Wednesday (Oct 22)
Sun is pretty damn hot again this morning. The annoying city dumbasses who left their trailer “porch light” on all night have as least had the good taste to leave early so their shady spot is vacant. I wake up enough to drive the van over to their spot to bask in their lovely cool shade for another 40 minutes or so until the sun peeks around their bigger rocks also. No more shade, so time to go.
I hit the Visitors Center again, with more time to enjoy it. It’s pretty informative. I’m hungry so I punt on the little nature hike I’d planned. I’ve had enough colorful rocks for the moment, off to Overton for breakfast.
Again, on the bluffs above the headwaters of Lake Mead on the way into town are a bevy of motorhomes just hanging out. I took a picture so as to grab the GPS coordinates of this spot. I wonder what the dealio is. It looks inviting to me, but if I’m overnighting around here, I’ll go to Valley of Fire instead.
I eat at the same place as the only other time I’ve been to Overton, the only restaurant in Overton I do believe. Food is not awesome, but the service is friendly and they have good wifi. Both times large groups of European tourists shepherded by their guide have been there also, so I believe it really is the only plausible diner in a large area.
After filling my laptop with tabs of pages to read tonight, it’s time to reprise the other day I was here. Follow this road to I-15, backtrack towards Vegas for one exit, then north on the Moapa cutoff (Route 168) towards US 93 to Pahranagat. Again I stop at the only interesting thing on this road, the Moapa NWR.
This is really a pleasant little stop. The little babbling brook and riparian oasis feels totally artificial and man-made, because it is. To their credit they don’t pretend otherwise, there are before and after pictures. The before was a crumbling resort swimming pool, the after is this tidy little nature walk. It is further amusing to me that the reason this place is here and evidently gets the big bucks is to protect the Moapa Dace, which is basically … a minnow :) On the way out was tons of activity and tons of construction – something is going on, but I’m not sure what.
I remember reading that Las Vegas and environs got hammered by some pretty big rainstorms a couple of months ago. The evidence has been everywhere since I escaped the east side of town two days ago. This little state road follows the contours of the land, down into the wash, up the hill, down into the next wash, and so on for miles. The road was mud-stained in each wash, and there was evidence that the grader had to come and push the gravel off the road in each wash.I amused myself imaging what this road was like in the storm. Impassable for the likes of me of course, but it would have been very exciting.
I joined 93 at the corner of a huge golf course development that seems to have halted in mid-stride. Another mystery. Soon I am at the southern end of Pahranagat, and soon again I am at the northern end of the North Lake, where I exit the road and drive back south again to find a spot.
WHUFU page for: Upper Pahranagat Lake
Lovely campsites right off the busy highway, next to NWR water - either a small lake or a large pond. Idyllic except for the noise and headlights of the constant semis 300 yds away.
tonight:
Much more crowded than it was the other time I stayed here, yet I seem to have gotten the best spot on the lake - go figure!
My previous spot, # 15 at the southeast corner of the lake was taken, as were most spots, but the special one where you take a little side loop out to the point was blessedly empty!
It's 9PM and I have the door open pointed at the southwest corner of the lake here there is still some faint light. Wark enough tohave the door open, but cold enough that the bugs aren't bad!
My spot is the best! The one downside is that as sunset approaches you get the double whammy of direct sun and reflected sun hitting from two angles. I solved this by leaving for a walk around the lake! The walk was just lovely, nothing remarkable, no interesting birds or critters, but great nonetheless. It’s just such a pretty scene, the tall cottonwoods, the marshes, the meadows and the water, all with that autumn afternoon glow. It’s what I’m out here for!
Anyway, back to my spot after the sun is set, but while there is still a little red-purple in the sky for the water to pick up and give double. I sit in my chair by the lake till well after dark.
Thursday
Got a knock on the window about 9:30. It was the friendly ranger telling me a bird watching group was gonna show up in two hours. He said he had posted a sign, but I never saw it.
The bird watchers came! They turned out to be a couple of vanfuls of old folks from Vegas – i.e. my contemporaries! Didn’t know shit about birds, but they were delighted to be out on a field trip, and the nice ranger fellow brought powerful viewing scopes which I really enjoyed. I could see that the birds across the pond were pintails! I am fairly sure this is the came ranger dude who met me at Pahranagat two years ago.
Looking back at the report of my previous visit here, I saw way fewer birds this time. Mostly the usual suspects – coots and geese and mallards – and the pintails which I couldn’t ahve identified without the scope. Oh yes, Great Blue Herons and Snowy Egrets who provided whatever viewing drama I had. Also no muskrats this time after soooo many last time.
It is an odd place. The camping is completely free, but it’s quite controlled, only camp in specific spots and that’s it. My nightmare would be driving 200 miles out of my way to come here, as I essentially did this time, and have the place be full! I think there were one or maybe two spots unused last night, so my margin of error was not great.
Breakfast at the Windmill at the north edge of Alamo. Nicely laid out, good lookin bakery items. It’s a “resort” because it fronts for a row of little cabins. Food was good, no cpm[plaints, but still … it wass a strange little middle of the desert kind of place.
A few miles north is Ash Springs, which the web tells me had a sweet little warm springs administered by the BLM until two years ago. A ranger “noticed a dangerous embankment” so they temporarily shut it, then made it permanent. I ain’t buying it, I think they just didn’t have the funds or interest in taking care of it. Anyway … I drove real slow and but failed to spot it. There is a large stretch of swampy lowlands clogged with cottonwoods (very pretty this time of year!) and I imagine it’s in there somewhere, but there were no markings to it that I could see.
Soon after Ash Springs is decision time. US 93 veers off to the east to Caliente. 375 veers off to the left to Tonopah. Until an hour ago that’s what I thought I was going to do, but new information(*) has caused me to take neither of these. Instead I zig for a short while on 375, then zag due north on 318 through Hiko. As usual with Nevada, all the mountains run north-south and some sorry little creek runs down the middle of the wide valley between the ranges. Of course those sorry little creeks are called rivers, and indeed they do drain impressive amounts of (very dry) real estate. Anyway, I am driving up the White River Valley and it is a really pretty drive. About 50 miles up is White River Narrows, a very dramatic and steep canyon that the road runs through for a few miles. It’s very fun to look at and breaks up the monotony, but it’s not too useful for anybody but the cows I think.
(*) A talk with my friend Cassie almost had me going to Elko. But even though that didn’t work out, I realized that for my goal of being in Kingston NV two nights from now, it’s almost a wash in turns of distance igoing west then north (Tonopah option) or north then west (Ely option). I was not seeing any good options for camping in Tonopah, so I opted for the Ely option. Ely to me is kind of a cool town, Tonopah is a pit.
I’m in a good mood and relaxed and the weather is perfect, so I ain’t exactly suffering, but this is way more driving that I like to do in a day. Eventually 318 joins US 6 for the final leg to my spot. I am driving pretty fast because I want today to be over. I get to the “Welcome to Humboldt Toiyabe NF” sign so I know I’m almost there. I look over to the left and see strange, unnatural straight lines of stuff on the mountains. Huge piles of mining waste I soon realize. I have come upon the backside of the GIGANTIC Ruby Mine that I will see the front of driving out of Ely tomorrow, how depressing.
WHUFU page for: Ward Mountain Campground
This campground appears to be brand spanking new! The bbq grills are not yet installed on their metal posts. Seems to be built for parties - each site as two tables and two bbqs (!).
Sadly, my bathroom is either closed for season or has never been opened, because it is locked.
Got a killer sunset from my site - by far the best of the trip. Happy to be here!
tonight:
This campground appears to be brand spanking new! The bbq grills are not yet installed on their metal posts. Seems to be built for parties - each site as two tables and two bbqs (!).
Sadly, my bathroom is either closed for season or has never been opened, because it is locked.
Got a killer sunset from my site - by far the best of the trip. Happy to be here!
It’s almost dark and pretty chilly, but there is absolutely nobody here to care, and I really want to wash my hair, so I do! After I have performed my ablutions I feel really, really good!
This is a very nice campground and a pleasant place to hang out. I wish they hadn’t locked the bathroom.