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Nevada Wanderings

DrMoab

DrMoab

NAXJA Forum User
Location
The Utah Backwater
A Trip Report​
By DrMoab​


Day 1
Sunday May 11 2014
So once a year or so I decide I need a break from life. I also need a break from girls (kidding wife and daughter) so I decide to take a trip with my guy buddies and usually hit the desert. This year after months of pondering, even more months of planning and some more months of saving gas money I decided to hit the desert and see some of the things that have always caught my interest in Nevada that I have always wondered about when I drive through there in my semi for work.

The day before Arron (FlexdXJ) flew in so he could ride along.

With the trailer packed to the gills and the jeep even worse we headed out. As we pulled onto the highway my dad who also went on the trip got on the CB and said "hey, something seriously wrong with the left tire on your trailer"
I looked back and sure enough it was wobbling all over the place. We turned around (.2 miles from home) and went back to see what was up. Come to find out I had just installed new dust covers on the hubs and they were bigger than the center holes of my wheels. A quick buzz with an angle grinder and the wheels got a magic enlargement of the center holes.
Untitled by drmoab, on Flickr

With that quick fix we were off. Stopped in Lakepoint to top off for fuel as this would be the last place we could buy it for almost 300 miles (240 or so on dirt)
by drmoab, on Flickr

We headed out on I-80 and took the Skull Valley road heading toward Dugway. Once we hit Dugway we hit dirt also and headed south to the Pony Express trail turning west toward our first camp of the night in Granite Creek which is in the deep creek mountains on the Utah-Nevada border.

I didn't take a lot of photos along this route because it was cold, windy and we were running behind and wanted to make camp before nightfall.

I did snap this one as we got near the deep creek mountains. This is one of my favorite little hidden gems in Utah. It takes a commitment to get there since it's close to 100 miles from anywhere and most of it is on dirt roads.
DSC_1803 by drmoab, on Flickr
 
Day 2
May 12 2014

During the night it got pretty cold, it rained and it was windy although we had no wind in camp due to our secluded location in the steep canyon.

Started out as a pretty nice day.
Untitled by drmoab, on Flickr

My dad and my son enjoying a nice morning camp fire to break the chill.
DSC_1806 by drmoab, on Flickr

Aaron trying to shake the chill and get moving for the morning.
DSC_1807 by drmoab, on Flickr

DaveW getting ready to take his camp down.
DSC_1817 by drmoab, on Flickr

We packed up and headed out. The air was much cleaner than the day before and Aaron couldn't keep the grin off his face...being the Indiana flatlander that he is.

A view up the canyon we just left.
DSC_1818 by drmoab, on Flickr

We headed south around the mountains and into Nevada up Pleasant Creek. This was a new area for me (as was the rest of the trip mostly) and the scenery was very nice. Even the lonely ranchers have a sense of humor.
DSC_1822 by drmoab, on Flickr

As we climbed higher, we started to encounter some mud. Most likely from the week or so of rain we have had off and on. The road kept getting slicker and for awhile I wasn't too sure we were going to make it over the pass. It was also the most thick, gooey mess I've ever driven in. Once it hardened on the jeeps and trailers it was like cement.
DSC_1826 by drmoab, on Flickr

DSC_1825 by drmoab, on Flickr

Working our way off the mountain we ran into a pretty good herd of elk.
DSC_1827 by drmoab, on Flickr

The plan was to catch back up to the Pony Express trail(PET for short) and keep moving west toward US-93 and then south to Ely but when we reached the turn off we took a look at the mountain we had to climb which was slightly higher than the last one and decided it would probably be better to take a short detour around the mountain and catch it on the other side. This was at the turn off.
DSC_1831 by drmoab, on Flickr
 
This was our view for miles and miles and miles across the state.
DSC_1832 by drmoab, on Flickr

We finally made it into Ely and although I made fun of him at the time, I wished later that I had followed Dave's lead and washed the mud off mine. I wasn't lying when I said it turned to cement as the $20 it took at the car was to get most of it off would later prove.
Untitled by drmoab, on Flickr

The plan was to camp somewhere along Lunar Lake. We made it to the lake, messed around for awhile and then went looking for a camp.

Messing around on the lake.
DSC_1843 by drmoab, on Flickr

DSC_1844 by drmoab, on Flickr

DSC_1861 by drmoab, on Flickr

Things started to turn ugly right after this, at least for my dad. He stopped to get a photo of a crater and his dog got out, spotted an antelope and took off through the desert. My dad went into panic mode and started chasing him through the desert, which caused the dog to run further and faster. At this time his CB mic took a dump and so we didn't know this was going down. When we got to the highway we waited, waited....and waited but he was nowhere to be found. So I turned around and headed back to hunt for him. He was about 2 miles out in the scrub brush and had found his dog but he was trying to get back to the road. This would have bigger consequences that I will talk about in day 3. Stay tuned....
 
Day 3
Tuesday May 13

We woke up to clear skies, no wind, a flat tire and a busted shock. The night before when my dad chased his dog through the desert he must have found a rock and put a hole in the sidewall.
Untitled by drmoab, on Flickr

While we were sticking in a plug in it, DaveW found he had broke a bolt on his trailer also.
Untitled by drmoab, on Flickr

With those two issues fixed we headed back to the lake bed. We just didn't get enough the night before and wanted to go play around some more.

We let the two kids aged 13 and 11 drive the jeeps all by themselves around the lake for awhile. The grins on their faces said it all. I'm sure it was all the talk in school today.

My son TJ practicing his photography skills.
Untitled by drmoab, on Flickr

Our rag tag group selfie
DSC_1877 by drmoab, on Flickr
 
From there we headed up to Lunar Crater, an ancient extinct volcano.
Untitled by drmoab, on Flickr

The whole area is a giant volcano field. Right past Lunar Crater is Easy Chair crater, seen here from a distance.
Untitled by drmoab, on Flickr

We hiked up to the crater and checked it out.
DSC_1890 by drmoab, on Flickr

From there the plan was to head over to the ghost towns of Tybo, Keystone and Hot Creek.

The first stop we made was Tybo. It appeared there was still a couple people living there so we didn't stomp around too much but there was some cool ruins and a few huge head frames.
DSC_1898 by drmoab, on Flickr

TJ inside of the shack holding the winch and engine to power it.
DSC_1897 by drmoab, on Flickr

DSC_1896 by drmoab, on Flickr

We left Tybo and headed up in the mountains to loop around and come down into the town of Keystone. The mountains in this area are really cool. Tons of old pinion and juniper trees.
DSC_1901 by drmoab, on Flickr

We went for miles and miles down a twisty little road through the forest. It was quite different from what I expected in this part of Nevada and quite fun.
DSC_1910 by drmoab, on Flickr
 
Things kind of took a turn for the bad when we got to the ruins of Keystone. We found out that Dave's bumper...which is also his hitch started to fail and pull away from his body. We decided to hook it to my dads jeep and pull it into Tonopah. We had to deviate from the plan of going into Hot Creek and possibly camping around Little Fish Lake but it was getting late and we weren't exactly sure what we were going to do with his Jeep. I took the opportunity to dump 15 gal of fuel into the jeep while they were swapping trailers.
DSC_1919 by drmoab, on Flickr

Since we were there we looked around the ruins and old mines a bit.
DSC_1917 by drmoab, on Flickr

DSC_1918 by drmoab, on Flickr

DSC_1911 by drmoab, on Flickr

After flying into Tonopah, getting dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant we were tired, it was dark and we were looking for the closest, easiest place we could pull over and sleep. A gravel pit was perfect.

It was a full, or close to a full moon so even though I was wiped out I decided to try and grab a few night shots.
DSC_1928 by drmoab, on Flickr

Stay tuned for Day 4....
 
You know what was better than this trip report? THE TRIP! :D
 
Day 5
May 14 2014
After making a quick trip to Tonopah for a windshield wiper, dog food and a couple other small things we hit the road for Belmont.

Belmont Nevada is possibly one of the coolest semi ghost towns I've ever been to. The main feature of the town is the old courthouse. You can read more about it here.

We stopped at the courthouse first. I found out later that it is filled with graffiti going back to the early 1900's and there is even some from Charlie Manson and his family when they held up in the town for awhile.

Driving up to the courthouse.
DSC_1929 by drmoab, on Flickr

The rear wall has fallen down so they pulled the all metal jail out. It looks like they plan to rebuild it.

Dave in jail.
DSC_1934 by drmoab, on Flickr

One of the places that is still in business. With a name like Dirty Dicks Saloon...you gotta check it out...right?
DSC_1938 by drmoab, on Flickr

Of course a guy like this would be running the place.

DSC_1945 by drmoab, on Flickr

My kind of hours.
DSC_1941 by drmoab, on Flickr

We left town, heading north towards Dianna's Punchbowl, Pott's Ranch and hot springs and camp.

On the way out of town we ran into the remnants of an old mill.
DSC_1971 by drmoab, on Flickr

From there we headed north. Next stop....Dianna's Punchbowl.

Karstic sent me a message saying I needed to see this. I'm glad he did. There are no signs, nothing to indicate it's there. Without directions or GPS you would never find it.

Dianna's punchbowl is a travertine mound about 100 ft high and at the top is a hot springs fed pool that is about 30ft down. They say the water is about 200*. I believe this because it was 80* and we could see steam rising off the water and smell some sulfur.
DSC_1988 by drmoab, on Flickr

Hard to get a good photo without a REALLY wide lens. iPhone pano will have to do.
Untitled by drmoab, on Flickr

From there we went 5 miles north to Pott's ranch and hot springs. After days and days of dust, dirt, campfires and more of the same this was a truly refreshing find. The owners of the ranch have developed this with a wood deck, benches and three different pipes with three different temps of water. We had the coolest pipe in the water and it felt like a hot bath tub. Pretty damned refreshing.

I told Aaron I wouldn't post a photo of him in the tub. I'm a good liar and he's 1500 miles away now. He can't hit me with his walking stick.
Untitled by drmoab, on Flickr

We soaked for a couple hours then left to find camp. Originally we were going to camp there but they had big no camping signs up and it was really hot. On the map, just a few miles away there was a campground up in the mountains at about 8000Ft. We headed there and it was well worth the trip.

Whats left of Pott's ranch as we left the springs.
Untitled by drmoab, on Flickr

DSC_1995 by drmoab, on Flickr

DSC_1996 by drmoab, on Flickr
 
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Day 6
May 15 2014

The night before we made it to camp early enough to cook some dutch oven pork chops in mushroom soup with red potatos and carrots. It was nice to relax. It was cool, no wind and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves for the evening.

Packing up from camp in the morning.
DSC_2013 by drmoab, on Flickr

DSC_1997 by drmoab, on Flickr

From here, things took a turn for the bad. Not two miles from camp, Dave gets on the CB.

Dave- "Looks like I found me a nice .17 rifle in the road"

Me- "Oh crap...you are behind my dad and he is the only one with a .17 Hornet."

So we stop to wait for Dave. As we are waiting I look and notice my dads right rear tire is totally flat. So not only did my dad get a double whammy of losing a rifle off the roof of his jeep (more on that later) he also now had a flat. We tried to plug it but it wasn't happening. So....we threw one of his two spares on.
DSC_2016 by drmoab, on Flickr

DSC_2017 by drmoab, on Flickr

From there we headed north again to the Geographical center of Nevada. You know what's in the geographical center of Nevada? A junction and....a crap load of nothing.

DSC_2018 by drmoab, on Flickr

It was at this time that I hear air leaking from another one of my dads tires (yes, the third one of the trip) This time it wasn't flat and still had air...we could just hear it leak so out came the ARB plug kit and we were back on the road.


We had another 8000ft mountain to traverse and the scenery was pretty awesome.
DSC_2020 by drmoab, on Flickr

Untitled by drmoab, on Flickr

DSC_2022 by drmoab, on Flickr
 
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