Part 1 -- Road Trip with Snowflake-- 2021

(A preview of Monument Valley at Dawn)

 
Our September journey of 2,272 miles began about one hour later than planned, our normal pace, and we arrived back home pretty much on schedule. 

We found the pleasures of travel are still there when you go out looking. There is beauty just waiting for us to seek it.

We traveled five Western states in two weeks starting at our California home and going across back roads in  Nevada and Utah, and looping through Arizona and Colorado.

We did not have a precise plan, just a vague destination, and that worked out very well.  This was a road trip: part camping, lots of driving, and part resting in places along the way.

There is beauty to be found everywhere. But the highlights were the Navajo's Monument Valley, Arches National Park,  Great Basin National Park, the southern end of the Rockies at Durango, plus miles and miles of beautiful open country across Utah and Nevada. Lots of geology everywhere.

A few basics: 

--We traveled in "Snowflake," our 2002 Volkswagen Eurovan. and the odometer passed 100,000 miles during the trip. A few times the speedometer went over 80 mph. We averaged about 20 miles per gallon.

--We were on the road 14 days.

--We camped  in our van seven days, stayed in a cabin for two, and spent four nights in motels.

Our route took us from home in Murphys, Ca.,  across Ebbetts Pass into Nevada, and then south through Moab, Utah to Monument Valley on the Arizona line. From there we drove into Colorado, and then homeward along essentially the same path.

The Covid pandemic effect was everywhere, but we were cautious, wore our masks, and honored the businesses and sites that took it seriously. 

What follows is a day-by-day log and where we were and what we saw.

Days 1 and 2 

We pulled out of our driveway in Murphys on a Monday morning  fortified with coffee, drove east across Highway 4 (Ebbetts Pass Scenic Highway-- elevation over 9,000 feet), through the town of Markleeville and on into the high plains of Nevada.

Across Nevada we avoided Interstates and traveled the "loneliest highway" -- US 50 --  which runs due east from Carson City.  It isn't really all that lonely, but traffic and towns are sparse and even in a Volkswagen van you can cruise along at 75 and make good time.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder in Nevada

Once you leave the high plains of western Nevada, where wild horses really do roam alongside the highways, you come into a widely spaced series of old mining towns in the mountains. Before you get there you pass through Fallon, a town that proclaims itself an "oasis," and is fueled by military installations scattered throughout the desert. There is a Naval Air Station (think "Top Gun" stuff), a bombing range, and even the site of underground nuclear test sites.  One suspects a lot of UFO sitings happen nearby.

At the mining towns you can sometimes find breakfast, but sometimes everything seems closed down. Even the Owl Casino and Cafe was closed, along with everything else,  when we passed through Eureka. 

We stop when it is interesting:  Frequently.

We stopped for the night, as planned, at a beautiful campsite at the Hickison Petroglyphs near Austin, a site managed by the Bureau of Land Management. There are only 16 sites, but the campground is rarely full unless it is time for local native Americans to collect pine nuts -- a local tradition.

The only noise was coyotes howling at night in the distance.

The view of the high desert was better than my photo.

Reading.

We stayed there two nights, just because we could, taking short walks, overlooking high desert and listening for coyotes at night. 

The petroglyphs  are along a short trail adjacent to the campground, with symbols and carvings chipped into the canyon walls.

Pat checking the Petroglyphs.

It is a nice quiet spot to stay, but it is "dry" camping: clean pit toilets, but no water or electricity. But we had a quiet well-designed campsite with a shelter, picnic table and a fire pit. (Because of the fire season we did not have a campfire anywhere during the trip.) 

As a place to camp, without urban amenities, I give it five stars.

Day  3 and 4: We had an early breakfast at Ely, Nevada, landed later at Big Basin National Park, almost into Utah, one of the few western national parks we had never seen.

It is a beautiful park, reaching from the desert basins to the peak of the mountains. A major feature of the park is a large cave, where tours are booked well ahead, so we missed that. (The Visitor Center  gave us an introduction.)

Lunch at the only open place in the town of Baker: Sandra's

I was allowed to serve the meal

The campite inside the park came with deer and turkey, and was full every evening. It was very quiet, the sites were wide-spread. Because of the  demand we shared our campsite with a couple camping out of the back of their truck. She paid us with a jar of home-made jam.

Pat had time to practice music

I had time to read.  I think I finished about six novels during the tip, several by Bernard Cornwell, and one by park ranger Nevada Barr and one mystery from James Patterson. Reading at night was helped by our new LED lights inside the camper, augmented by solar lamps we carry everywhere.

The Aspen were turning along the hiking trails. In mid-September the leaves were just beginning to turn, but only above 9,000 feet. But it still felt like Fall.

This was the easy hike, where we met an artist... Notice the hiking trail is handicap accessible by using rubber mats over small stones, a clever idea.

Next: On to Utah and Monument Valley