Rye Patch State Recreation Area, Nevada

Ah, the price of "civilization". We've stayed at Rye Patch at least twice before and had the place pretty much to ourselves. It was a rustic campground below the dam, with the Humboldt River trickling by the birdwatching was great. Our last visit was 2005.

Since then the sites have been paved, there's water available, including showers. We can't say exactly if the crowd this year (every space was full, and the group site overflowing) was due to the improvements or the weather, but it was quite a shock. Here's a view of the campground from the top of the dam.


We arrived here on Friday and as soon as camp was set up we went into hibernation mode, still recovering from the stomach flu (Noro virus) that we picked up over the 4th. We promised ourselves we'd spend Saturday hibernating too, which we did. (Sorry, hibernating makes for boring blog posts!) We weren't able to get our favorite spot, right on the river, but when it was vacated I went down and took a photo. It's a nice birdwatching location.


We did expend a little energy researching and planning a trip for Sunday however. It turned out to be a really enjoyable drive.

Starting with an old map of historic mining towns in the state we researched those in the immediate area to see if any were still in existence.... ruins, etc. In most cases there's nothing left but a notation on a map, as any lumber was usually cannibalized for use in other communities once mines were abandoned in the original one, and once a roof is gone adobe doesn't hold up very well.  Our research suggested Unionville, just over the mountains from our campsite, would be a good destination, so off we went. I'll post photos and description in the next entry. Today we are headed for Winnemucca, where we'll visit a couple of museums and bask in the luxury of city electricity and water service.