Day 17: Ely, NV to Pioche, NV

Winds had calmed down by early morning. When I got up, there were no overturned vehicles on the road, or debris in the parking lot. There were, however, a lot of cars and trucks in the rest area. The sedan next to me had a young couple sleeping in the front seats. I couldn't help but think "Get a van!" After Sadie and I had our morning pee, I drove on. Ely was just 30 miles to the south, and I wanted breakfast before driving to the Great Basin National Park.

I liked Ely, although I'm glad a local weather report gave me the proper pronunciation. It's "Eeelee" and not "Eee-lie" like I would have said the name, and gotten chastised by any locals. The town is a well-known stop-over town as it's on US50 and US93, and there isn't much outside the town in any direction. "The Loneliest Highway" applies to both roads.

The loneliness here is quite beautiful, though. Outside of the kitshy tourist shops and fast-food places, Nevada, I've realized, has its own beauty. Much of that beauty is remote and requires perseverance to get to. There are little-known and small mountain ranges all over Nevada, and the eastern half of the state, which averages 3000' higher in elevation than the western half, has many peaks over 11,000 feet. Getting to the trail heads alone would be an adventure.

After another dull breakfast at the local McD's, I set off for the Great Basin in the far eastern part of Nevada. This park is closer to Utah than it is to any place in Nevada. Wheeler Peak at an elevation of 13,065 feet (3,982 m) is the park's main attraction, and there were quite a few people at the trail head getting started for the hike. This would be a peak I'd love to bag, but Sadie would not be allowed on the trail. The NO DOGS ALLOWED is one of my main pet peeves about our national parks, since the NPS does allow ATVs and non-native horses to destroy trails.

The drive was quite pretty. I could feel the elevation rise the further I went east. A massive wind farm filled the valley just outside the mountain range of the Carson National Forest. A few forest signs pointed to some peaks off the highway, but some, I realized, were miles on dirt roads and who only knew the true accessibility of some of the smaller trails?

There is no admission for the Great Basin National Park. It's not a big park with a lot of trails, but it's a popular place for campers who want to read up on the natural history of this place. The Great Basin is a huge depression that covers most of Nevada, western Utah and parts of southern Idaho, where no true rivers flow. Thus the "Basin." All water here is rain run-off that quickly dissipates.

I stopped at the Visitor's Center as soon as it opened at 8am, read up on the geology, and drove up the main road to the road's end, a camp site surrounded by pines, bristle cones and other high-elevation flora. There were quite a few hikers getting ready to hike up Mount Wheeler, a 13,000+' peak in the park and the prominent summit around.

The camp site was full and there were people at all the overlooks; quite a busy place for such a small park. I couldn't find a service road to take Sadie on for a short walk, so my stay here was brief. We got off the mountain, exited the park, and for a fleeting moment considered driving to Mount Mariah peak, a 10,000-foot peak north of the park. The deciding factor to abort that mission was the 25-mile drive on a forest road just to reach the turn-off to the trail head. Getting to Mariah would be an hour alone.

I opted to cancel that thought and instead visit Cave Lake State Park, which had an attractive write-up in my gazetteer for natural caves in the area. That sounded like something I could do with Sadie, and having water nearby would be perfect!

Entrance to the state park was off a county road, NV486. I missed the actual parking lot to one trail and drove up the dirt road higher up the mountain. Where was I going? Dispersed campsites on either side of the road were listed as "NO TRESPASSING without permission of" and then listed a realty company. Is this typical for the national forest within Nevada? Taxpayers pay for national forest maintenance, why is dispersed camping now extra? Cows grazed on either side of the road. I turned around at the Camp Success sign and returned to the state park entrance, which I quickly saw to the left with a large parking lot. How did I miss that?

I had wasted so much time today just driving to and from trail heads, and I was anxious for some hiking. I parked at the Cave Springs Trail and headed uphill. We crossed the springs at the start, but the rest of the trail was uphill through dry pine and was nothing like the splendid trail I read about in my gazetteer. I was on the wrong trail, as I could see the green lake in the distance. Sadie was overheating and told me with her body language that we needed to get off the trail and down to water and shade. I listed to her, as now clouds were billowing above us and we could hear lightning. Storm clouds develop fast over the desert and can not be taking lightly.

I turned off the Cave Springs trail on what looked like a maintenance road which led downhill back to the parking lot. But once on this road, I discovered the lake and a prominent cave which I had to check out. If it were to storm, at least here we'd have temporary shelter. Sadie enjoyed the cool air here. I used this as a pleasant rest area away from any car traffic. Sadie livened up again in the cave, which was more of a deep crevice than a cave.

The sky was now getting stormy-looking. It rumbled but never rained. We had to move on, so Sadie and I left the cave and walked down the maintenance road. And there was the lake trail I had wanted to hike in the first place! This lake was off a side trail, so no wonder I didn't see it on my initial drive through the area. Despite the ominous cloud cover, I wanted to walk around this scenic lake. Two young boys were diving off a nearby pier and laughing. Sadie led the way.

I should have learned a while ago not to let Sadie lead a hike! While she does stay on the trail, she can not differentiate between an official trail and a game trail. She had me off the trail shortly after we started, and I found myself off a steep cliff side with no way but down into the water. That was easy for Sadie to negotiate, but not for me! Views were beautiful nonetheless.

Sadie was clearly off leash here, and I was well aware of the Leashed Dogs only sign at the start of the loop hike. I wasn't too comfortable having people see us hike so close to the steep lake shore with a ranger nearby. In the end I didn't get fined and we were able to drive off to our next destination: dinner in Ely and on to Pioche, the next decent-sized town on US93.