Hello Everyone! This week brought me down the east side of the great state of Nevada as I traveled from the old railroad town of Ely to fabulous Las Vegas. It’s another pretty desolate run with lots of wide open, beautiful desert to see. Nevada Route 93 is a great road and an easy one to cruise down with the windows down and the radio up. Tumbleweed blew across the road on more than one occasion. I also saw both a coyote and a roadrunner speed across the highway in front of me, but if the coyote was chasing the roadrunner, he was several hours behind. Perhaps an Acme brand rocket might help him catch up. I did stop through some cool little towns along the way and hiked in three really nice state parks as well, which were all nice to break up the ride. As I’ve been making my way south, I’ve been reading Reno’s Big Gamble by Alicia Barber which is an interesting look at the history of “The Biggest Little City in the World”. Two passages really stuck out though and made me smile so I thought I’d share them with you here. The first talks about how Nevada is right in between the Sierra Nevada Mountains, arguably the most beautiful part of California, and the incredible and diverse landscapes of Western Utah, longtime home of the Mormon Church. That leaves Nevada stuck in the desert “east of Eden and west of Zion”. The second quote stated that Nevada was “only fit for lizards and blizzards”. Both gave me a good chuckle. Nevada is a wonderful place but it takes some time here to understand that and the wide-open desert can be as daunting as it is beautiful. It’s hard not to imagine the emigrant parties toting all of their possessions with them in an old wagon starting off across the great unknown. The distances are much greater than they appear and I can only imagine what went through their heads as they struggled across a few miles at a time. Thankfully I move along at a much quicker pace. All in all, it’s been another great week on the road.
When I left you last week, I was in the cool little outpost town of Ely, Nevada, population just under 4,000. It’s a big place for this side of Nevada, but that’s not saying much and it seems much bigger after a long drive down the “Loneliest Road in America”. I took a room for the night in the historic Hotel Nevada. When this hotel was built in 1929, it was the tallest building in the state and would remain so for over a decade. It’s a fun old building which retains a lot of its historical charms and I can’t imagine staying anywhere else in Ely. It’s been renovated since I stayed there last and it was definitely nice to have a night in for a change and I enjoyed my stay.
I spent the entire day on Thursday in Ely’s wonderful little library which let me catch up on my photos and left the rest of the week free for me to cruise down Route 93 without feeling like I was behind. I did go out that night and wander into a couple of local bars, but there wasn’t much going on (to be honest, I don’t think there’s ever too much going on in Ely these days). I still like the town though and always enjoy my time there.
On Friday I wanted to see a few things around town before I took off. I started my day at the Nevada Northern Railway museum in the old East Ely train depot (and yes, surprisingly that meant there were once two stations in town). Ely’s existence as anything more than a stagecoach stop is mostly due to the copper which came out of the nearby mountains starting in 1906. This was right around the time when electricity was becoming more widely used around the country and the forward-thinking men in Ely thought that it would be worth the expense of extracting it. As a result, many older homes around the U.S. probably have wires in them made of copper from White Pine County, Nevada. The need to bring supplies in and copper out necessitated a railroad at that time and the Nevada Northern was born. There are some cool old trains at the depot and a lot of interesting information on the railroad and the town. Perhaps most interesting is the grave of a cat named Dirt who was apparently much beloved around the depot. There’s also a mural remembering Dirt not too far down the road.
The depot had a lot of local information brochures as well and one of them listed the town of McGill, just 15 minutes north of Ely, as a ghost town, so I decided to head up there and have a look. McGill is an old mining town and has definitely declined considerably over the last few decades since the mining operations shut down. Most of the businesses seemed to be shuttered and for sale, but there are still several hundred people living there and I wouldn’t personally call it a ghost town. Right there on the main street was an old Rexall Drug Store, and the signs also stated it was a museum and that it was open. I wandered in and met Keith, who has been living in McGill for most of his 90 years on this planet. That old pharmacy had closed a number of years back, but it seemed the owners had left almost the entire store intact and Keith had spent years bringing it back to life as a museum. It was definitely a time capsule and Keith was rightly proud of what he had done with the place, inviting me to go behind the counters and open up the drawers and cabinets if I liked (which I most certainly did). More than anything, it was interesting to hear Keith’s story about growing up in town and how it had declined after the local mines closed to what it was now. I was there for well over an hour and found the whole thing fascinating. When I left I took a spin through town and could definitely imagine what it had been like in its heyday from Keith’s descriptions. There are a lot of towns like McGill around the country these days.
By that time the day was wearing on, so I took off down the road. I decided to duck into the small old mining town of Pioche, and I’m sure glad that I did. Once notorious for gunslingers and vice, Pioche had buried over 70 people by the time its first resident died of natural causes (the worst were buried in the old Boot Hill Cemetery outside of town and further out than the more respectable cemeteries). When it was chosen as the county seat of Lincoln County back in 1872, they needed to build a courthouse. The town sold bonds to pay for the courthouse which was projected to cost $26,400. When the costs ran up to $75,000, they issued more bonds and later issued more bonds to pay back the original bonds. This cycle continued for many years and the county finally paid off the courthouse (which cost them a total of over $800,000 all-told) in 1938, two years after the courthouse was condemned. There were lots of great stories in Pioche and some amazing historic buildings to check out. I stopped into the Overland Hotel for a beer and the bartender told me it was Bingo night and I had to stay and play. I checked on a few things and found out that the town has a free RV park just a few blocks away and I realized I really did have to stay. I drove down there and parked and came back for an exciting and very well attended game of Bingo. They weren’t charging an entry fee, but they were serving free sandwiches so even though I didn’t win a round, I really did win in the end. It was a fun night in tiny Pioche.
I had a quiet night out in the free RV park and got up early the next morning to take some photos and wander around town for a while. There was a little diner called the Silver Café, and I decided to stop in for breakfast. It had a counter to sit at and I knew that if I watched the parking lot for some old pickup trucks to pull in that I could sit there with some old men from town who probably ate there every morning (or certainly every Saturday morning). I wasn’t disappointed and I enjoyed my breakfast while listening in on the latest gossip from around town. After breakfast I hiked up the hill to where they once loaded ore into buckets which were pulled down to the stamp mill mostly by gravity. The whole contraption is still there, including the wires and buckets which I thought was exceptionally cool. From there I wandered out to the cemetery for a bit and then headed on out of town.
From Pioche, I made my way out to Echo Canyon State Park which is about 15 minutes down the road. Mostly centered around the Echo Canyon Dam which irrigates the area and allows local farmers to grow alfalfa, the park also has a nice little 3 mile hike up into the hills which eventually drops back into Echo Canyon itself. It was a beautiful afternoon and it was so nice to get out and stretch my legs for a bit and I pretty much had the whole place to myself. After my hike I continued down the highway to Cathedral Gorge, definitely the centerpiece of eastern Nevada’s state parks. Ash from a volcanic eruption 5 million years ago settled into this area of the state. Much more recently, a freshwater lake formed, and silt settled to the bottom. Over time, the lake would drain away and erosion would expose these layers of silt and ash in the beautiful formations of Cathedral Gorge. It’s quite a striking place and I got there in enough time to get set up in the campground and get out and take some photos of the formations before the sun went down. It was pretty special out there at that time of day, especially when the near-full moon rose just as the sun was setting. It had been quite a busy day and it was nice to drift off to sleep surrounded by the beautiful formations of Cathedral Gorge.
After breakfast on Sunday, I enjoyed the three mile Juniper Draw hike up into the west side of the park. I had only been on the east side of the park before so I really appreciated my time out there and it was so nice to start my day with a hike (and then get a shower before hitting the road). I stopped off briefly in the nearby town of Panaca and then continued south to Caliente. The only incorporated town in the county, Caliente always seemed pleasant when I’ve driven through it before and I always wanted to come back and check it out. It has a gorgeous old train station, a cute little casino and some nice little shops and restaurants, but there isn’t really too much to it. It seemed like another town that has probably seen better days, but the people were friendly and it’s a pretty little area of the state. Just outside of Caliente is Kershaw-Ryan State Park which was my final destination for the day. I find Nevada State Parks’ day-use fee of $10 to be a bit high for what they are, but if you stay in the campground it’s just $10 more making it feel like a good bargain for $20 total. The campgrounds are modern and well taken care of and I had the one in Kershaw-Ryan all to myself. I had a couple of hours before sunset, so I headed up into the canyon and then did a nice 4 mile hike through the park before the sun went down. Back in camp, I cooked up some chili and sat out reading under the full moon for a while before calling it a night.
I slept in a bit on Monday morning and then made a beeline for Las Vegas. I skirted past the legendary Extraterrestrial Highway (which I’ve driven many, many times and have yet to see an alien) and mysterious Area 51 (same) on my way south, but mostly it’s another desolate desert highway. It’s always nice cresting that final hill and seeing Las Vegas in the distance. I always enjoy pulling into Las Vegas as I’ve spent a lot of time here in my life and know the city pretty well but there are also always new and different things to check out. It was over 70°F (21°C) when I got here which is a far cry from the below-freezing temperatures I’ve been looking at for the last month. I did want to get some work done before I headed into town, so I went to the library and spent a nice chunk of the afternoon there. Then I headed downtown for the night. It’s been a couple of years since I was here, and Las Vegas is always changing. Some places were gone and new things had sprouted up in their place but some of my favorites are still hanging on. I stopped in for a beer at The Griffith, a classy British pub with a brick interior and several cozy fireplaces going which feels like a different world from the Vegas that’s outside their doors. Then I crossed the street for a $19.95 prime rib special at El Cortez which has been there since 1941. It’s a good deal and I’m always pleased to see they are still offering it every time I am in town. From there I wandered up Fremont Street to Atomic Liquors, Las Vegas’ oldest freestanding bar (opening in 1952, they have Las Vegas Tavern License #00001). It was pretty quiet there, so I took a nice long walk up to the Huntridge Tavern, a classic Las Vegas Dive about a mile from the heart of downtown, for a few beers before returning to Fremont Street. My favorite old biker bar, Hogs & Heifers, had to close their old site after 20 years due to a lease dispute. They bought property on Main Street and are hard at work on building their new bar, but meanwhile are operating a popup location inside The Plaza. It was a great place to finish my evening seeing as I was parked in The Plaza’s parking lot just up the street. It was a long night, but a good one and a familiar one since that’s usually exactly how I spend my first night in Vegas.
I woke up the next morning feeling a bit “Vegased”, but not too bad. I went for a stroll and got some coffee and hung around downtown for a while. Then I made my way over to my friend Jennie’s house in North Las Vegas. I met Jennie when she was a rookie tour leader a little over 20 years ago. She has moved through several different tour companies over the years and has developed into one of the best there is in the U.S. Jennie and I have a lot in common and a hundred mutual friends around the country and it’s always great to catch up with her. When I got there she was finishing up a project on the bus she’s been building out for the last couple of years. When she’s not on the road she lives with a fun couple in their lovely home. We were going to go out and grab some drinks, but we ended up chilling on the couch with her roommate, Shannon, and chatting into the night. It was really nice to be there and to catch up as it’s been a couple of years since I saw Jennie. They also had plenty of room on their property for me to park for the night which was a nice bonus.
We hung out for a while this morning as well but they had plans for the day so I said goodbye and headed towards the nearby Nevada State Museum. I checked the hours on the way and realized they are closed today so I changed direction and headed over here to the library to finish up this week’s recap and catch up on a few other things. From here I’m not sure where the night will lead. Tomorrow I definitely want to catch that museum and may stick around Vegas for another night or two. This weekend I am hoping to head out and see some of the smaller outlying towns, visit Valley of Fire State Park and Lake Mead and then start heading towards Utah. I’ve enjoyed my time in Nevada, but I’m also really looking forward to doing some serious hiking in Southern Utah and some new and different hikes in some of my favorite Utah National Parks. I should be starting my Utah adventures by this time next week, and I hope you’ll come back and check in with me and see where the week takes me. Have a great week out there and thank you, as always, for reading.
-Mike