Mile 7359

Let me first start with something I wanted to include in my blog since days, and have neglected till now.  I wanted to mention the state flower of Nevada, something I have seen over the last couple of days million times, and a flower which is not uncommon in this barren, dessert environment.  The more surprising that something most would consider a weed has made it to the ranks of a state flower.  And here it is, the Sagebrush, the State Flower of Nevada.

                

Now since I have that out of the way, I can go on my trip for today.  I leave Fillmore, UT and the Loneliest Road in America for awhile to head South on I-15 through the Cedar Breaks National Monument to Hurricane, UT.  Here I pick up UT-9 to Zion National Park.  What a difference 19 years make.  The West Entrance as we experienced it in 2003 has changed and is now a buzzing place with lodges and all big hotel chains present, and even more outdoor adventure and bike rental shops.  Parking spots are prime property and even though it is early in the day, it's Piccadilly circus already.  I enter the park and am once again impressed and amazed climbing up the winding road to the Zion - Mt. Carmel tunnel.  From there I continue to the Mt. Carmel Junction to pick up Hwy US-89 to Hatch, UT.  Along the way I enter the Dixie National Forrest and Scenic Byway 12, Utah's first All American Road.  From here I find UT-12 which bring me to UT-63 and the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park.  What can I say?  You have to see it, to believe it.  I stop at every turn out to have a look at those spectacular creations mother nature has formed over millions of years.  There are Fin Walls, Windows, and Hoodoos, one more impressive than the other.  Leaving Bryce Canyon I tarce my way back and pick up UT-12 again continuing East to Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.  As I have spent more time than anticipated in the previous two parks I call it the day in Escalante, UT before I will continue tomorrow in the land formed by wind and water over millions of years.

Here some impressions of the day, starting with Zion National Park:

Dixie National Forrest:

Bryce Canyon National Park:

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument:

"In all things of nature there is something marvelous."  -  Aristotle

Mile 7000

This morning I wake up to a chilly and unbelievable 38F.  This is not the best of conditions to ride over a couple of 6500+ ft and 7500 ft summits and I do literarily freeze my butt off as I have an electrical defect on my seat heating.  Handicapped as I am I leave Winnemucca, NV east on I-80 until I come to Battle Mountain, NV to pick up NV-305 to Austin, NV not Texas.  Here I join the "Loneliest Road in America", Hwy US-50.   For a starter I can not confirm that this is a lonely Hwy, as on NV-305 I only had one (1)! car passing me, and a handful coming toward me for a stretch of about 100 miles.  On Hwy-50 for the same distance there were more cars, trucks, or RV in either direction.  But perhaps lonely is because of the distance between towns, and the endless, unchanging landscape.  Changes are the many passes and summits I have to cross, the first being the Hickison Summit with 6564 ft before coming into Eureka, NV. This town hasn't changed a bit since my last visit eight years ago, if any, it is more empty than before.  

                                       Murals in Eureka, NV

                                                          Eureka, NV

From Eureka I continue over the Little Antelope Summit 7438 ft into Ely, NV.  From there I leave the Great Basin National Park to my right, climb some more summits in the 6500+ ft range, and start to fight heavy winds all my way into Delta, UT.  Along the way I pass Sevier Lake, which is an intermittent and endorheic lake which lies in the lowest part of the surrounding Sevier Dessert.  Like the Great Salt Lake and the Utah Lake, it is remnant of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville.  The wind is picking up at some places the potashes and creates a surrealistic picture, like ghosts floating over the lake.  In Fillmore, UT i call it the day, not challenging my luck any more to notch the rain.  So far I only got some sprinkles the whole day, not bad for the distance covered.  The next couple of days shall be sunny, and temperatures should be much more pleasant than this morning.

Impressions of the Great Basin, Monitor Range, Ruby Mountains, Shell Creek Range, and Sevier Dessert:

                  Sevier Lake, UT  (left curtesy of Wikipedia)

"Another glorious day, the air as delicious to the lungs as nectar to the tongue."  -  John Muir - Scottish-American Naturalist, Author, Environmentalist, and Philosopher

Mile 6511

This morning there is a change in plans.  It has been raining all night and there is another rain front moving in from the South, so that my plan to make it to Reno, NV or Carson City, NV are washed out.  Since there is a small, about two hour window of no rain around Klamath Falls, OR this morning I decide to take this chance and make my way South-East.  I pack my stuff, dry the bike (which works as a quick wash too) and make my way to Bly, OR on the OR-140 continuing to Lakeview, OR.  Even so dark clouds are threatening me, there is no single drop falling on me as I climb up to Bly Mountain at 5087 ft. I follow the Oregon Outback, yes you read right, not only Australia has an Outback, Oregon too.

                            Leaving Klamath Falls, OR

I stay at about this elevation, crossing some more passes like the Warner Pass, 5845 ft, then crossing into the Great Basin with the Black Rock Dessert to the South, and the Alford Valley to the North.  There are some more climbs to to, some leading to more than 6200 ft in altitude, but I don't care, as the dark clouds are left behind the Warner Range in Oregon, and sunshine is greeting e in Nevada.

                        Leaving the Warner Range and entering the Dessert

Going through the Great Basin one gets once more reminded that climate change is happening, as once big lakes are now barren land and bone dry, and rivers only a trickle of their once mighty flows.  I descend into Winnemucca, NV and are surprised by the haze the sky has turned.  Those are no wild fires blazing the earth, but sand and dust the wind has picked up from the dessert ground, making visibility only a few miles.  I pass the Winnemucca Sand Dunes and find my spot for the night.

                                        Once a Lake, now Dessert

                                            Winnemucca Sand Dunes

                        Visibility at 5 o'clock in Winnemucca, NV 

"If you took all the sand from all the beaches, all the desserts, and all the oceans and called that the Universe, our whole solar system would be less than one grain of sand."  -  Seth Shostak - American astronomer and author