10/16 - 10/20/05 Across the Great Basin - Back on Track |
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10/17 - Tonight finds us camped off the side of
a side road, not far from Bridgeport, CA, and a little north of Mono
Lake. There's a nice dispersed camping area 6 miles farther up this
side road, but it's 6 miles of rough & sometimes steep washboard gravel.
So I opted to stay where I had dropped Gypsy before going up there.
It's quiet & I guess it's OK. The forest ranger just looked as he
passed us by.
We made the trip from Eugene back to Dutch Flat in the Sierras yesterday
with no problems. With eBoy's new torque converter & clean bill
of health, mountain grades were no problem, even some steep ones with
Gypsy in tow today. Do I dare hope that all of my tranny troubles were
due to a bad torque converter? After crossing Donner Pass, we cut south
and on around the northeast corner of beautiful Lake Tahoe, picking
up US50 for the drop into the Carson Valley and US395.
Fall has really set in everywhere. The green slopes in southern Oregon
were brushed with gold from ash & alder. The oak woodland hills
in northern California have taken on a burnished bronze color. Here
on the east side of the Sierras, the valleys are ablaze with aspen and
cottonwood, lighting the landscape like giant torches. What a great
time to be on the road!
To make up for the 10 days we spent on the trip to Oregon, we'll shorten
our stay in this area to a couple of days, then head on down in the
general direction of Cedar City, UT. We'll check out Zion NP & then
locate a place to spend next week, a work week. 
10/18 - Today we visited Mono Lake not far to the south & spent an interesting hour exploring the tufa area on the south shore. The tufa are fantastically shaped mineral deposits up to 20 feet high that formed when the shore was still submerged, before the city of LA siphoned off the lake's feeder streams for 50 years. You won't see anything like this anywhere else, so stop by if you're in the neighborhood.
10/19 - A long one today as we crossed the great basin, tracking diagonally
south & east across Nevada. This vast expanse was long ago a great
inland sea, but it somehow was transformed into an ocean of desert,
rippled by gigantic petrified waves: one mountain range after another
running north to south. Between the ranges, the highways run arrow straight
for mile after mile. Each range is a little different & probably
each has its own geology lesson to teach. Along the way we saw herds
of wild horses & a tarantula crossing the highway. The silver mining
town of Tonopah at the junction of US95 & US6 was visible for miles
away, perched on top of its mountain almost like an Italian hill town.
The Tonopah High School team is the ... wait for it ... Muckers! Goooo
Muckers! A mucker, I learned in the gold country, is a miner who shovels
ore into carts. 
Not long after Tonopah we turned south on SR375, also known as the Extraterrestrial Highway, apparently from sightings reported along that stretch. We survived without being abducted. I noticed that the mountain ranges nearby looked vaguely Martian. We stopped at the A'le'Inn (sound it out) in Rachel for a short break. Later as it was getting dark we pulled off at a US93 rest area & spent the night. As I was taking Timmy for his bed time walkies, a flight of helicopters buzzed overhead, quite low judging by the noise level. But they were invisible! No dark shape overhead (full moon), no blinking lights. The Air Force's mysterious Area 51 is off to the west & it appears that they must be testing cloaking devices on their helicopters. Or maybe it was a UFO...
10/20 - We pulled out of the rest area at 8 AM & by 1 PM we were setting up camp in Zion NP. The South Campground is on the valley floor with towering red walls on both sides. The Virgin River runs nearby. We followed the Virgin up from Mesquite, NV, via I15. As it cuts across the corner of Arizona, it slices a deep gorge right through the Virgin Mountains. The gorge is a spectacular chasm & a great entry into the red rock country. It would probably be more well known except that it is overmatched by Zion & the Grand Canyon.
I've pretty well decided to spend the next week right here in the park. Zion means refuge, so I guess we're taking refuge for a few days. Details to follow in our next adventure.
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