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!