybe in the future I’ll come back to stay longer and look for the archaeological remains. According to a post at the Bowie Chamber of Commerce website, “Wandering Among Indian Bread Rocks,” the amateur archaeologist can find potsherds, stone flakes, and other Native American artifacts. Indian Bread Rocks is named for five bedrock mortars (metates) you can see, which the ancients used to grind flour from mesquite pods and acorns. Not pictured to left (north) is the vast expanse of the valley. You can literally see for 20 miles to the next mountains. You can also see cars moving on I-10 down below, just a few miles away. Behind is the Dos Cabezas Mountain Wilderness. Those mountains reach up to about 7,500 feet, and when I was there, the peaks had a dusting of snow. Warning: You’ll be sharing this campsite with cattle. Be careful where you walk! Bullshit (and cow shit) abounds! There are also cacti everywhere, which you’d expect. Coyotes, too, so don’t leave small pets out at night. But they sure do serenade you beautifully!
