Heavy rains in Jordan near the famous Nabataean city of Petra caused flooding and resulted in the evacuation of tourists from the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Flash Flooding at Petra
Category: Travel
Manitou’s Springs
Just up the hill from Colorado Springs is Manitou Springs, which was built up around a series of natural mineral springs beginning in 1872. Eight free-flowing fountains are scattered around the town now. Most of the city is included in the Manitou Springs Historic District.
And now, a Canadian Analysis of the Holidome
Talking about Holiday Inn Holidomes: The Holidome was a one-stop vacation destination. Why couldn’t it keep up with the times?
Only two photos, of unidentified Holidomes, but includes this analysis:
At many Holidomes, the humidity from the indoor pools would damage the domed ceiling and make the inner-courtyard-facing rooms damp and stuffy… “While the maintenance of these domed structures is really costly, they’re very easy to demolish, and you still can keep the hotel”
David Israelson/Drew Sinclair
More on the Holidome:
A Week in Southern Maine
The View, with clouds, from Mount Agamenticus
Featured image: Ogunquit Beach from the Marginal Way.
Topeka West Holidome
We talked about the Holidomes before. Now, the former Holiday Inn Holidome in Topeka, Kansas, will be torn down and replaced with apartments. This Holidome, located on the west side of town just off I-70, appears to have been built in the early 80s. It eventually became a Ramada Inn but kept much of the Holidome architecture, including the interior courtyard and pool. It permanently closed about four years ago. Photos of the shut-down hotel are at the Topeka Courier-Journal online. Some photos of the hotel in happier times (when it may have already transitioned into a Ramada) are below, by way of Google.
Source: Google/alisarodriguez
Featured Image: Holiday Inn Topeka West Postcard may predate the Holidome expansion.
Now That’s A Rallye
Tales from a short-lived road Rallye of the 1950s: A Classic New England Rally is Revived, Minus the Mud (New York Times article). Here’s the link to the resurrected rally: Great American Mountain Rally Revival.
“We were boggled they felt they could handle it without chains and backwards at a fairly high speed”
Peter Bullard
Vegas Sunset
Night Hike at Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada
I’m falling behind, so here are some photos from a nighttime hike along the Rainbow Vista trail to the Fire Canyon overlook in Valley of Fire State Park.
A Distant View of the St. Thomas Ghost Town
The town of St. Thomas, Nevada, was settled by Mormons in 1865. On August 31, 1869, John Wesley Powell’s First Colorado River Expedition, which culminated in the first recorded passage by raft through the Grand Canyon, came to an end about twenty miles from here. Bishop Leithead of St. Thomas, informed that Powell had, in fact, survived his expedition, rode to meet him. “Bishop Leithhead,” Powell wrote, “brings in his wagon two or three dozen melons, and many other little luxuries, and we are comfortable once more.”
Only two years later, most of the original settlers left due to a dispute over taxes. Other people later moved in and at its peak, the town had over 500 citizens. When Hoover Dam was built in the 1930s, the government bought out the residents. The last person left in 1938 as the town was inundated by the rising waters of the newly-created Lake Mead.
In wetter times, the site lay under 60 feet of water. As lake levels receded with the ongoing drought of the 21st century, the remains of the town have been exposed again.
To get to St. Thomas, you turn off of Northshore Road and drive 3.5 miles down a rocky dirt road. There’s a parking area, from which you can head down hill to a 2.5 mile hiking trail. We arrived late on a December afternoon and had someplace else to get to before nightfall, so only had time to view the building foundations from a distance.
Reference:
John Wesley Powell, 1875. Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and its tributaries. Explored in 1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872, under the direction of the secretary of the Smithsonian institution. Government Printing Office, Washington.
Driving Northshore Road along Lake Mead
Northshore Road runs along, yes, the north shore of Lake Mead. The shoreline itself is now far east of the road because of long-term drought in the region. Coming west from Hoover Dam, we turned onto it near Lake Las Vegas and drove it up to Valley of Fire, stopping several times along the way.
