Pastel colors rose over the eastern horizon as the sun came up. The town was quiet, and I could now see how the 10-lot RV park was designed, with the park facing the east. Every other lot had a water pump and a large 50-gallon trash barrel. Most had a shade tree. Charlotte was right, this was a free RV park but donations were always accepted. What a little treasure, and all of it was behind the town's big, white county court house. Pioche is Lincoln County's county seat, and the town's biggest industry now is government jobs.
I now had a sense of direction and headed back into the main area for breakfast at the Silver Cafe. This was a small place but the only place to eat in town. A table of locals was finishing their breakfast as I walked in and sat at the counter. The TV was on to the local Las Vegas news. There was yet another shooting at the Las Vegas Fashion Show Mall last night, with the shooter on the loose and the victim alive but with a neck injury.
I ordered biscuits and gravy and drank coffee. The coffee was very weak but the meal was very affordable. The Silver Cafe is owned by a couple. The wife sat at a corner table and the husband both made my meal and served me, but there was little conversation. They seemed busy so I let them be, but I did enjoy this small place, which has a gift shop attached to it. I would come back here. The hotel/saloon is across the street.
I contemplated my next move. I liked Pioche for some reason. This former mining town carved out of several hillsides once busy extracted gold, silver, and then lead and zinc, with a population of around 700 appealed to me. Kevin would enjoy this place as he'd sit and chat with the visitors while I walked around and took photos. I wanted to explore some more before leaving, get some walking in, before heading south to the Cathedral Gorge State Park outside of town.
There doesn't seem to be much industry in Pioche. The old silver mine's buildings remain, with the rusty buckets still hanging on the lifts. We visited the famed Boot Hill cemetery, with the popular "Murderer's Row" graves of fading wooden crosses. These graves had mostly unnamed victims. One person died over a dispute over a dog (!) while others were shot by jealous lovers or spouses or murdered over money. Everyone wanted a mining claim at that time, it seems, to get rich quick. These graves all had their own section, away from the "honorable" citizens buried within the fenced-in cemetery. Pioche was once known as a town more violent than Tombstone or Dodge City. Today the town was quiet and barely a spot on the map. That is what attracted me to this town, a living ghost town that kept its history alive without turning it into a kitschy tourist town. People were real here and not thrown into the 1880s.
Jimmy was right last night when he said that "All roads from Pioche lead to US93!" and I didn't have any trouble getting out of town and on my way south.
The Cathedral Gorge State Park was only ten miles south on US93. An overlook from the highway, Miller Point, offers drivers the first glance of the red, eroded, alkaline formations of the bentonite clay. The rock gazebo was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933. I took the one shaded area for the van and walked down to the gazebo, from where I discovered a mile-long trail that lead into the valley. I didn't plan on going into the park; I just wanted to see the red sand formations. The land here is of the "badlands" type, too alkaline to grow anything and easily eroded. Fremont, Anasazi and Southern Paiutes once lived here, and seeing no life forms here makes me wonder how harsh it had to have been without constant water.
The heat was starting to radiate from the rocks, and I know that in this kind of terrain, heat kills. I couldn't enjoy a hike in the state park if Sadie wasn't comfortable. The free half-mile trek was a good-enough taste for me. I did drive into the park but turned around at the fee station. The campground had trees, so perhaps this is were the ancient peoples lived. After last night's heavy rain, I am glad I didn't camp here overnight. It wouldn't take too much water to sweep civilization away in this canyon.
I stopped at a small gas station at the intersection of US93 and NV319 and headed east from here, 94 miles on high desert terrain leading into Cedar City, Utah. The land opened up into a high valley with farms sprinkled across the area, with the distant high mountains of southern Utah coming in clearer as I got closer. This is where people in eastern Nevada shop if they don't want to drive all the way to Las Vegas. The terrain didn't offer much as far as beauty goes. It looked old, overworked, and tired.
Cedar City itself didn't offer much for me, either. I stopped at a local burger joint and ordered a double cheese burger to go while I ate a vanilla soft-serve cone dipped in chocolate while waiting for my food. This was my first (and only) ice cream I had on my trip, and it was disappointing. The ice cream felt too grainy and the cream melted faster than I could eat it. The land of "Milk and Honey" was a let-down.
The town itself offered some Mormon history, with a Mormon pioneer museum on the north side, and several statues of male founders (it's always male in Mormon towns!) on street corners. The wide tree-lined main street resembled a Soviet-era parade route used to display fine military hardware. I'm sure there are fine businesses in this town, but something felt off-putting and I had only one solution to this: head up into the mountains where it was cooler, and were hopefully less people were. St. George was now scratched off my list and instead I aimed for Cedar Breaks, along UT14 higher in elevation. This was a good mood. The higher in elevation we were, the cooler it was and the better both Sadie and I felt.
The entire mountain range of southern Utah is beautiful. Several worthwhile national parks are here: Bryce, Zion and Grand Staircase-Escalante. I have been to Bryce and Zion years ago and Grand Staircase is still on my bucket list. In between all these parks are national forest trails. Traffic uphill was congested, hampered by several recent landslides and repair work on the road.
Cedar Breaks is a small national monument that I hadn't heard of before seeing signs for it. There is no admission fee. The big attraction here is the vast canyon and cliff walls facing the west.
MORE TO COME
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