So Dan and I originally had planned to travel basically from the Black Rock to Jarbidge across the northern part of Nevada staying on dirt as much as possible. We left last Saturday morning and drove up Pyramid Hwy through Smoke Creek to Gerlach. It rained the entire time.
We stopped in Gerlach, filled up and went into Bruno's for a late breakfast. While inside, we watched five guys on dual sport motorcylces ride into town and come into Bruno's, did I mention that it was raining? Those guys were soaked. We decided that we didn't want to get into the desert while it was wet and soupy.
We turned south and drove back to Fernley and headed east on IR80. I called Ali, who was staying at my house and asked him what the weather was looking like. The forecast for Northern Nevada was not good. We drove out to the intersection of IR80 and US 95 on the other side of Fernley and turned south once again.
We decided that we would try the Excelsior range south of Hawthorne. We drove to Hawthorne and it was still raining. We decided to stay in the El Capitan for the night. We got up and headed south of Hawthorne on (I think it's Hwy 318) and turned into the Excelsior's. We spent all day Sunday exploring the range. Saw alot of country, old mines (did some hiking) and even found a spring/pond with Koi fish in it.
Worked our way around the base of the mountains and up to the Silver Dyke mine area. RustyDan knows the area. We ended up setting up camp. The next day we drove up to the mine and proceeded to walk our ass off exploring the area. The main mine area was pretty cool, but we noticed mine debris up one of the canyons, so we followed it. As we were headed up the canyon (to the north), we noticed a mine site in a canyon to the west. We followed the north canyon until we found the site and explored it. The we crossed the ridge and down to the site in the west canyon. The entire area had some of the neatest and best preserved remains of any mine sites we have found.
We completed our hike and headed out of the mountains and down a road that gave us a challenge when we came across a boulder in the middle of a very steep down hill section that would have been extremely difficult to backup. I was able to squeeze around it, but we had to move some rocks and barely get Dan's new trailer past it.
We made it out to US 95, south of Mina and crossed over and headed east. We skirted the south edge of that mountains. We decided that we didn't want to spend any time in those mountains, so once again across country we went in a southerly direction. We came out to US 95, north of Tonopah. We drove into Tonopah and fueled up and did a quick re-supply.
We went east on US 6 for about 30ish miles and turned north into the Monitor Range. I can tell you that they are far more beautiful and amazing than you would ever think.
We spent the next couple of days exploring the southern end of that range. We saw Elk, which is a first for most of us in Nevada.
On the third day we headed north into the central portion. We crossed into the Monitor Valley and came across a road to White Rock Canyon, which was amazing.
We spent the rest of the day working our way out of the Monitors and over to the Hot Creek Range where we say about 30 female Desert Bighorn Sheep. Again, our first real sighting of sheep in all of our travels.
We found a place to camp and called it a night. At this point, Dan was getting low on fuel even with his auxillary tank. We headed up into the mountains and located the ghost town of Tybo. We crossed over the range (rockcrawling over the spine) to get to Kiln Canyon. There were some very nice red brick kilns in the canyon. We headed down to the valley and south out to Hwy 6 and back into Tonopah for fuel. I averaged 8.8 mph traveling where we had been going. There was a lot of slow speed, low range driving, so our mileage was horrible. Dan's of course much worse.
We headed back into the mountains and did some more exploring into the Hot Creek range. We ended up camping at 8000 feet in a meadow full of wild Iris.
We had managed to avoid most of the rain up to this point, only getting a few light showers, well the last night made up for it. We got a ton of rain and woke up to more rain. We packed up and made a run for it. It was snowing up near the pass we passed over to get out. We headed north through an amazing amount of mud to get to US 50, where we met the Ali's and headed into Eureka for lunch.
Darcie and I headed home, while Dan and the Ali's headed east into Ely for continue their journey. In total Darcie and I traveld 1300 miles door to door and spent about 700 of that on dirt, so we were very happy.
Dan will have to fill in the blanks and add his pictures when he gets back.
Here are the pictures:
locrwln : photos : Central Nevada Tour June 2009
Enjoy.
Jack
We stopped in Gerlach, filled up and went into Bruno's for a late breakfast. While inside, we watched five guys on dual sport motorcylces ride into town and come into Bruno's, did I mention that it was raining? Those guys were soaked. We decided that we didn't want to get into the desert while it was wet and soupy.
We turned south and drove back to Fernley and headed east on IR80. I called Ali, who was staying at my house and asked him what the weather was looking like. The forecast for Northern Nevada was not good. We drove out to the intersection of IR80 and US 95 on the other side of Fernley and turned south once again.
We decided that we would try the Excelsior range south of Hawthorne. We drove to Hawthorne and it was still raining. We decided to stay in the El Capitan for the night. We got up and headed south of Hawthorne on (I think it's Hwy 318) and turned into the Excelsior's. We spent all day Sunday exploring the range. Saw alot of country, old mines (did some hiking) and even found a spring/pond with Koi fish in it.
Worked our way around the base of the mountains and up to the Silver Dyke mine area. RustyDan knows the area. We ended up setting up camp. The next day we drove up to the mine and proceeded to walk our ass off exploring the area. The main mine area was pretty cool, but we noticed mine debris up one of the canyons, so we followed it. As we were headed up the canyon (to the north), we noticed a mine site in a canyon to the west. We followed the north canyon until we found the site and explored it. The we crossed the ridge and down to the site in the west canyon. The entire area had some of the neatest and best preserved remains of any mine sites we have found.
We completed our hike and headed out of the mountains and down a road that gave us a challenge when we came across a boulder in the middle of a very steep down hill section that would have been extremely difficult to backup. I was able to squeeze around it, but we had to move some rocks and barely get Dan's new trailer past it.
We made it out to US 95, south of Mina and crossed over and headed east. We skirted the south edge of that mountains. We decided that we didn't want to spend any time in those mountains, so once again across country we went in a southerly direction. We came out to US 95, north of Tonopah. We drove into Tonopah and fueled up and did a quick re-supply.
We went east on US 6 for about 30ish miles and turned north into the Monitor Range. I can tell you that they are far more beautiful and amazing than you would ever think.
We spent the next couple of days exploring the southern end of that range. We saw Elk, which is a first for most of us in Nevada.
On the third day we headed north into the central portion. We crossed into the Monitor Valley and came across a road to White Rock Canyon, which was amazing.
We spent the rest of the day working our way out of the Monitors and over to the Hot Creek Range where we say about 30 female Desert Bighorn Sheep. Again, our first real sighting of sheep in all of our travels.
We found a place to camp and called it a night. At this point, Dan was getting low on fuel even with his auxillary tank. We headed up into the mountains and located the ghost town of Tybo. We crossed over the range (rockcrawling over the spine) to get to Kiln Canyon. There were some very nice red brick kilns in the canyon. We headed down to the valley and south out to Hwy 6 and back into Tonopah for fuel. I averaged 8.8 mph traveling where we had been going. There was a lot of slow speed, low range driving, so our mileage was horrible. Dan's of course much worse.
We headed back into the mountains and did some more exploring into the Hot Creek range. We ended up camping at 8000 feet in a meadow full of wild Iris.
We had managed to avoid most of the rain up to this point, only getting a few light showers, well the last night made up for it. We got a ton of rain and woke up to more rain. We packed up and made a run for it. It was snowing up near the pass we passed over to get out. We headed north through an amazing amount of mud to get to US 50, where we met the Ali's and headed into Eureka for lunch.
Darcie and I headed home, while Dan and the Ali's headed east into Ely for continue their journey. In total Darcie and I traveld 1300 miles door to door and spent about 700 of that on dirt, so we were very happy.
Dan will have to fill in the blanks and add his pictures when he gets back.
Here are the pictures:
locrwln : photos : Central Nevada Tour June 2009
Enjoy.
Jack
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my boss is wondering why i am laughing lol.
