23 June 2019 - Traveling the Loneliest highway in America

My bucket list is huge, and gets more items listed all the time. I've got so many places I want to go and not enough time. Decided it was way past time to get started. One of the things on the list was to drive across Nevada on Highway 50 aka the Loneliest Highway in America. 

Fun fact: Nevada has put out a Highway 50 Passport. You can get your passport stamped in all the towns on HWY 50. 
If you get five or more stamps, you send the back page in and in return you get a I Survived Highway 50 Certificate signed by the governor. Serious fun. In addition to getting stamps marking the route, there are pages that give a few highlights of each city. 

This has been on my mind for years, but usually when I have some time it is the wrong time of year and Nevada is too darned hot. But this past Thursday, a cold front came through and both Utah and Nevada got downright chilly, with a forecast of three days of cool weather, up to 20 degrees below normal. 

That pushed me over the edge. I went into full gotta-go mode. Friday morning I was up at 5:20 and on the road by 6:30.  Mostly this was a sightseeing trip, but you can't go sightseeing without a little birding to go along with it. 


It was a three and a half hour trip from Salt Lake to the border of Nevada. At the border I changed time zones and gained an hour. So here I am at the start of the trip. To my right is the Welcome to Nevada sign, and to the left is Welcome to Utah. 


Nevada has been in the same cold rainy spring pattern as Utah. Even so, I was constantly amazed by how green everything was. Landscapes were absolutely gorgeous. Talk about a desert blooming. Wow. 

 

One of the first things I noticed were many caution signs for elk. We have lots of deer signs in Utah, but I haven't seen any for elk.  About an hour into Nevada I passed an arch of antlers. At each end of the arch were antler chandeliers. They were wired and fitted with light bulbs. On my trip home it was all lit up. Looked very cool in the dark. Closer inspection revealed that this arch led to a deer and elk processing company as well as a gift shop with wildlife paintings and trinkets made out of antlers. And yes, you could buy custom antler chandeliers for your home or business. No, I did not go in. 

One of my first stops was a side trip up nine miles of dirt/gravel roads to see the Ward Charcoal Ovens. I loved the layers of mountains in the distance. 

These ovens were huge! I have seen many remnants of pioneer charcoal ovens around Utah, but nothing this large, as many, or as intact. 

Each oven is 27' in diameter and 30' high. One load would be 35 cords of wood, which would be burned for 12 days. That would produce 50 bushels of charcoal per cord of wood. The charcoal was used to smelt the lead and silver ore. 30 to 50 bushels of charcoal were needed to reduce one ton of ore.  

According to some of the signage, every tree in  a 35 mile radius was cut down around the mining camps. This stopped after the railroads made their way into Nevada bringing in coke made from coal.  It does make you wonder what the landscape was like when there were trees. 

Inside the ovens, the acoustics were incredible. I wished I had an instrument with me to play while inside. (Note to self, add a kazoo to the travel kit.) I noticed that walking around the outside edges, my footsteps were crunchy,  but the closer I got to the center the louder they got. I talked, shouted, sang and stomped. It was fun hearing all the reverberations. 

Speaking of reverberations, another fabulous moment was a stop at the singing sand dunes. 

If you can get enough sand moving down from the top (all those little dark specks near the bottom are ATVs making it happen) the sliding sand produces a hum, almost like a cello playing a low G. It is the kind of sound you hear inside your body, like when you hear a grouse drumming. Incredible. 

At one point I  had a text from my brother asking where I was. Aha! I stopped and took photos of in front, behind and each side of me. Open space as far as you can see. Sent him the photos and said "Guess!" 

It definitely was the Loneliest Highway.  Over 600 miles one way, and I bet if I saw 75 cars, that was a lot. 

I guess most of you have figured out I am easily amused. One of the amusements on this trip was the open range sign. In Utah, the cows on the signs are quite stolid. See sign on left. In Nevada, the cows look mischievous, ready to party in the road. 

Coming from a family that is steam locomotive crazy, you can bet I stopped in Ely to visit the Nevada Northern Railroad. Here I am standing in the shop where they repair the locomotives. The building you can see through the door is the RIP building: Restoration in Progress. 

Huge machine shop with the biggest lathes I have ever seen!

Getting the engine connected to the cars for the next excursion. 

This trip gave me a chance for some self-indulgence. I love old neon--especially for motels, diners and theaters. Remnants of vintage painted signage on buildings make me hit the brakes. Painted murals on buildings usually get me to stop as well. Downtown Ely has many murals on the buildings, and offers walking tour maps to help you find them. I didn't do the whole tour, but just checked out what was on Route 50. 

Here's a particularly nice ghost sign. 

A few of my favorite murals:

Illustrated guide to entire smelting process.  

Another old advertising sign. Love the tag line. I'd buy shoes that made my feet feel glad!

In the very small town of Austin, the bar had this sign in the window that cracked me up.  After venturing inside to get my passport stamped, it was even funnier because the proprietress looks like an old hippie. 

I enjoy seeing how towns present themselves to the public via their Welcome to signs. Eureka's was particularly perplexing. I know that barbed wire is a very Western image, but putting barbed wire right next to Friendliest Town was an interesting  choice. 

Here is the largest wild horse herd I saw. 

Those are some of the highlights during a most delightful trip!