Bonneville, Great Basin & Beyond

9 August


First a correction and an apology! Claire, our wild life expert has pointed out that the family of badgers mentioned in the last blog looked very much like raccoons. She is of course correct!!! As this only “Tech Check” day of speed week we decided not to go out to the “Salt”. We walked the length of the West

Wendover (Nevada) strip. There are 5 huge casino/hotels all side by side and a concert hall. Our luck, Willy Nelson is playing just after we leave. (could be good or bad luck depending on your musical taste). We ventured into a couple of the casinos which had huge gaming floors. We were keen to check out the restaurants for dinner tonight. Back at “Ernie” we made the most of a nice pool. In the cool of the evening we walked back to the Rainbow Casino

and had a great rib eye steak meal ($9.50). There was a band playing blues at the cabaret area. The lead singer had a voice a bit like Joe Cocker.

10 August

RACE DAY. We were on the road to Bonneville Salt Flats by 8:15am and soon joined the back of a queue of vehicles. Admission was $15 and we

were given a small map which made very little sense to us. We had tried to find information about the event earlier and came to the conclusion that it is very much a competitor driven event.

There are about 550 competitors who have 7 days to achieve their goal times. We drove for about 8 miles across the salt and eventually parked in a likely area. There are no designated parking areas. We discovered we were about 3 miles up the long course beside the pits

and tech check lanes. There were 4 courses. The long course is about 8 miles long with time checks after mile 1,2,3,4 and 5. All the fastest cars and bikes run on this course. As racing had not started yet we hopped on our bikes and rode thru the pits for a quick look. There are a huge range of vehicles ranging from dragster-like rails (with thin wheels), roadsters, classic cars, 50cc motorbikes, 2500cc

motorbikes with full streamlining. We found a place to sit and watch course 1. The cars are a long way in the distance. There is a radio station broadcasting the car ID’s and times thru each check. The third car thru was the real deal and achieved a thrilling 434 mph. For the rest of the day no one else came close to this time. It was a bit like the Tour De France. The event is all about the atmosphere. After lunch back at “Ernie” we rode thru the pits again for a more in depth look. It is very much a huge club event and we could go anywhere. Lots of fans have cars just to cruise around the pits and spectator areas. We talked to a guy with a Bert Munro type bike. He new Bert and even said Bert “hit” on his aunty. A small crowd reminisced on Bert’s achievements. Back to course 1 for some more passes. The times were getting slower as a cross wind had picked up. The noise of the huge engines going flat out is impressive. Competitors can line up for a run at any time that suits them.

Near 5:00pm few wanted to run so we came home, driving slowly across the salt so that it would not stick under “Ernie”. Everyone else just raced across the salt and the salt sticks around the wheels and mud guards. It sets like concrete! Back at our camp for a swim and a pizza - tired but happy.

11 August

We left Wendover and headed south down Hwy 93 to Ely. The first 30 miles was thru some desolate country but the valleys and mountains became beautiful as we neared Ely.

We had decided to take a 70 mile detour east on the I50 to the Great Basin National Park. The drive in was thru a vast valley and we were wondering if we had made the right decision. At the visitors centre we found out about the camping, the road up to Wheeler Peak and booked a tour thru the Lehman Caves for tomorrow. We drove up the road towards Wheeler Peak and chose a camp site. We are at 7500ft so it is nice and cool. I spent about an hour cleaning underneath Ernie to ensure there was no salt remaining.

12 August

Back down the road to the visitor’s centre for our 10:30am tour of the Lehman Caves. The tour was 1 hour and although we have been thru many limestone caves, this one was pretty special. It was very small and intimate with tight passages between the rooms. Back into the daylight and up the road to Wheeler Peak. There was a camp at the top but we had decided to go back to last night’s camp. The road was a gradual climb to 10500ft

where we parked and had lunch. We followed a trail for about 5 miles up towards Wheeler Peak (13,100ft) where there were some spectacular Bristlecone Pine trees. These are old gnarly trees which are 1000s of years old. They are the oldest living things in the world!! Some were over 3000 years old and still alive. These old trees with the back ground of the Wheeler Peaks were very special. Our return took us passed a couple of alpine lakes.

Back down the long descent to our camp site. In the evening we watched a meteor shower (shooting stars) which the rangers had told us would happen. The Great Basin NP was well worth the 140 odd mile detour.

13 August

We retraced our route to Ely and after fuelling up we set off on the I 50 which is the original route west. It is called the Loneliest Road in the USA. Between Ely and Lake Tahoe (350 odd miles) there are only 2 minor towns. We stopped for lunch in Eureka, an old mining town. We are camped at the Hickison Rec Area. The road has been great with beautiful mountains between huge flat valleys. We have covered about half the distance to the Lake Tahoe area.

14 August

Back on the I 50. If you can imagine a line of dinner plates, it’s a bit like the road. You climb up over the rim, descend into the centre and then slowly climb the rim and into the next dinner plate. These plates would be 30 miles in diameter. We found it really beautiful in a deserted kind of way. The country eventually changed into a farming area and we went thru a couple of small towns before turning off towards Carson City. We have camped at a deserted state park below a dam by a river. We are the only ones here and it’s a nice peaceful place.

15 August

We stopped at Carson City to shop before heading up to Lake Tahoe at 6250ft.

The lake is beautiful, set off by huge pine trees along the shore line. After a petrol stop (should have fuelled up at Carson City where it was 60c/gallon cheaper) we tried to find the state park we had chosen to stay in. We are now in California as the Nevada /California border goes down the middle of Lake Tahoe. As we could not find the state park (wrong GPS coordinates) we ended up in a small forest camp very near the lake shore and found a nice site. It was a short walk thru a park to the beach beside a boat launching ramp. The swimming was “refreshing.”

16 August

There is a great cycleway along the lake shore which we used to get to Tahoe City about 2 miles away.

At the visitors centre we found a helpful lady who gave us great information for Nicola’s family skiing trip at Christmas. She was also surprised that we had found a good cheap campsite. Back to “Ernie” and have decided to stay here 3 nights to explore this area and we have managed to book another camp for 2 nights further down the lake. We returned to our “local” beach for swimming and a read. There were many boats coming and going. In the evening we walked down to a beaver dam which has been flooding the camp road. We spied a baby beaver but did not see the adult. There is also a local female bear and her cub but we have not seen them.

17 August

We set off for a long ride down the lake on the cycle way. The holiday homes in this area are fantastic, some log and a lot of stone work.

The really flash ones are behind tall fences with ornate gates. The God Father movie was shot here. (Look in your beds for horses heads!) At a nice beach we stopped for a swim. The water seems a bit chillier! The cycleway ran out about 10 miles from our camp and we found an outdoor bar and grill for lunch. On our return trip we stopped again for another swim. Lake Tahoe is very crowded as this is the last week before most schools go back. Back at “Ernie” we realised that it was hazy and a thick smoke was everywhere. We walked down to the launching ramp and beach to check it out. We could not see the

other side of the lake for the smoke. We watched the loading of boats onto trailers which was made easy by a great ramp and wharf system. We were told the smoke was from a forest fire about 60 miles away. Another large forest fire is burning in the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho where were camped just over 2 weeks ago. We seem to be dodging the forest fires. Hope that keeps up!

18 August

We left our nice little camp and headed down the lake for about 15 miles where we are in a camp at Meeks Bay with power and water but no laundry much to Val’s disgust! There is still some smoke around from the fires but not as bad as yesterday. After lunch we went down to the beach which, unlike further north is sandy. We had a great swim in a crowded beach but it is Sunday. There is a big marina here with an entrance straight off the beach.

Idaho

29 July

With dodgy internet we managed to skype the kids and publish a blog last night. After an “all you can eat” pancake breakfast, $2.50US, at the camp (pancakes and peanut butter is well worth a try!) we headed west out of Idaho Falls and immediately into a barren wasteland. A bit of a surprise as the other side of the city was nice farming country. Part of this area is a research area for peaceful use of nuclear energy.

After about 75 miles we left this area and into farming again (lots of potatoes). We camped at a National Monument called Craters of the Moon. It is a volcanic lava area and we are camped in the middle of the lava flows. In the afternoon we biked the 7 mile loop road past the various formations with several stops to walk the various tracks etc.

There are some lava tubes which we explored. We had encountered lava tubes before in the Australian outback. These are formed when the top crust of the lava hardens, the lava below retreats and leaving long tubes. Several of these required some scrabbling and a torch.

30 July

We left the Crater of the Moon and drove up Sun Valley, thru some nice ski towns, and into the Sawtooth Mountains. We found a camp site on the side of Baker Creek (free) where we nosed down a narrow track to a great area. As the creek was handy we decided to wash “Ernie” with a few buckets of water. When filling the buckets I realised that I had nearly stood on a snake. There were several snakes swimming in the river. I suspect they were harmless. For the first time we lit a camp fire with some wood that had

been left behind. It was a great fire with no smoke!

31 July

We carried on up the valley and over a pass into the next valley where we stopped to confirm a booking at a camp in Wendover for Speed Week at Bonneville. We have been chasing this booking for some time as there are no other alternatives if we wanted to see Bonneville Salt Flats. We will have at least one day there watching the record breaking speed attempts. We are now in the Boise Forest at another free site overlooking the Payette River.

A very peaceful spot! The Boise and Sawtooth Forests are really beautiful! There are wildfires in this area and we have the odd helicopter flying supplies into the firemen.

1 August

We enjoyed this spot again and both had haircuts before heading down the valley and onto the Payette River Scenic Byway where we

found a camp at Hot Springs. In the afternoon we found the Hot Spring on the banks on the river. We spent about an hour in the pool and were joined, a couple of times, by people rafting down the river. We even dipped (briefly) into the freezing river to cool off before back into the hot pool.

2 August

We followed the Payette River and valley until we climbed a hill and dropped into Boise. This is the state capital of Idaho with a population of 200,000. Our RV Park is on the edge of a green belt which had a great 12 mile return cycleway into the centre of Boise. Along the cycleway we passed flash houses, a swimming lake and a weir with a standing wave where kayakers and surfies were surfing. What a great cycleway extending out to both sides of the city. I hope CHCH can get its act together and produce something as good. We parked our bikes and walked around CBD. Every state capital seems to have a capitol building which is a copy of the White House.

Before cycling home we had a wine at a sidewalk café. We managed to skype Ron and Linley as it is Ron’s 70th birthday celebration tonight. Their children and grandchildren are over from Aussie for it. Sorry we can not be there!

3 August

Put Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation area into our GPS. We drove thru the area for 18 miles and never found the visitors centre or any indication of anything in the area. Eventually we came to the Snake River Canyon and descended into it to a dam and some dry camping areas. This is the same Snake River we camped beside about 2 weeks ago.

The river is well named as it snakes from Yellowstone N.P. and over most of Idaho. The hydroelectric dam is one of the oldest in the USA. We have a nice camp site (free) on the top side of the dam. There a few power boats and jet skis racing past. In the afternoon we biked in each direction as far as we could. The only down side is that where are lots of small annoying flies. Our fly spray is useless. (note to self: don’t buy cheap fly spray!)

4 August

We had to follow a longish route to cross the Snake River and towards our next camp.

This is rural Idaho with many farms and a variety of crops. We camped at Bruneau Dunes State Park. The dunes are a bit ho-hum but one is the single highest dune in the US. We spent the afternoon in the shade as it is now hot again. In the cool of the evening we walked to the dunes which looked a bit better in the evening light.

5 August

Watched a family of badgers walk passed our camp at breakfast. There was a mother and 2 babies. A lot bigger than we had imagined. We topped up with petrol at the town of Bruneau ($4.40US!!!!) to get us thru to Elko the next major town about 150 miles away along a very isolated road. We stopped at Wild Horse Reservoir on the Owyhee River for the night in a state park.

Val was stung by what we think could have been a Hornet. Judging by the facial expressions, the language and the fuss, it must have hurt like hell. It was still painful when we went to bed. We are now in Nevada and back on Pacific Time.

6 August

Val’s sting seems to have settled down. We continued on to the major town of Elko where we intersected the I 80. While we were dumping at Wild Horse we spoke to a couple who said we should not miss the Ruby Mountains south of Elko. We had debated the night before whether to go there and had decided to carry on to the Wendover area. They changed our minds so we headed

south about 25 miles into the Ruby Mountains up the Lamoille Canyon. This was a good decision as the canyon and mountains are spectacular. We are camped at Thomas Canyon and have decided to stay here 2 nights and go straight to our booked RV Park at Wendover from here.

7 August

We had a lazy start to the day and at around 11:00am we set off for a 4 mile hike up the Thomas Canyon. The trail was uphill all the way affording great views of the canyons and the surrounding mountains. The main mountain in this area is over 13,000ft. The trail stopped at the end of the canyon with a small water fall. We were told to look out for names carved into the aspen trees by the Basque shepherds who had been brought out from Spain to herd sheep in the high meadows of the canyon. We found 2 names dating from 1880 and 1902. In the evening we visited a couple from Lake Tahoe, Carole and Sid whom we had met on the trail earlier in the day and they were keen to share information on the Lake Tahoe area and especially skiing which Nicola and Gary wanted us to explore the possibilities of. We had an enjoyable evening with Carole and Sid.

8 August

Back down the Lamoille Canyon and to Elko where we shopped. Onto the I 80 for a boring 110 mile drive to Wendover. It is quite a surprise to come over the hill and below in the foreground is the town with miles of pure white salt flats beyond. The town is right on the Nevada/Utah border and seems to be mostly huge casinos. We will explore it tomorrow. We warmed up for Bonneville Speed Week by watching “The Fastest Indian.” There are quite a few competitors here at the camp which has hiked its prices for the week!