Crossing Nevada Part II: It Feels Like an Ocean

As we head West out of Ely on the Loneliest Road, the map tells us we will be crossing a land of undulating valleys and mountains. This is high desert country; the valleys lie at about 6,000 feet and the mountains top out over 11,000 feet. Towns are few and far between, each about 70 miles distant.

In reality it feels as though we are crossing an ocean. Each valley is a huge expanse of sage-green, long and wide, slowing rising to a mountain pass topped by frothy snow capped mountain "waves". At each crest we can see our tiny ribbon of highway flowing through the next green valley and climbing the next wave of mountains.

We search for signs of life as we drive, seeing few cattle and sheep, one lone pronghorn. Water sources are well hidden here, keeping only the hardiest of men and beasts away.

My practical, city-born brain wonders how people manage to live in the small towns dotting the highway, so spread out from each other and any large towns. There are no grocery stores, no hospitals or even medical clinics for hundreds of miles. Imagine, no fresh produce in the middle of winter! How are the young people making a living?

Most of today's small towns were thriving cities in the 1800's. Prospectors struck a pocket of something glittery and the next thing you knew thousands of people had flocked to the area, looking to build their own fortune. Today these small towns seem to be hanging on by a thread, with a few historic buildings reminiscent of what used to be, but only a handful of tourists passing through, and maybe stopping, each day on this Loneliest Road.

We stopped briefly in Eureka and walked around admiring their beautifully restored historic buildings.

Imagine the grand events held in these buildings 130 years ago...

We stopped for the night in Austin, NV, smack dab in the middle of the state. Originally a silver rush town founded in 1862, today there are about 200 inhabitants, many old, decrepit buildings, a brand new visitor center (not yet open for business), a handful of open businesses, and many, many empty stores. We walked from our camp site into the hills surrounding the town to immerse ourselves in this beautiful, remote area.

Lots of interesting old buildings along the main drag, few were refurbished, many were empty.
All of these cars belonged to attendees of a meeting at the Masonic Hall (the red brick building).

This catholic church, built in 1866, is the oldest church in Nevada.

Many of the walls around town were built using locally sourced, hand-hewn stone.

We took a walk in the hills overlooking town. That's our RV right, front.
Austin RV Park is run by the local baptist church, $20/night, full hookups, excellent 4G Verizon signal.

We shared the trail with a local...

I was entranced by this small cabin nestled in solitude in the hills well outside of town.

Stokes Castle and a mining relic.

Crossing Nevada Part I: Ely

Our next stop after leaving Baker, NV was Ely, NV for two nights. Ely started out as a stagecoach stop along the Pony Express, then morphed into a copper mining town with a strong railroad industry. Today Ely has a lot of empty businesses that made a walk through downtown a bit depressing, though the helpful man at the visitors center said the town is doing pretty well these days.

The classic Hotel Nevada in downtown Ely.

There are several beautiful murals around town depicting Ely's heritage.
These are the Ward Charcoal Ovens, which are located a few miles South of town.

Friday morning we drove a few miles South West of town to the Ward Mountain Recreation Area. Ward Mountain is the high point, at 10,941 feet, of the Egan Range and the recreation area offers camping, hiking, biking, and snow sports. BLM managed trails take off from the North Trail head and Forest Service managed trails take off from the South trail head.

We chose to hike from the South side because it was closest to Ward Mountain and looked like it would offer the best views. Though most of my photos did not turn out so well, it was a nice hike in solitude with many fresh elk and deer tracks to keep us occupied looking for those beasts (we never saw any though).

Hiking through thick pine and juniper forest with a view of Ward Mountain.

We also visited the Nevada Northern Railway Museum. We happened to arrive on a Friday at noon, paid our $6/each, and followed instructions to the Engine House two blocks away. Upon arriving at the engine house, a giant building housing dilapidated railroad cars and engines and equipment, we walked throughout the building inspecting everything...but there were virtually no descriptive plaques nor any people around to tell us about what we were seeing. We felt the lack of information available to visitors made the entry fee a little steep.

Old railroad cars in various states of decay and repair were housed in the Engine House.

A few old cars were rotting away on the tracks outside.

We happened to arrive in Ely during the long weekend of the Nevada Open Road Challenge.  In this event the State of Nevada closes down 90 miles of highway 318 and more than 200 drivers enter to race flat out on the closed highway. Here's the full description in case you're itching to race your own car! Seriously, ANYONE can race! Hans spent a considerable amount of time on the phone with his brother, Norm, for whom this event would be perfect since he has a 2008 Z06 Corvette.

We were able to attend the Friday night car parade down main street, and the Saturday morning car show before we moved on down the road. The variety of cars was amazing: Corvettes were the most plentiful, but there were also Mustangs, Camaros and other old and new muscle cars, several Lamborghinis, Z cars, Teslas, Porsches, GTRs...you get the idea!

Car parade down highway 50 through downtown Ely.

There were several car clubs here, this was my favorite!

Exotics!

Classics!

Eye candy for the racing enthusiast!

There were some great license plates...

My favorite sexy race car: the McLaren MP4.

And for the serious racer: haul your Lamborghini in your garage/RV rig!

We stayed at the Prospector Hotel Casino and RV Park for $15/night for full hookups. There was a fair amount of traffic on the road during the day but it quieted down at night. It was a decent and inexpensive place to stay for just two nights. RV sites are first come, first serve, nothing fancy at all...though you get a coupon for a free margarita when you check in!

This junk yard behind our RV park/hotel is a good example of the old, dilapidated, funky feel of Ely, NV!

A little tall grass outside our home and Rosie is a happy jungle kitty!

A Little Taste of High Country at Great Basin National Park

After leaving Torrey, UT just ahead of possible snow, we spent a couple of nights in Delta, UT, a small ranching town in a big open valley, where we hunkered down through some heavy winds and light rain.

Then we were off to Baker, NV, gateway to Great Basin National Park for three nights. Great Basin has been on our radar ever since we met Mike and Keyna in October 2012, started following their blog and read about their wonderful hikes that fall at this lightly visited National Park.

Baker, NV lies just off Nevada highway 50, dubbed the loneliest highway in America, and a handful of miles from Great Basin. The town is tiny, just 68 residents, and pretty ramshackle looking. Apparently business starts picking up in this seasonal town between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

The place we stayed, Whispering Elms Motel and RV Park, was as rustic and unkempt as the town, but very peaceful at this time of year, with only the sound of birds chirping to cut the quiet. It's also the only full hookup game in town, but boasts a bar with some decent brews on tap. The Ruby Mountain IPA from Wells, NV was delicious.

Great Basin National Park as seen from Baker, NV.

Great Basin National Park is so far off the beaten path that it receives less than 100,000 visitors each year, making it an exceptionally pleasant park to explore! There are several beautiful dry campgrounds in the Park for a small nightly fee.

There is no entrance fee to the Park, but a highlight of the Park is a tour of Lehman Cave, which does have an entrance fee ($10/per adult, no America the Beautiful pass discount). We took the 90 minute Grand Palace tour and felt it was worth every penny.

There are 45 known limestone caves in Great Basin NP, Lehman Cave is the only one with tours, and others, if you happen to see them while exploring the park, may be closed during bat breeding season.

You get up close and personal with the fascinating limestone formations in Lehman Cave.

The Park is situated in the Snake Range which includes the highest peak fully in Nevada, Wheeler Peak at 13,063 feet. We considered hiking the 9 mile round trip trail to the summit, but we discovered the road was not open all the way to the trail head (at 10,000 feet) this early in the season. 

Since a 13,000 foot hike would have kicked our butts it was just as well the road was closed! For our first hike we chose the lovely South Fork Baker Creek trail which starts at 8,000 feet and goes to 9,680 feet. We were certainly huffing and puffing as we headed up the trail enjoying the gorgeous spring scene all around us, but after a couple of miles (probably around 9,000 feet) the snow was too deep to continue.

From the start the spring beauty took our breath away!

The aspen are just barely beginning to bud.

The snow melt water is icy cold as are the nights, creating lovely icicles over the creek.

A beautiful sub alpine meadow.

Not long after we passed the meadow the snow began to cover the trail,
soon becoming too laborious to continue.

After we turned around I decided to try walking on the virgin snow, instead of in existing packed footprints...
and promptly post holed to my knees!

The next day we took Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive to Mather Overlook, currently the furthest point you can drive, seasonal closure was still in effect beyond this point. Here, we got an incredible view of Jeff Davis and Wheeler Peaks.

Jeff Davis Peak at 12,771 is the center high point, and Wheeler Peak (13,063) looks smaller on the right of the jagged gully.
Unseen at the bottom of the gully is a small glacier, expected to disappear within 20 years.

We headed back down the road to the Lehman Creek trail head anticipating a seven mile RT hike with a 2,000 foot elevation gain. Though the trail follows the creek, most of the time we were only in earshot of it and I was a bit disappointed in the scenery compared to our hike the day before. After 2.3 miles we reached a pretty sage covered meadow with an excellent view of the peaks. After eating our lunch and enjoying the peaceful beauty of the meadow we decided to turn back and call it a day.

Only about a quarter mile or so of Lehman Creek trail is actually in sight of the creek.

This sage brush filled meadow was our turn around point.

Great Basin was a gorgeous stop for us and wonderful change of scenery too after being in desert climates since January. We'd like to visit again, perhaps in the fall, so we can hike more of the high elevation trails. Baker, NV, though tiny and kind of decrepit, was a very calm and peaceful place to stay at this time of year.

Today we're off to Ely, NV for a couple of nights, slowly making our way to Carson City where we'll the truck fixed from our little mishap in Escalante...

Campground Review: Thousand Lakes RV Park, Torrey, UT

There are three full hookup RV parks in Torrey, UT, and we chose Thousand Lakes RV Park for a five night stay because they had the best reviews of the three. Located at the West end of town, the sites are well away from Highway 24, with great red rock views.

There are 58 RV sites, the full hookup sites are pull throughs, and the back ins are water/electric. Roads and sites are gravel, each site has a picnic table and most have a fire pit. There is a shade tree at most sites. Most pull throughs also have grass separating each site. We were in lovely site #39, an end site with an excellent view of the red rock cliffs immediately North of the park.

The park has lots of amenities: Pool (closed during our stay), cabins, tent sites, grocery store, gift shop, RV supplies, hair salon, laundry, restrooms/showers, horseshoes, playground, free wifi. Our Verizon signal was only 1X, just enough for phone calls; so we were happy to have okay wifi provided by the park. The wifi did slow down dramatically during peak usage times.

This was a beautiful and quiet location for us. During our five night stay the park was never more than half full. During the summer it is probably very busy. Great location on the West end of town, only half a mile from restaurants, one mile to the Great Western Trail and about 12 miles to Capitol Reef National Park, all for $32.25/night.

Site #39.

Large grassy area surrounded by cabins, tent sites, and other park amenities.

Front door view from site 39.

Leaving Beautiful Torrey, UT Before the Snow Arrives

The past few days we've had a cold front come through, bringing wind, rain, hail and snow flurries on Wednesday, and cool, windy, threatening rain conditions for the past two days...and we've loved it!

Coming from Southern California, I actually thought we'd experience a few more inclement weather days while traveling than we have. We've done such a good job of following fair weather that cozy days inside the RV are few and far between.

Wednesday fluctuated between 36 and 46 degrees all day, so after a leisurely morning snuggled up in our comfy little home on wheels admiring the red cliffs outside our window, we headed out for lunch. Cafe Diablo had very mixed reviews on Yelp, people either loved it or hated it. The food presentation was pretty and unique, but I found the flavors to be very bland.

After lunch we moved on to Robbbers Roost Bookstore and Coffeehouse. What a gem! We spent a leisurely couple of hours on a comfy couch in front of a wood stove, sipping coffee and chai and indulging in a delicious peach coffeecake. They had an interesting selection of books and a decent wifi connection. It was the PERFECT place to spend a cold, blustery afternoon!

Cozy Robbers Roost

On Thursday with temps forecast to be in the 50's and only a tiny threat of rain we headed into Capitol Reef National Park. We visited this park in 2007 but did not do the drive up Capitol Gorge; so that was the destination of the day along with the two mile Tanks hike and the four mile Golden Throne hike.

A delicate arch has formed on the pour-off from The Tanks.

Rock art.

The Golden Throne.

On Friday the temps were still in the 50's and breezy and we didn't feel like driving too far. We'd noticed a sign for the Great Western Trail and access to Sand Creek just half a mile East of our home base, Thousand Lakes RV Park. A little research turned up a hike to Sand Creek Waterfall, so an exploration of the colorful cliffs immediately North of our park was in order.

From highway 24 we turned up Sand Creek Road and shortly entered Fish Lake National Forest. The road started out very rocky, but soon became reasonably smooth dirt with a few easy crossings of Sand Creek which was very small.

While we never found the parking spot described in the link above, nor the waterfall, even though we hiked along Sand Creek (according to Google Maps) for several miles, we did enjoy an adventurous hike among some gorgeous colorful mountains. If we ever return to Torrey, UT we will definitely explore this wilderness area further, with a topo map in hand. Even though The Great Western Trail is open to ATV's, horses and mountain bikes in this area, we never saw another soul on this day.

The dirt roads North of our RV park took us into a colorful wilderness just begging to be explored.

Layers of color opened up before us as we headed deeper into the wilderness.

The colorful layers weren't only on the rocks!

Though it's been chilly during our stay in Torrey, the temps were good for hiking and the scenery around us serene and beautiful. The RV park has been no more than half full, which was perfect. Another storm is on the way and supposed to drop 1 - 3 inches of snow on Sunday. We're moving on to slightly warmer climates as we head North and West over the next few days.