Thursday, September 20, 2018

2018-26 notes from NEVADA


2018-26

NEVADA notes


a western sunset, NEVADA


Campground: Bonanza Casino, Fallon NV. $18, full hookups, 30 amp. Parking lot style in back of casino. Lots of older Class C Rv’s. Not ideal but Ok for a couple nights. Bonanza restaurant has an awesome deal on an 8 oz steak dinner for under $10. Hand cut steak very lean and tender.

Campground: Bob Scott campground, National Forest. $10, senior rate $5. Water available and flush toilets. Mix of pull thru’s and back ins. Right off of hwy 50 great views of mountain range.

Bob Scott Campground, National Forest
Lincoln Highway


Campground: Hotel Nevada, Ely NV. Free. Back parking lot for trucks and Rv’s no hookups, right in the center of downtown Ely. Good location.

Casino parking lot, downtown Ely Nevada


Campground: Young’s Rv Park, Callente NV. $25 50 amp full-hook ups. Half of the sites have large Cottonwood trees for shade. Nice little town with museum in the large old train station.

Campground: King’s Row Trailer Park. $20 full-hookups, 50 amp service. 109 over the air TV stations. Small swimming pool and laundry facilities available. Good location, quiet at night. I understand the price will be going up shortly as they have not raised prices in over 10 years.

Nevada


Notes on Nevada.


traveling the Lincoln Highway (hwy 50) through Nevada
The Lincoln Highway, NEVADA
Sand dunes along hwy 50 east of Fallon NV

Well I’m traveling through Nevada in September, which you’d think it would still be very hot out west. Luckily I am traveling a more northerly route through the state and getting into some mountainous areas where it’s cooler. Fallon was hot as it’s low elevation and desert setting would expect.

I’ve traveled along hwy 50 also known as the Lincoln Highway (1st highway to go coast to coast in U.S.) and it’s also known out here as the Loneliest highway. Personally for Rv-ers I think it’s an awesome route, little traffic, a number of small old mining towns including a few Pony Express stops along the way.

My second stop was to Austin NV, an old mining town on the side of a mountain crossing. It’s definitely a slower pace of life out here. East of town and the campsite, I discovered two attractions, The Hickison Petroglyph site and Spencer Hot Springs where one could boon dock camp out under the stars and enjoy a dip in one of the natural hot springs. It’s about a 7 mile drive down a well maintained dirt road to get there and I’d definitely consider a stop with my RV next time around. This time I just drove the truck to the springs and enjoyed a wonderful dip on the 104 degree hot springs. What a great find. Thanks to some locals who mentioned it being in the area.


Stokes Castle

Austin Nevada along the
Loneliest Road in America 




Austin Nevada




Note: I was kind of hoping to stay overnight at the springs on my exit from the Forest campground, but the skies turned cloudy and it would have defeated the purpose of being out in the desert/hot springs if I couldn’t enjoy the stars at night. it’s definitely on my bucket list next time I'm in the area.

Of course the other local attraction in Austin is Stokes Castle which I’ve visited in the past, but worth a second look especially since it site on top of a ridge overlooking an expansive valley with mountains off in the distance. Built my a mining owner for son, used twice, sold mines and castle. Abandoned shortly thereafter.


Spencer Hot springs



Heading across on hwy 50 and then south from Ely on hwy 93, both are two lane roads with minimal traffic. From Austin to Ely, the route takes the traveler through higher elevations going over numerous mountain passes of 7,500 ft range. These are not challenging mountains to cross over for an RV and also brings with it much lower temperatures than in the rest of Nevada's desert environs.

Ely and surrounding area, Nevada



lots of murals around Ely NV

my camper surrounded by racing cars


downtown Ely, casino's




on the ATT building


Traveling along hwy 98 through the Great Basin, a very large valley surrounded by mountain ranges on all sides. The basin is noted for it’s enormous size (the area covers multiple states) and that fact that all water shed into the basin stays in the basin, none going out to the sea or rivers beyond the basin itself.

I’m staying a few nights in Callente NV, having never stopped in this western outpost of a town. Irrigated farming land surrounds the valley. Have I mentioned the vast distances between towns along both hwy 50 and 98. I’ve seen signs warning that the next services (that’s fuel folks) is 79, 89 and 90 mile distances. So if you’re planning on taking either of these routes, make sure your fuel tank is full up. Other routes have similar lengths between services.

 Callente NV,

the Depot bldg



wild grapes on the side of the Depot

the Depot is now the City hall, a small library
and offices on the second floor


view from my camper window....


traveling through the Great Basin

along the Great Basin, surrounded by mountain ranges


My last stop in Nevada is to Las Vegas. It wasn’t on my original plan, but Paul Owens, a former co-worker is in town with his wife Deborah  and they asked if we could get together. Of course. They are in town signing paperwork to sell their property in town. Nice visit as expected. It got up to 108 the other day, fortunately, I’m in a campground that has 50 amp service and both my a/c units are working nicely to keep the temperature comfortable inside the camper. Couldn’t imagine living out here in the summer time. At 10 pm it still 85 degrees.


Paul Owens (former co-worker, NAWCTSD) and
his fun wife Deborah 


I’ll cross into Arizona at the Hoover Dam’s new bridge, which should be quite spectacular is it is high above the deep river gorge. I’ll see if I can get some pictures, but NOT while I’m driving across the bridge!

More Photos:



 Callente NV,

Sunday, September 2, 2018

2018-25 Oregon traveling the center of the state


2018-25

Notes from Oregon


Ainsworth State Park, full hookups, $26
Campground: Ainsworth State Park. Along the Columbia Gorge, this state park has mostly full-hookups, 30 amp service for $26 a night. Nestled in a thick forest of pines and fir trees. Though very close to the train tracks, most are able to ignore the noise with no train whistles going off.



Campground: Madras. Jefferson County Fairgrounds. $20 for 30 amp full-hook and $25 for 50 amp full-hook. They also give a $2 discount for most camping club memberships including Passport America which is a half/price club, but they are not actually members so you only get the $2 discount.

Jefferson County Fairgrounds


Campground: Walt Haring Sno-ark/campground. National Forest site, free. Has water, pit toilets and a dump stations ($5 fee). Basically two large parking lots with picnic tables and tent sites walk in. Not all sno-parks permit summer camping, but if they do, you’re bound to find some boondocking sites near by as well.

Walt Haring Sno-ark




Campground: Klamath County Fairground. $25 full-hook ups, 50 amp, site are on the side of the event center. In-town, so close to shops and restaurants.

(no picture.)


Notes from Oregon


After leaving Washington state I headed for the Columbia River Gorge area as it is a favorite of mine. Many would would prefer traveling along the coastal highway, but since it is still high travel season for that area, I decided the inland route would be best.

A visit to Multnomah falls is a must for the travel adventurer, and happens to be my favorite falls (went twice while in the area). I met up with John and Elaine for an awesome brunch at the NP lodge near the base of the falls. I was able to travel on only a few miles of the old highway (which is being restored, some sections for vehicles and others for the bike and hiking group). It’s been closed since last years careless forest fires but should be reopened for the 2019 season. A must for the casual hiker and lots of additional waterfalls to visit.

Multnomah falls lodge 







I was able to get these photos of some old highway buildings which the new Interstate 84 made obsolete. I also crossed back into Washington state over the Bridge of gods (it was once a natural bridge when native Indians lived here.) I basically went Stevenson to complete some paperwork for the purchase on another RV lot in Florida. Took the help of the local Visitor Center, Public Library and the local Credit Union to print out the forms, transfer funds, re scan all signed documents before mailing them off to the Title company in Florida.






old historic highway to Ainsworth St Pk




Mission accomplished I was ready to continue my trek south via highway 36 from Hood River to hwy 97 which even though it is only a two lane road, much of it has a wide paved skirting on both sides of the road and relatively light traffic most of the way. Basically I’m heading through the center of Oregon, past Mount Hood, Mt McKenzie, The Three Sisters, Mt Bachelor and of course Crater Lake NP, which had it’s mountain top blown off 7,700 years ago. Today the caldera that formed is filled with a deep blue lake that is 1,943 feet deep (592 meters).


this part of Oregon is called high desert


This was my second time touring Crater Lake, and I took the entire tour around the thankfully inactive volcano. The road weaves it’s way sometimes on the outer side of the caldera and other times on the inside with of course great views of the lake. This is one of the few craters that is filled with water and that occurs because of natural rainfall and approx 43 feet of snow each year. It has no rivers or streams that feed the lake, nor is there an outlet for the water. Now the day I toured, there was still a considerable amount of smoke from forest fires west of the National Park, but with the sun rising over Crater Lake, the sky was able to clear up to some degree.

Crater Lake,

forest fires in area, lots of smoke

Wizard Island in Crater Lake








I should be heading into Northern California before crossing into Nevada next.

One of the places I’ve camped at, the sno-park, was quite a pleasant surprise for my boondocking attempts. The weather has been perfect for this type of camping. Lows in the 48-50’s and highs in the 70’s to around 80 degrees. Now why did I enjoy this park so much….

  • it’s free camping
  • has paved parking (keeps most of the dirt out of the camper)
  • with picnic tables and fire rings on edge of parking lot type camping area
  • all surrounded by a thick forest
  • quiet peaceful setting
  • water and pit toilets available
  • even a dump station ($5 fee)

But mostly it’s an easy way to enjoy being in a National Forest, surrounded by wonderful evergreens, with little chance of getting stuck on an unfamiliar dirt road. And it’s very quiet as well. Sno-parks as you may have guessed are large parking lots devoted to winter sports such as snowmobiling, and cross country skiing. During the summers they are often used as starting points for hiking trails or as my example some are used as campsites.



Oregon still has attendants to pump your gas, but some stations do have self-serve pumps.

Still dealing with smoke from the many wild fires out west, from Washington, Oregon and California. Hope to get out of it all by mid week of next week.

My last stop before heading into California is to Klamath Falls. Since it’s a holiday weekend, I’ve decided not to try and get into an actual campground like a state park since they will be completely full for the long weekend.

Klamath Falls is noted for their many nature parks which host many migrating birds including lots of American Eagles during the winter months, white pelicans, egrets and many more that I’m sure my birding friends would enjoy seeing.

And they have an awesome museum called Favell’s Museum. American Indian and Western art. Over 100,000 historical Native Indian artifacts including the oldest known Duck Decoys, thousands of years old… wow.

well worth the $10 


all these were found buried along river during excavation
for the museum



More Photos: