South Lake Tahoe, CA, to Great Basin National Park, NV, to Grand Junction, CO
First of all. Last thing first. Major props to the girl at the front desk of the Quality Inn in Grand Junction. She kept the pool open an hour later for me tonight until 11 pm. Oh My God, it was so awesome! I was absolutely dying for it. It was the perfect temperature too. That is now officially the *second* best swim I have ever had in my life.
[The best was with a former lover after running all the way down the Four Mile Trail in Yosemite from Glacier Point, and then "just" squeaking in a swim before closing at Camp Curry...and then...ah well, I can't tell the whole story here. ;-) ]
Anyway, here I am again. I'm getting deja vu. I've driven Highway 50 before. I feel like it's "my" road now. I love it's desolation. It truly is the "Loneliest Road in America."
I got out of Lake Tahoe nice and early this time. Still though, gas here, lunch there, I could feel the "fear" of darkness in the Great Basin approaching. I was very cognizant of my "deer miss" here two years ago, and I was determined to get to the National Park before dark.
I passed a few weird things on the way. There is this weird castley-looking thing above the town of Austin, Nevada. It kind of looks like Dalkey Castle in Dublin, Ireland. There are some miners homes or trailers, or I don't really know what, at the base of the hill it overlooks. Maybe they are something to do with it.
Austin is really the only town in the middle of Highway 50 in Nevada. It is scorchingly hot in this part of the world and yesterday was no exception. Austin looks kind of like it probably looked one hundred years ago, if not more.
I got to Ely, Nevada - last town before the park. I got several bottles of water because there are very few facilities in this park (I found out later there was water though!).
I took the turnoff for the road leading up to the park, and as I got near the scene of my previous "deer miss" I saw a deer warning sign and felt I really *had* to take a picture.
It was getting close to nightfall, and as I drove into the park I checked out the "Vacant" signs for all the campgrounds....
Lower Lehman Creek Campground, elevation 7,300 feet.
Upper Lehman Creek Campground, elevation 7,752 feet.
Baker Creek Campground, elevation 7,530 feet.
...all a few minutes away. Or, there was....
Wheeler Creek Campground, elevation 9,886 feet...and "a twelve mile drive up a steep and winding mountain road." Oh, by the way, the sun was just setting. I decided, "Fuck it, you only live once." And off I went.
I got a bit freaked out as the road passed 10,000 feet, and wondered, did I miss it. However, I kept going and sure enough a minute or two (or five or six) it appeared. I got a really cool tent site setup. I was right beside a little meadow. I had a quick hello with the fellow across the way in another campground - Rick, i think was his name. Then I made my red beans and rice and watched the stars unfold.
There's no point explaining how amazing the stars are from here. This park is one of the least light polluted places in North America. It is simply stunning. It gets you thinking about life, death, why are we here, who else is there, friends, family, love, and so on.
Then your mind wanders to strange places. In the "pit toilet" the next morning, while "communing with nature" (as my father calls it), I saw this moth that was dying on the floor. I guess they only live a few days. It seemed to be struggling and almost dead, so I finished the poor thing off. Then I thought, "God, maybe when they die slowly after their few days alive, they have some awesome DMT-like trip and that's how nature takes them back or away, and maybe I just ruined the poor thing's experience? Maybe I shouldn't have killed it?" Then I realized that I was about to cross into Mountain Time, and I would lose an hour, and if I didn't get my arse into gear soon, it would be nightfall again in several hours, and I might be having my own near-death experience. And on that note I packed up and left.
Did I mention it was cold up at 10,000 feet the night before? Great Basin National Park, and few other of these "island" mountain ranges (Wheeler Peak is over 13,000 feet) have their own mini ecosystems. There are no bears, because although the habitat might be suitable for them, the island effect meant they never crossed the extreme desert distances to reach such a remote place. There are sub-species of plants and animals that are unique to the park. All very fascinating, and much to do another time, but it was time for me to descend into the furnace of the desert below again.
I gassed up in the little town of Baker, which has an unmanned gas station. Then it was a solid day of driving across Utah. I passed by the town of Delta where I sought assistance two yeas ago. The girl at the garage (who called the mechanic for me two years ago) thought she remembered me (but I later realized that wasn't her at all!).
Utah if you ever been across it, speaks for itself. I tried with photos, but honestly, it is impossible to do it justice.
And I'll say it again, I don't give a shit what anyone says, people in Utah are really nice. They just are.
Well, it was getting late again as the evening came in. I drove about eight hours today, give or take. I'm headed to Denver tomorrow where I'll be working for the next week. I haven't decided which route to take. So I decided that I would stop in Grand Junction and "sleep on it." I can just knock it out in a few hours on I-70, but I'd prefer to stay off the Interstates. I used 70 a little today (because it shares the route with US-50 for a ways) but the back roads are so much more interesting. Anyway, I'll figure it out in the morning.
Adios and onwards...
No comments:
Post a Comment