Day 16: Burley, ID to Ely, NV

Sadie and I shared a breakfast at McD's before driving off toward the City of Rocks. Burley was still waking up and my goal today was to get some peak bagging in. We had done river trails, waterfall trails, ocean trails and foothills trails. Now I was craving a challenging mountain peak. I aimed for Cache Peak, a 10,339 feet (3,151 m) peak in the Albion mountains and also the tallest peak in that range. Getting to the trail head proved more cumbersome than expected, though.

This was a beautiful morning drive, past dairy farms and irrigated crop fields glistening silver green or gold in the rising sun. The aroma of cow urine dominated the senses. Cows near the road looked up at me while still chewing their grass, not showing any concern for invasion of privacy.

I drove south on ID27, a two-laner busy with truck traffic. This was the only way to get to the City of Rocks, a 14,407-acre Reserve located in the far southern tip of the mountain range, and only a few miles from the Utah state line. The pavement ended and the last 20 some miles were on graded dirt roads.

Crags, pinnacles, fins and spiral rocks quickly came to the foreground, ancient granite formations right off the road. This, I'm sure, is a rock climber's paradise. At first these rocks were small formations, and then I realized I was surrounded by them. The City of Rocks was once a through-way for the pioneer trails to California and Oregon.

I pulled over at one parking area with a water pump. Bath Rock, a huge rectangular bouler, was across the road. I didn't hesitate to stop and clean up, getting ready for the day no matter where I'd end up. A young father and his young daughter came by in their SUV to refill their water bags.

"Who won the World Cup Match yesterday?" asked the father, as he saw my Bundesliga shirt. My shirt was by now over a day old and looked disheveled and stained.

"Germany!" I replied back, and we exchanged a short synopsis of the game. It turns out the man's father is from Germany so he, too, is a fan of that country's team. He now lives in California's high Sierras, at an elevation of 8000 feet, so coming down to the lower elevation makes it easier to get around. He and his young daughter are rock climbers.

The rocks around me were tempting. Trails meandered off the main road in either direction. The trails also looked like perfect snake habitat, though. I marked this off as yet another place to stop in in any future trips up this way. The campsites were large and offered privacy. One site is $12.72 a night.

I drove on now in a northerly direction, circling the mountain range on the eastern side. I was now on the Elba-Almo Road, looking for a sign showing a turn-off for Cache Peak. I never found the road, but I could see the prominent peak in the distance. I was back in high-elevation agricultural terrain, with ranches and fields dotted with cows. I had driven over 100 miles and was driving around the mountain range!

This was senseless driving. I should have studied the maps better, rather than aimlessly driving around, wasting daylight and going nowhere. I drove north on ID77 until I saw the Pomerelle Mountain Resort. I had no real idea what that was all about; I just knew that it was located higher up in elevation where temperatures were cooler. I was hoping for a high-elevation hike with Sadie, since by now I'd given up on finding Cache Peak.

The drive up the paved road was scenic. There were still patches of snow on some of the northern slopes. Several peaks, like Mount Harrison, had testing facilities there. The peaks were treeless and rocky, and the mountain winds were chilling the air.

We stopped at the Mount Harrison interpretive area, where a lone but impressive look-out tower stood, with views all around. The fields looked dry from this vantage point, with the few crop circles further north adding a distant contrast. Several informational signs were posted, all which I read while Sadie sniffed around. I could see a small forest fire in the southwest (was that in far northern Utah?) and Cache Peak was clearly to my south. It turns out that the trail head to Cache Peak is a rough forest road requiring high clearance, so missing it was perhaps the best for me in the van.

Sadie was interested in getting to the patches of icy snow, but I discouraged her as the snow was on a steep slope over loose rock. This area was also home to the endangered Christ's Indian Paintbrush, a yellow version of what grows rather rampantly elsewhere in the West. This flower allegedly grows on a mere 250 acres right hear around Harrison Peak, along with other common sub-alpine flowers.

Another sign described a 1945 plane crash, in which nine Army Air Force personnel died. The crash site is still in the mountain range, buried in a shallow lake. In drought conditions the lake evaporates, revealing the debris, but today I saw nothing out of the ordinary. I was at 9265 feet in elevation, enjoying the cool temperatures. Below us was Cleveland Lake, glistening in the sunlight. I would check out that lake on the way down.

I wasn't ready to leave the cool air behind. A communication site on another nearby peak, the Mount Harrison Communication Site, tempted me to turn my van around and park at that trail head. I opted to walk to that site, check out the views, and mark that off as our morning hike. This was a rugged 4WD road my van couldn't handle, so we parked off the pavement near the interpretive signs. There were no "NO trespassing" signs, so off we went on this exposed trail.

There were more snow drifts here, easier for Sadie to get to. I let her take whatever time she needed to refresh herself. I was enjoying this exploratory hike, and was surprised at how few people drove up to the nearby look-out tower. I noted only two vehicles that had gone up to it after we had left. More interesting is that a trail jutted out from the 4WD trail, heading in a northwesterly direction.

The rocky, nameless 4WD road to the communication towers was a short and straight path. I could see the structures from the look-out area and estimated the hike to be no more than a mile round trip. Christ Indian Paintbrush abounded here, along with other flowers. The lower peak was at 9033 feet and afforded nice views of the northern slopes. Sadie was more interested in resting in the shade than gazing at the vista. The buildings appeared not in use.