Bob Scott Campground, Nevada

July 9 

We left Fish Springs, through Carson City and turned east on hwy. 50 – Nevada’s Loneliest Highway.

Traveling east, we pass through mining country, and then out into the wide open spaces of the Great Basin. A little east of Fallon a highway points to the the Navy's Centroid Facility. This area contains a simulated air defense network, including approximately 20 operational radar installations. Most of this area is publicly accessible, with the exception of areas immediately surrounding the radar installations. You won't see much more of it than the sign on the highway as the facility is situated quite a ways off the road.

Whizzing by in an automobile the highway does look lonely now, from the asphalt, but examining the map one can see what a busy area this stretch of Nevada has been over the years. The Pony Express Route, The Overland Express Route, and the Lincoln Highway all share this same ground along this stretch of the Great Basin. 

The map is dotted with the names of long gone communities, rail sidings, ranches and mines, in addition to currently active military installations and test sites, like the Centroid Facility. There are remains of stone and wooden structures at several points along the highway, some with historic information plaques. If you use your imagination it’s far from lonely or boring!

We spent time in the well-known town of Austin a few years ago, so didn’t stop this time, choosing instead to move on to the campground. See the post on that previous trip here.

About four miles east of Austin we stopped at Bob Scott Camp Ground. This is a nice, quiet hideaway that's probably designed more for hunters than today's average RV traveler. There are only 9 spaces, and 1 group site, and most are fairly small. We managed to find one we could tuck ourselves into. The restrooms are small, but do have running water, though no showers.

Sheltered by juniper trees, the sites are fairly private. The campground is surrounded by a log fence to keep out cattle and other grazers one would suppose, as you cross a cattle guard when entering. Shiner found crossing the cattle guard a bit of a challenge but eventually tiptoed across it. 

We hiked up the hillside in back of the campground (outside that log fence) and she really enjoyed the opportunity to check out all the rodent holes, follow the hunters' trails and just generally run around like crazy. This is a very dog-friendly site for large critter like her who need some space to run now and then.

A curious phenomenon had occurred in the area recently, leaving the ground resembling Swiss cheese. 

Closer inspection revealed nymph shells, some stuck in the holes in the ground and some on branches, and a few adults that didn’t survive the hatch – cicadas! 

Considering the number of holes there were hundreds and hundreds of them crawling out of the ground at nearly the same time. It must have been quite a sight to see when they were all hatching! 

More info on the cicada hatch of 2013 and a chart of when and where the next hatch can be expected. Most of the western states don't show up in the chart, but maybe yours does! The site includes a video of the nymphs as they emerge from the ground and a wealth of additional information on cicadas. According to the chart we're due for them in Texas in 2015.

Cave Lake State Park, Nevada

We spent two nights here in Elk Flat campground, just east of Ely, one of the prettiest places we've stayed as far as the actual campsite. We'd planned on only one night, but had a nice chat with the ranger and he encouraged us to stay another night so we'd have time for a little exploring. The campground is very nicely designed, with the sites not only level and well groomed, but far enough apart with shrubby junipers in between so each is quite private. We're up fairly high, so the nights are cool, and there are still wildflowers everywhere.

The closest town is Ely, where we went exploring. The town looks fairly prosperous compared to many small towns we've passed through. They've done a nice job of emphasizing their history too. There are large murals on several of the buildings, and they've preserved many of the old downtown shop fronts.

The connections to hard rock mining and ranching are evident in the murals as well as inside the restaurant where we ate lunch, the Hotel Nevada.

Inside, the decor consists of a proliferation of western memorabilia, including a huge boa constrictor snakeskin, the primary view in the corner where we sat, in addition to motorcycle themed items and a classic 1948 Indian bike. As we passed by this morning there was a row of bikers parked outside, so they obviously cater to them.

One of our favorite street scenes was this mural with mining theme and a small sign included up front with the mining equipment. Can you tell what the local folks think of Mr. Reid? (Click on the photos to enlarge them) The largest version of the sign (and there were several around town) was at the east end of town. It also offers some poetic advice.

We spent a couple of hours yesterday wandering around on Garnet Hill, just west of Ely. This was a site the ranger recommended once he learned we were interested in rock collecting. It's covered in my central Nevada geology book too, so we had good directions. We did find a few samples to add to the mineral case. We also had a great view of the Robinson Mining District - the two pits in view in the photo are Liberty, on the lift, and the Ruth, farther back on the right.

There are several other mines in the district, clearly the primary employer in the area.

Ely is on the eastern section of highway 50, also known as the Loneliest Highway. Towns are not only small but few and far between, and so is the traffic. We've seen only a few other travelers as we head west. It's a very historic part of the state however. Ghost towns and old stone and wooden cabins are spotted all along the highway.As I write this, we passed a cattle drive just to the south of the highway. Cowboys on horseback pushing the cattle on to a different area of the range. There's also the modern touch, as we share the highway with a bicycle race!

There are a few additional photos in the slide show. Click on it for a larger view

More travel on the Loneliest Highway

We've been traveling with ghosts these last two days - the ghosts of stage coach drivers, pony express riders, gold and silver miners, pioneers and outlaws, freight and ore wagon drivers, and Native Americans who were here long before any of them.

Yesterday we stopped briefly in Eureka - named for the outburst so common when a rich vein is struck. . . and in. . Eureka, I've found it! The first thing we noticed is that the town has posted a banner with the name of each of their residents who is serving in the military. A very nice tribute we thought.

Eureka's claim to fame was lead, silver and gold mining. The town is still fairly busy, and the opera house hosts performances on a regular basis.

There were none while we were there unfortunately. The docent at the museum gave us a nice CD with information about each point of interest along the highway. It's a nice addition to the other reference materials and maps we already had. We've listened to the various tracks as we travel and it's been quite entertaining and informative.

We spent the night at Hickison Summit. The area is of geologic interest. The cliffs are formed of volcanic ash, the result of an eruption that caused hundreds of times the amount of ash the St.Helens eruption produced. The ash is compacted, but not really firm rock, so it provided the early Native Americans with an easy medium in which to record petroglyphs. We hiked the short trail to the petroglyphs in the afternoon and took photos, but mostly just enjoyed the view down the valley.

The campground is a "dry camp" - no water or services of any kind (no problem for us) and the sites are all tucked up in between juniper trees. Very picturesque and cozy, but a bit tight when it came to navigating the road.

We did have entertainment, provided by Fallon Naval Air Base we assume (Fallon is the Top Gun training site) - a flyover of 2 F-16's - close enough to wave to the pilots if you move fast enough! There were more mosquitoes than we would have expected this time of year, so we only stayed the one night.

Our next stop along the route was Austin. Named for Austin, Texas no less! It's almost the exact center of the state. The town was smaller than we expected based on advertising in the western magazines. They have preserved some of the original buildings, but things could do with a lot of TLC. We visited the cemetary and were impressed not only with the age of some of the graves, but the flowers and other obvious care that is taken to maintain some of the family sites.

West of Austin we stopped briefly at Sand Springs, to see the huge sand dune and the remains of a pony express station. According to our sources this station never had a real roof, but as Molly and I hiked it at 1 PM under a rather sunny sky I have to think they had a canvas roof or something. No one would put up with this heat without at least a little shade.

We're planning to spend the next two nights at Fort Churchill. More updates to follow!

More photos in the slide show below. Click (or double click)on the photo to go to a larger version.

Fleece in the morning, shorts before noon

Sunday, June 21

We enjoyed a really cool evening at Duck Creek (down into the 40's) and awoke to sunny skies. We planned an early start, as the day was predicted to hit 90 or more. This kind of temperature range is typical of the high desert, so one has to be prepared for all kinds of temperatures, and weather. Another concern for us is scheduling the day's drive through the Carson Valley (Nevada). The "Washoe Zephyrs" as Mark Twain called them (referred to in other areas as gale-force winds!) kick up every day around 1 or 2 o'clock, so we like to be off the road by then.We have to travel south through the Carson Valley  to get to our destination, and the wind there and it other parts of Nevada can be a challenge to deal with when towing a trailer.

We're following a familiar trail, Hwy. 50, also known as The Loneliest Highway. It does seem lonely in a way, as the traffic isn't heavy, but there's lots to do on the way if you are interested in history, photography, mining, or hiking. There's even an opportunity to search for garnets! We've traveled this road many times, so you can read about some of those adventures in the posts here and here. Those posts touch on the history, the Pony Express era, the charcoal kilns, and more.

Our home for Sunday is the Elk Flat campground, Cave Lake State Park, near Ely, in Nevada. This campground is not the one at the lake, it's the first one you come to after turning off the highway. It's quiet, and not nearly as busy as the one that caters to the fishing crowd. The sites are nice, and fairly far apart, but there are only a few that will accommodate our length, and Steve managed to shoe-horn us into the last one that would work.

True to prediction, it was 90 degrees when we unloaded, but it again cooled down into the 40's during the night. The chilly evenings make the hot days a lot more tolerable than they might be otherwise.

In the morning we were surprised to see a smokey haze in the distance. That thin lavender layer at the horizon in this photo is supposed to be a crisp band of purple mountains, as they are very close, but that's where the smoke settled.

We learned from our friends in Gardnerville that the smoke was coming from a fire in Markleeville, California. (That's south of Lake Tahoe, just inside the CA border with NV.)  As the crow flies, our campsite is about 275 from the location of the fire.
The smoke filled up side canyons in the smaller mountain ranges we passed as we drove, and we were amazed at the limited visibility in some areas. As of 6/23 the fire, dubbed the Washington fire, has burned almost 14,942. Updates on the fire here.

Monday, June 22

Something a little different tonight, we're camped at the Churchill County Fairgrounds in Fallon, NV. $15 a night for hookups, trees and a bit of grass.

It's not fancy and manicured, but we have lots of space, and Shiner has some interesting things to explore. We're surrounded by huge cottonwood trees, and the shade is welcome as the day warmed up to about 90.

The alternatives for RV parks in Fallon are limited, and this is definitely preferable to a paved parking lot next to a downtown casino.

This is the home of Fallon Naval Air Station, and TOPGUN training center, so there are jets overhead quite often during the day, but they fly high enough so as not to be a problem and actually provide a bit of entertainment. 

Tomorrow morning we head for Gardnerville and the annual Happy Birthday America gathering!