adventure – Tuples and Attributes

Nevada Road Trip: Around Caliente (Day 7)

November 5, 2025tuplesandattributesLeave a comment

This day started with another trip to the Side Track restaurant, which, fortunately for me, was open for breakfast on Friday (as well as Saturday and Sunday). It did not disappoint, and I headed out for my morning with a nice protein fix.

First stop: Cathedral Gorge State Park. There is a nice visitor center here where I was finally able to buy my annual senior pass to Nevada State Parks. Better late than never. Of all the state parks I visited, this was the only one where I saw an actual park employee. The other parks all had fee stations, but you can’t buy annual passes at those. In the parks I was in earlier, I resorted to leaving a note in the windshield giving my phone number and saying I wanted an annual pass. It never came to that, however.

Here’s the blurb from the park’s site:

Cathedral Gorge State Park is located in a long, narrow valley in southeastern Nevada, where erosion has carved dramatic and unique patterns in the soft bentonite clay. The park’s beauty began with explosive volcanic activity that, with each eruption, deposited layers of ash hundreds of feet thick. Great walking trails abound for exploring the cave-like formations and cathedral-like spires that are the result of geologic processes from tens of millions of years ago. A photographer’s dream, the park offers stunning views of the scenic canyon and visitors can enjoy hiking, picnicking, camping and nature study. https://parks.nv.gov/parks/cathedral-gorge

If you have kids, you most definitely should go here with them. It is full of “slot” canyons for them to explore with little risk of them getting lost or hurt (same for us grown-ups). The “canyons” are all short, but you can go from one to another to another to another . . .

The view from Miller Point is supposed to be very nice, but unfortunately the road to it has been closed for months. I thought maybe I would hike up to it instead, but the trail was closed too. Once I saw the number of steps that would have been involved, I figured that was just as well. You can just make out some of the steps in this photo:

I very much enjoyed my brief visit here and would definitely go back, especially when they get the road to Miller Point open.

Beaver Dam State Park was the last of my planned sites to visit. It is 28 miles down a dirt road from US 93, eastward, almost to the Utah border. The park did not have much in the way of signage and I did not find many of the places that were listed on the map. An example of the type of problem: the map lists campgrounds “A” and “B” but the signs at the site itself only lists the campgrounds by names.

So, although I never did find any of the listed hikes, I did find one of the main sights I was hoping for on this trip: autumn foliage:

I got back from Beaver Dam State Park in the early afternoon. I had booked my motel room for two nights, but I realized I was only 2-1/2 or 3 hours from home. I called the kennel, and they could have Brindy bathed and ready for me by six, so I took off for Henderson.

Naturally, after all the hours on empty roads, I hit a major accident the minute I got into North Las Vegas. Turned the radio back on and rejoined civilization. Picked up the dog and was home before seven.

I had planned this trip to coincide with the “anniversary” of my little stroke last year which happened just before I was supposed to go on a long trip by myself. Although I had been on a cruise in June with a friend, I just felt the need to do something on my own and (with my doctor’s blessing) I am so glad I did it; I had a wonderful time and got a lot of confidence back. I want to explore more of Nevada soon: after all, I don’t want to let that annual state park pass go to waste!

Nevada Road Trip: Ely to Caliente (Day 6)

November 4, 2025tuplesandattributesLeave a comment

This drive was all on US 93, The Great Basin Highway. A part of the highway is a Nevada scenic byway as well. I covered 135 miles or so (plus some side trips) on another fairly empty road.

In city driving, I always have the radio on and mainly switch among five different channels on Sirius XM. For some reason, listening to music while driving in town seems necessary. However, the minute I left the outskirts of Las Vegas, I turned the radio off and did not turn it back on until I got back to Vegas the evening of my last day.

There was something about being out in those broad expanses and on those empty roads that just called for silence. I also found that I was much more attuned to the actual driving experience: the sound of the tires on the road, the feel of the steering wheel under my hands, etc. Driving was a joy again just for its own sake during the whole trip.

I drove through the town of Panoche as it has a couple of historical sites and buildings, but the town just didn’t appeal to me and I drove on.

My first stop, then, was Spring Valley State Park. Here is the sign that greeted me at the lake within the park:

If you’re like me, at first glance, you assume it is warning you about fire danger. Look more closely and you will see that it is a “Harmful Algal Bloom Advisory”. Here are the four zones:

Clear
Watch: Keep Pets Away from the Water!
Warning: Keep Pets Away from the Water!
Danger: Keep Pets Away from the Water!

What I find interesting is that while the sign explains that the algae and cyanobacteria can be harmful to humans, wildlife, and pets, the main emphasis is on protecting your pet: “HABS can be deadly to pets. Don’t let pets swim in or drink water that shows signs of HABS.” Nothing about when humans should stay out of the water!

The park is named for the large number of springs that irrigate lush pastures in a historical ranching area. Volcanic tuff and sediment make the hills a light-gray, pink, and white backdrop.

The next scenic spot of the day was Kershaw-Ryan State Park:

Situated in a colorful canyon, with towering walls up to 700 feet high and a long, verdant valley in between, Kershaw-Ryan State Park is an oasis in the desert, a sharp contrast to the rugged landscape that surrounds it. Natural springs grow a garden of wild grapevines, white oaks, fruit trees and willows, and a spring-fed pond provides a seasonal children’s wading pool. It is not unusual to see wild horses, deer and other wildlife come to the water. With plenty of places to picnic and a series of trails that wind throughout, the park is a great choice for hiking, camping and nature study. https://parks.nv.gov/parks/kershaw-ryan

If you ever find yourself in Caliente, I can highly recommend the Side Track Restaurant. I had a great turkey sandwich. When I asked about what the fries were like I was told to imagine if McDonald’s fries and Wendy’s fries had a baby; that would be their fries. And, yes, they were terrific!

Day 7 is more state parks around Caliente.

Nevada Road Trip: Excursions from Beatty (Day 2)

October 31, 2025November 1, 2025tuplesandattributesLeave a comment

I started the morning with a pancake from Mel’s Diner. The only other customers were five locals in their jeans and hats spending the morning solving the problems of the world.

Rhyolite is a ghost town just a few miles from Beatty (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyolite,_Nevada). The town began its life in 1905, and, by 1907, Rhyolite had electric lights, water mains, telephones, newspapers, a hospital, a school, an opera house, three railroads, and a stock exchange. Its peak population ranged between 3,500 and 5,000 in 1907–08.

The town died almost as quickly as it had arisen. By 1910 the boom was over, and businesses began to close. In 1916, the power company turned off the electricity and even removed the poles. There is very little left of the town as most of the buildings were moved elsewhere or the materials were repurposed.

As I was taking pictures of one of the buildings, I heard this buzzing noise: not like a snake, more like a hive of angry hornets. Just as I was beginning to worry, I realized that of the two other people who were there, one of them was flying a drone. I walked down to meet him and found that he and his wife were from Australia, on a four-week visit to the West Coast. They were on their way to Yosemite. I thought Rhyolite was a rather esoteric choice of stops, but apparently they were fascinated by ghost towns.

One building in town that is still fairly well preserved is Tom Kelly’s Bottle House:

Though the lights went out in 1914, they turned back on a decade later when Paramount Pictures used Rhyolite as a setting for the 1926 film The Air Mail. Some of Rhyolite’s remaining structures were restored for their film debut, including the Tom Kelly bottle house. This residence—built completely out of 50,000 medicine, whiskey, and beer bottles—demonstrates that glass in the American West was sometimes a cheaper construction material than wood or stone. The house still stands today and is the oldest and largest known bottle house in the United States. https://travelnevada.com/ghost-town/rhyolite-ghost-town/

Right next door to Rhyolite is the Goldwell Open Air Museum. This outdoor sculpture park “was created in 1984 by a group of well-known Belgian artists (led by the late Albert Szukalski) who were drawn to the remote upper portion of the vast Mojave Desert to pursue artistic vision free from convention. Each piece was designed within the context of the landscape and should be interpreted as such.” (https://travelnevada.com/museums/goldwell-open-air-museum/) Since then, more sculptures have been added.

The first sculpture was a ghostly life-size version of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper:

Later sculptures included a 25-foot woman constructed from pink cinder blocks and a 24-foot steel prospector and his penguin companion:

Beatty is famous for the number of wild burros that are in the area and that wander through town. I didn’t see any while in town (although they left plenty of evidence of their presence), but a few did show up as I was leaving Rhyolite: