Lonliest Rd Part II (plus some more)

The trend seems to be the longer we are out, the farther behind I get on postings.  I usually blame it on hte connectivity, but truth in fact, I just get lazy.

Anyway....  The stargazing I mentioned at the end of the last post was really great.  It's been a long time since we've clearly seen the milky way.  Even in the southwest, the air pollution from LA pretty much obscures it.

OK... It wasn't THAT good, but it WAS good.

The next day we completed the second leg of the Lonley Road

I promise...  No more "Lonely road" shots.

A "fixer-upper".  Yours for only $999.99

At our campground.

Antler road art

A wayside "Pioneers Exhibit" depicting a whole lot more people then we saw in the past 400 miles.

At the endpoint of the Lonely Road, we made a final stop at Great Basin National Park and Lehman Caves.  If you are ever passing through Baker NV,  (heh - heh), see the cave.  It's really quite beautiful (the cave, not Baker).  I have no pictures, since as I was an experienced caver in the 60's, I was assigned the highly responsible task of bringing up the tail end of the tour to make sure nobody got left behind. I did such a good job that we actually picked up two more people than we started with!!

From here, we turned south heading toward (BUT NOT TO) Las Vegas, stopping overnight a Cathedral Gorge (really more of a "gulch") near Panaca NV.  (Another nice place to visit if your in the area.).  A nice day-hike through some very impressive congealed mud.

Enough of those redwoods, ...
Bring on the eroded dirt!!

Ask Val about the rabbit.

Yes.  I Shaved this morning.

OK...  I got the picture.  You can come back down now.

Leaving Panaca, we headed to Snow Canyon which is just outside of St George UT.  Went into town for some lunch and groceries and then to the Canyon for a couple of short walks to fill out the afternoon.

A nice little slot canyon.

She says it's an "air kiss" but looks more like
an Italian epithet gesture to me.

So we're settled in for the night at Snow Canyon for two nights.  Tomorrow a day hike, but we HAVE to be out of here Saturday morning as we've been told five busloads of school children are showing up for some ecological event.  (A contradiction if I ever heard one.)

Good night from Snow Canyon (but with no snow.)

Brad and Val

The Road Less Traveled

This morning we took off from Fallon NV heading west on US 50 on what is nick-named "The Loneliest Road In America".because it is 410 miles of road through central Nevada and Utah with only 4 towns (greater than pop 500) between.

The name is a bit of hype from the Nevada Dept of Tourism, but it does feel pretty lonely much of the time. One might say "Why go this way when I-80 will pretty much get you too and from the same places?"  Well the obvious reason is because it's there, but also because its the path of the Pony Express, Butterfield Overland Stage Line and numerous emigrant trails.  It oozes history, and the scenery is spectacularly BIG!  There's also almost no traffic, the speed limit is 70 mph and you can stop anywhere you please and gawk at the scenery.

By the end of the day, we had made only about 130 miles because of several stops to oogle at some road-side attraction or another.

Grimms Petroglyph Site.
Much cruder (and very much older) than we've seen further
south in Utah and Arizona.

Snakes seem to be a common theme regardless of when
where the drawings are made.

One huge isolated sand dune.

Remains of an 1860's Overland Stage station.

Austin NV.  The last (and first) town we passed on this leg.

So we are now stopped at the Hickson Petroglyph Recreation Area Campground, (such as it is).  We're parked under a shady tree on a hillside overlooking a 40 mile wide valley and the distant mountains.  (That's the Overland Stage route behind our site.)

Should be some excellent stat-gazing tonight.  An tomorrow should be more of the same as today.

OH... and the campground is EMPTY.

Goodnight from the "Loneliest Campground in the USA"

Brad and Val

Catch-Up Time Again

Since we left Jess' house we've only had one night of connectivity (honest).  Portland may be the epitome of technology, but NW California is definitely not.  (Must be too busy growing pot and cooking meth to have time to surf the net.)

Anyway, from Harris Beach State Park Oregon, we jumped down into California (only a few miles) and spent 4 days gawking at giant redwoods and exploring craggy deserted beaches in the Humbolt Redwoods State/National Parks.

A nymph in the wood.

Our campsite.
Note humongous stumps right and left.

Better view.

A drive up a dirt road.

A minute earlier would not have been good!

I'm not sure this is a really good road.

My tree huger.

Then I chopped it down.

Val on an awesome trail.

But I wish she'd stick to huggin' trees.
"Call her off, or she's going over the side!"

I protested mightily, but she made me pull in.

The compulsory "up-the-nose" selfie.

Back to huggin' trees.
Much better.

Trail to Hidden Beach.

Hidden Beach - We had it to ourselves for a while.

The last night on the coast was at Elk Prairie Campground ... which of course had no elk.  However departing in the morning, down the road aways from the campground, we encountered two grand bulls battling to the death off to the right of the road.

After capturing the moment, I began pulling back onto the road and while checking my rear-view, there on the other side of the road was the entire herd of 30-40.  By now a logging truck was bearing down so you'll just have to take my word for it.

The rest of the day was traveling from the Pacific Coast of California following the Trinity River to Redding and then on to Lassen Volcanic National Park on the far eastern edge of the state.  As it was Sunday, we (I) figured most responsible adults would be packing up camp and returning home to work and paying Social Security taxes to support us less-responsible adults.  However, since it was actually Saturday, NOT Sunday, we arrived at a full campground, except for one last site which we grabbed instantly. (Feeling only slightly guilty about the "old peoples" camper we blew by at 75 mph racing to get to the campground first.)

Today (the real) Sunday, we crossed into Nevada at Reno and clawed our way up a mountain to Virginia City, there to be greeted by "Street Vibrations", the equivalent of the Sturgis South Dakota motorcycle rally.  I believe I made a (very quiet) comment to the effect that motorcycle rallys mostly tend to concentrate A-Holes...distilling them down until the only thing remaining is the essence of A-Holes.

Her response was to glare and immediately walk into a Christmas Shoppe in front of which I took my seat of shame while pondering the irony of the situation.

Tonight we are in Fallon Nevada, (home of the US Navy "Top gun" flight school)  getting showered and laundered before the next leg which takes us across Nevada and Utah on US 50, "The loneliest road in the US".

More on that when we get reconnected in a couple of days.

Good Night Goose and Maverick from Fallon Nevada.

Life Is A Beach

Headed down the Oregon coast intending to reach northern California.  Didn't make it.  There were so much mind-boggling scenery, we decided to stop early and explore the local beaches.

OK - Not exactly exploring, but certainly soaking it up.

Good Night from Harris Beach State Park, Brookings, Oregon.

Looking For a New Home Sep 16-18

Had a great several days living in Jessica's driveway.  Totally "Portland-like".  Went out for a fancy dinner Friday night and walked around downtown Portland on a "balmy" 60's evening.  An interesting amalgam of millennials, hipsters, homeless and tourists (me).

Last night we went to sleep serenaded by Julio, the neighbor down the street who has not infrequent "Salsa Nights" which run into the wee hours of the morning.  According to Scott (who dropped by there about 1:30 am) he also had some great tamales and Corona.

We left Portland this morning (Sunday) to scope out potential retirement cities down I-5 from Portland.  Salem and Eugene looked pretty nice, but we're a long ways from getting that organized.   However, interesting to think about.

Crossed over to the Oregon Coast and stopped early just south of Florence OR at Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, a huge expanse of dunes stretching 20-30 miles down the Oregon coast.

Better not be any Sand Worms around here!

Almost to the top.

ARE YOU COMING UP OR NOT? 

Wish I had a dune buggy.

If you take a picture of me fallin' flat on
my face, ther'll be no dinner tonight.

 So a nice day.

Good night from Florence Oregon.

Brad and Val