Last Tuesday Stephen and I drove out for swimming and picnic along the shores of Lake Mead. We found a semi-private cove just off of 8 Mile Road. The animation below shows a zoom-in of the exact location. 8 Mile Road, a well-traveled gravel road at mile marker 8 of Northshore Road, can be accessed by following Lake Mead Blvd east from Las Vegas (or Lake Mead drive east from Henderson), all the way to it's intersection with Northshore Road. There is a $5 entry fee into the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Turn north onto Northshore Road and follow the mile markers to "8", then turn east onto the gravel road. Upon nearing the shoreline, the road forks off several times. Pick one and find a spot you like. I referred to the beach we chose as semi-private because, although we had this particular cove to ourselves, there was a man & woman couple over the hill to our south, and another man & woman couple, with a second male companion, over the hill to our north. Since this area is used by nudist, it wasn't surprising to find all of these people undressed. The guy to our south jokingly offered, by yelling down from the hill separating our respective beaches, to let me take photos of his naked girlfriend for $20. I assume he was joking......

Given the nature of the lake, there was no sand along our beach. It was mostly rock, with a couple of feet of deep muck along the water's edge. I discovered the green, stinking muck by stepping in it up to my knees. My flip-flop had to be fished out. Going barefoot, even in the water, is unwise, since the lake bottom is jagged rock. In the shallow waters of our cove, a carpet of dark green and slightly prickly plants grew, pieces of which annoyingly collected around my neck as I swam. As for fauna, we noticed a big fish swimming around, maybe nine or ten pounds, a school of smaller fish, a flock of ducks and a sizeable crayfish. He was about 6" long, making him by far the largest crayfish I've ever seen. There were also many many many empty shells from the invasive zebra mussel.

Stephen tosses rocks, at a small bay off of 8 Mile Road at Lake Mead.

We spent quite a bit of time skipping rocks on the water's surface. Neither of us proved very good at skipping rocks!

My Jeep Wrangler basking in the warm glow of the setting sun on the shores of Lake Mead.

My Jeep took a well-deserved rest from the washboard road leading to the shore. Also, after first arriving, a stranger approached us and asked if I had a towrope. I said no. He said he was stuck and needed help getting out. He had already asked one of the guys on another beach, who told him he didn't have time to help. But I'm a nice guy, so I offered to try to push his car out of the rut. So I got out of the water and drove him over to his car. He was driving a Pacifica, and had, for some reason, decided to drive down a hill onto loose gravel, when his front tires dug in. I asked if his car was a rental. It was. I was worried about busting his plastic grill. I pushed from both the front and back, but unsuccessfully. I drove back around to my beach, but when we were on our way out his car was gone so I assume he was rescued somehow. I bent my front license plate in half, but it bent back into shape just fine.

Litter at 8 Mile Road beach along the shores of Lake Mead.

Since the beaches and coves around 8 Mile Road are well-used, there is quite a bit of litter along the shore. These are just a few of the many empty beer bottles we found nearby. I constantly pick up trash when I find it. However, I made no effort to pick up any litter here because I knew once I started, I would want to pick it all up, and that would take hours. I don't understand why people bring glass bottles, though. If you're going to take beer to the beach, especially a rocky one, take plastic bottles or a keg, or at least take your empty bottles when you leave.

Stephen taking photos.

I wasn't the only one taking photos! Like me, this was Stephen's first time getting into the waters of Lake Mead. I've been hiking around it a few times, but had, until Tuesday, never gotten into it. I was a little afraid, since I'd just read a few days earlier about the brain-eating amoeba that has killed six people this year. It likes warm, shallow waters-- like the kind we were swimming in. The amoeba, after getting stirred up from the bottom, finds it's way into your nose, and into your brain, where it eats away. Death results two weeks later. There is no cure. I made sure not to get water up my nose.

I took many more photos, but didn't notice that I had my camera set to manual settings, which I use with my flash, instead of auto. This resulted in many overexposed images. These represent most of the ones that could be salvaged. Because of the corrections, they have the look of 60's era color film. A bit contrasty, saturated and grainy. Kind of like those kitschy travel postcards common at the time.

It was super fun, though!