Nevada Back Roads. Where, when, and how to discover the best photography in America. Updated - December Published since 1989

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1 Updated - December Where, when, and how to discover the best photography in America Published since 1989 Nevada Back Roads H ave you ever thought about driving out into the desert and taking an unmarked, unpaved side road across a sage-covered mesa? Or following a rutted dirt track up into the mountains to the end of the road and then packing up your camera equipment, a full canteen and a compass and map and setting out on a hike in search for something really different to photograph? Does that sound like something you might enjoy doing? Are you ready for an exploration of some wide-open spaces? This newsletter follows a back-roads route along some of the more remote and most interesting byways in the state of Nevada. From Grapevine Canyon down on the southern tip of the state to the Black Rock Desert in the north, I explored and photographed old ghost towns, fascinating geological wonderlands, ancient petroglyph sites, and remote wildlife refuges. Read on and discover great photography along Nevada s back roads. Here are the details.

2 issue 58 - page 2 Wide-Open Spaces It s time to head for the wide-open spaces. I ve been enjoying the past several weeks photographing my way along remote back roads across the State of Nevada. Not just any back roads but routes to locations on a list I ve been accumulating for several years. These are places recommended by local photographers and other off-road travelers plus spots I ve found in guidebooks. I enjoy exploring the desert roads represented as thin dotted lines on my maps. Most of the locations mentioned in this newsletter are for those of you who are searching for unusual landscapes. Plan your explorations for the spring, when cool weather makes desert travel easy and the sweet scent of sage blows across the state. The next time you re traveling across Nevada, drive Highway 50, called the Loneliest Road in America. There are many places out there where you can see for fifty miles in every direction. A distant peak, topping over ten-thousand feet, may appear to be only a tiny bump far off on the horizon. Allow a week to travel down the eastern edge of the state, following Highway 93 from Jackpot, Nevada, on the Idaho border to Boulder City on the Arizona border. Discover miles of wide-open spaces surrounded by ghost towns, bristlecone forests, ancient Indian ruins, wetlands filled with wildlife refuges, incredible geological formations. You can still see the trail across the desert left by the Pony Express riders. Nevada has many ghost towns to explore where you can photograph the relics and ruins left by miners when the rich veins of gold and silver ran out. You can photograph thousands of nesting white pelicans, desert bighorn, and cactus blossoms in the spring. Aspen groves painted in bright yellow cover Great Basin National Park s Mount Wheeler and the slopes above Lamoille Canyon in the Ruby Mountains. Photograph the most fantastic geological formations in Red Rock Canyon and the Valley of Fire and Cathedral Gorge State Parks. Extend your Death Valley trip or your photo explorations of Zion and Bryce Canyons with another week or more driving the back roads across Nevada. Pack some extra food and water. Throw a sleeping bag into your trunk. Check the condition of your spare tire and always make sure to fill your gas tank before heading out on any 4x4 exploration. There are many places to park an RV or camper along the back roads. Many times I ve pulled off Highway 50 onto a narrow dirt track across the desert and drove until I found a perfect campsite. Sometimes in a wooded canyon or on top of a rise where I could watch the sun setting over a dry lake bed or across a sage-covered plain. If you love landscape photography and if you are a fan of panoramic cameras, you must experience the wide-open spaces across central Nevada.

3 issue 58 - page 3 a few of my favorite Nevada Photo locations The Black Rock Desert is the largest dry lake in North America. The old ghost town of of Tuscarora sits on the western edge of of the Independence Valley. The Ohyhee Desert is one of the largest wide-open spaces in Nevada. Elko Elko is the largest city in northeastern northern Nevada. Nevada. Lodging, restaurants, and and regularly-scheduled air service air service is available. is available. Lamoille Canyon is best visited in the autumn. It s Itʼs called the Alps of Nevada. Pyramid Lake is located about 35 miles northeast of Reno. A great place to photograph white pelicans and tufa towers. You ll Youʼll find strange tufa hummocks on the northwest shore of dry Winnemucca Lake. Late spring is is a great time to photograph migratory birds on the Ruby Lake Wildlife Refuge. The aspen groves around Lake Lake Tahoe Tahoe usually usually reach reach the peak the peak of autumn of autumn color color in late in late September. Drive Drive Highway Highway 50 over 50 Spooner over Spooner Summit Summit or drive or drive to to Tahoe via via the the Mt. Rose Highway Highway south south of Reno of Reno to find to find the the best best aspen aspen groves. groves. Reno Highway 50, called "The The Loneliest Road Highway in in America, America," is is a a much more scenic alternative to crossing Nevada on Interstate 80. Check out my Issue issue #48 for details on Great Basin National Park. Plan your visit for the last week of September and photograph the autumn color. Rainbow Canyon is a heavilywooded water course and the home of early native Americans. The many petroglyphs and pictographs are fascinating. The old ghost town of Rhyolite Ryholite lies on the east side side of Death of Death Valley Valley on the on Nevada the Nevada side of side the of the state boundary. Red Rock Canyon is only a short short drive drive from from downtown downtown Las Las Vegas. Vegas. The The red formations red formations are are especially great at sunrise. Las Vegas Cathedral Gorge is located about 2 hours northwest of of Utahʼs Utah s Zion National Park. Caliente, Nevada, is the northern entrance to Rainbow Canyon. Check out issues my issue #45 #45 and #129 for details for details about about the Valley of Valley Fire State of Fire Park. State It s Park. a great Itʼs a side great trip side for trip any for visitor any to visitor Las Vegas. to Las Vegas. Grapevine Canyon has one of of the the largest largest collections of of an- ancient petroglyphs in in Nevada. Nevada. Leave the paved roads and head out across the sage-covered deserts of Nevada to find some of the best locations for sunrises and sunsets.

4 issue 58 - page 4 Grapevine Canyon One of the largest displays of petroglyphs in southern Nevada is located at the mouth of Grapevine Canyon, five miles west of Laughlin, Nevada. This location is near the point where Arizona, California, and Nevada meet. This spot is a ninety-minute drive south of Las Vegas. Head west out of Laughlin on Highway 163 and watch for the sign at the turnoff heading north to the Christmas Tree Pass. A sign at the junction points out that Grapevine Canyon is two miles up the mountain. The road is unpaved and had a very rough washboard surface the day I drove it. You won t need a 4x4 to drive as far as Grapevine Canyon. Two miles from the pavement, a short side road leads west to a large parking area. The trail starts at the west end of the lot. There are no trail markers or signs. The obvious trail is well worn and easy to follow. It s a five-minute walk to the mouth of the canyon and the spot where hundreds of petroglyphs cover the dark rocks on both sides of the wide, dry wash. To photograph the many petroglyphs, you will need several lenses. A 28-80mm zoom and a mm zoom should allow you to frame the whole scene as well as the small details located high above the trail. Most of the petroglyphs are geometric patterns, with a few human figures and some big horn sheep scattered throughout. Some of the rock art is at ground level. Other panels are high up on the slopes and require a long telephoto lens. A 300mm lens was perfect for framing most of the higher petroglyphs. Most of the panels face the east, and morning light is probably the best illumination for these petroglyphs. In the late afternoon, all the panels are in shade and there are fewer contrast problems with slick rock reflections and dark shadows beneath the stones. After photographing the petroglyphs, walk up the canyon following the most obvious trail in the middle of the dry wash. There are no direction signs. When you reach the first narrow spot where a small waterfall drops during the short winter showers, you may have trouble finding a route up the canyon. The easiest trail leads up over the jumble of rocks on the right (north) side of the canyon. It passes over the top just to the right of a tall pile of large stones that looked like a giant marker. You can see this marker from the mouth of the canyon. If you can reach this point, just above the first narrow spot in the canyon, you ll have no problems hiking all the way to the far end of Grapevine Canyon. The farther up the canyon you walk, the more varieties of cactus you will find. There are very large barrel cactus, several types of cholla, prickly pear, and beavertail. A few of the claret cup cactus were beginning to bloom in early May. The six-foot-tall blooms above several large yuccas were only a few days away from opening. Grapevine Canyon is aptly named. Long sections of the canyon bottom are choked with wild grapevines. There are dense groves of tall reeds, willows, and alders thriving in the boggy spots. In some places, the trail leads through a jungle of foliage and in other places it climbs out of impenetrable sections of the canyon bottom and cuts across slick rock or winds through jumbles of boulders. Stay in the bottom of the sandy wash and keep heading west. Allow two hours to walk to the far western end of Grapevine Canyon. At the end of your hike, you will be rewarded by a cactus and sage-covered landscape in the middle of a wide basin surrounded by piles of sculptured boulders stacked to the tops of the canyon walls hundreds of feet above. The trail across the basin becomes less obvious where most hikers walk up the middle of the dry, sandy wash. After a half-hour of photographing afternoon clouds floating over the canyon walls, I packed up and continued up the canyon. Rounding a bend in the wash, I reached a narrow gap in the canyon blocked with very large boulders. That was a good place to turn around. It was getting dark when I returned to my car.

5 issue 58 - page 5 Rainbow Canyon Rainbow Canyon is a deep desert canyon with high walls and a stream that flows south into Lake Mead. The canyon is filled with cottonwood trees that turn a wonderful shade of bright yellow in late October. When you are looking for unusual desert landscapes painted with autumn color, travel north of Las Vegas a hundred-and-fifty miles to the town of Caliente, Nevada. There are lots of petroglyphs in Rainbow Canyon. There are no bridges along the paved road through Rainbow Canyon. When the road crosses the stream bed of the Meadow Valley Wash, it dips down and through the wash. During high water, you ll be fording the stream many times. The Union Pacific railroad tracks, which also wind through Rainbow Canyon, follow a higher ground. Twenty-four railroad bridges cross the Meadow Valley Wash and the road. Ten tunnels were cut through canyon walls to keep the rail bed above flash floods that washed away the first rails laid in This railroad was the first to connect Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. Drive through the town of Caliente, Nevada, along Highway 93. At the west end of town, watch for the sign pointing out the side road heading south. The road leads about three miles south to Kershaw-Ryan State Park, a beautiful spot for a picnic. My favorite part of Rainbow Canyon stretches twenty miles farther south. Reset your trip odometer when you leave Highway 93 and turn south on State Route 317. The side road is directly across from the large Mormon Church in Caliente. Watch your odometer as you head south. Stop at the low railroad bridge along the road at mile 5.0. Pack up a wide-angle lens and a longer zoom lens in the mm range. You ll be walking a half-mile. Walk under the railroad bridge. It s only four feet high, so watch your head. On the other side, bear left and follow the bottom of the dry wash for four-hundred feet. When you reach the canyon wall, you ll see the opening of a tunnel. The sandy-bottom tunnel is 150 feet long and ten feet high. Wait until your eyes become used to the dark before starting through. At the far end, continue walking up the wash for another 400 feet. Watch the bottom of the canyon wall on your left for a row of bright red pictographs. As you are facing this wall, turn and look over your right shoulder. There is a large cave opening several hundred feet above the dry wash. Hundreds of artifacts were found in this cave, called the Etna Cave, in the late 1930s. They revealed a 5000-year sequence of occupancy by various prehistoric people. At mile 14.7 is the left turn into Grapevine Canyon. Watch for this turnoff just after crossing under a railroad trestle. A dirt road continues southward down the canyon along one of the old railroad beds. At just over a half-mile, it turns left and climbs into Grapevine Canyon. You can probably drive this narrow dirt track all the way up the side canyon in two-wheel-drive but you ll need four-wheel-drive if the road is wet. The road ends in a shady grove of oaks above a dry wash or a flowing stream, depending on the season. Park at the turnaround under the trees, gather up your camera gear, and walk a hundred feet back down the same road. There is a well-worn path leading fifty-feet up the slope to a wall beneath a large overhanging rock. To find one of the best petroglyph panels of desert bighorn sheep, head back down the dirt track out of Grapevine Canyon. Back on the pavement, continue south to mile 17.5 where a side road leads to the right, almost directly under the railroad bridge. Drive up the dirt track a hundred feet and park at the wide spot. Stop here and walk several hundred feet northward, following the trail beside the railroad tracks. Just before reaching the entrance to one of the railroad tunnels, you will see the remains of an old sod-roofed structure built of railroad ties. Climb up six feet onto the small rise on the south side of this ruin and look up the hill toward the southwest. Fifty feet above the trail is a large dark-colored rock covered with incised bighorn sheep. You can frame the rock with a 300mm lens. Use a polarizing filter to eliminate the glare on the rock and increase the contrast, bringing out the strong designs of the petroglyphs. Twenty miles down the canyon, just beyond the End of the Rainbow Ranch, the pavement ends. Several unpaved roads continue south, about 150 miles to Las Vegas. The sky was dark and a storm was moving in, so I headed back up Rainbow Canyon and spent the night in Caliente, Nevada.

6 issue 58 - page 6 Cathedral Gorge Two-hours northwest of Zion National Park are some of Nevada s most fascinating geological formations. Drive west from Cedar City, Utah, on Highway 56 to Nevada s Highway 93. Turn right at Panaca, Nevada, and drive another two miles northwest to the side road leading into the Cathedral Gorge State Park. In this remote park, you ll find some of the most fantastic examples of erosion in the Southwest. The canyon walls surrounding this gorge are soft, bentonite clay that settled to the bottom of an ancient lake bed a million years ago. This sediment formed a layer that was 1400 feet thick. Surrounding mountain ranges have since risen and faulted causing the lake to drain down Rainbow Canyon to the south and into the Colorado River. Weather patterns have changed greatly in the past million years. Today the southwest has much less rain than it once did. Infrequent cloudbursts send flash floods scouring down Meadow Valley Wash eroding the soft silt and clay of Cathedral Gorge into a wonderland of columns and spires. Today, all the silt washed down Cathedral Gorge flows into Lake Mead. The gorge was used as a garbage dump by local ranchers back in the 1860s. It began to be appreciated by newcomers who were reminded of European cathedrals and named it Cathedral Gorge in the 1890s. Ladders were built to allow visitors to climb through the maze of spires. During the 1920s, the area was used as a picnic grounds and as a backdrop for Shakespearean plays. The gorge became a state park in The canyon is open at the southern end where the road enters. The canyon walls run mainly north and south along both sides of the gorge. The canyon bottom is flat and easy to hike. It s easy to move around the formations and set your tripod in the best position for strong cross-lighting. Arrive in the morning and the best light will be reaching the tall and short formations on the western walls. Arrive in the afternoon and the eastern walls will glow with the low rays of the sun. Early morning and late afternoon light will greatly warm up the colors of the gorge. The spires are actually a fairly neutral gray on the buff-colored side. The Visitor Center is just off Highway 93 where you can stop for a free trail map and ask any questions. This is a good place to get information about the other photo possibilities in eastern Nevada. Check out the nearby Beaver Dam State Park, the Ward Charcoal Ovens, and the Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge. The road into the gorge is paved most of the way to the trailheads. You won t need a 4x4 here. Soon after passing the only fork in the road (a left turn takes you into the campgrounds), you will see patterns of eroded canyon walls on the right side of the road. You can easily fill most of a day in this park and never walk more than a few hundred feet from your car. Stop and park where the pavement ends. Signs mark the location of several caves along the right side of the road at that point. These are very narrow slot canyons that lead back into the face of the cliffs. Some are covered with slabs of stone and layers of sandstone creating natural bridges and giving the impression of caves. Several of these caves extend more than a hundred feet into the canyon walls with branching side canyons.

7 issue 58 - page 7 About a mile farther north, at the end of the unpaved stretch of road, there is a covered picnic area, several barbecue pits, and some restrooms. There are also some impressive, free-standing formations on the edge of this parking area. At the north end of this parking area, the Juniper Draw Trail, a four-mile loop, begins. Mostly level, this trail makes a large loop around the perimeter of the gorge, along the base of the formations. This trail can be muddy after a rain. You may not feel like walking all the way around the loop, but you shouldn t miss the first formation of spires, about a half-mile up the gorge. A short distance north of the parking lot, there s a fork in the trail where a half-mile side trail to the right leads up to the top of Miller Point. Bear left at the fork in the trail and, in a few hundred feet, you ll reach one of the more impressive formations along the trail. There are several levels with many more spires rising behind this formation. They are accessible via an unofficial trail leading up to some even better viewpoints. On my recent trip back to Cathedral Gorge, the sky was filled with dramatic cloud formations. A late spring snowstorm had passed through eastern Nevada the week before and more rain was forecast for the next day. Great clouds raced across the sky. I made vertical and horizontal compositions each time I set up my tripod. In the late afternoon, strong winds began to blow dust up the canyon. I wrapped a plastic bag around the camera attached to the tripod over my shoulder. At the far northern end of the gorge, the trail loops around the base of the formations and heads south again, along the western side of the gorge. The trail circles around the far side of a large, free-standing formation in the center of the gorge and finally reaches the edge of the campground. There are good compositions all the way around the trail and the light will probably keep changing as clouds drift over. From the campground at the end of the trail, it s only a short walk over to your car in the parking lot near the picnic area. The soft, sandy soil in the gorge is constantly eroding away and supports no cactus and only a few wildflowers and some native plants. There are some shade trees around the campgrounds where there are 22 campsites with restrooms and hot showers operating from April through November. The weather in this part of the Southwest can be brutal with heavy winter snows and sub-zero temperatures too cold for cactus. Summer days often reach well over 100 F. with thundershowers being common in August and September. Don t miss the side road out to Millers Point, located two miles north of the main entrance to Cathedral Gorge on Highway 93. Park and walk out to the viewpoint for a great view of two side canyons. At the end of the overlook, you can follow the trail down into the gorge. There are several wooden ladders and stairways on the way down. This trail leads about a half mile south where it joins the loop trail near the parking area inside the gorge. There are very few services available in the nearby town of Panaca. The highway passes by the old section of town. The town of Pioche, ten miles north of Cathedral Gorge, is a fascinating relic of a hillside mining town. You ll find a few restaurants and lodgings in Pioche.

8 Lamoille Canyon Up in the northeastern corner of the state of Nevada, are the Ruby Mountains. Driving from Salt Lake City to San Francisco along Interstate 80, you can see these dramatic peaks to the south of Elko, Nevada. Rising from flat, sage-covered high desert, this long and narrow, north/south range is covered with the Humboldt National Forest. The only access into the Ruby Mountains is the Lamoille Canyon Road National Scenic Byway. The easiest way to reach Lamoille Canyon is to get off Interstate 80 at either end of Elko, Nevada, then drive through the old center of town. Watch for road signs in the middle of town pointing out the turn southward onto State Route 227. Follow this road through the community of Spring Creek and watch for the signs pointing the way to the small town of Lamoille. Just before reaching Lamoille, you ll see a National Forest Service sign marking the turn to Lamoille Canyon. As you begin the twelvemile climb into the Ruby Mountains, there is a great view of the tall mountains lining both sides of the road. Several of these peaks rise to over 11,000 feet. A cold stream tumbles down under a bridge through a picnic area near the bottom of the road. That s a good spot to start your photography. Lamoille Canyon has been called Nevada s Yosemite or the Alps of Nevada. This is one of the wettest areas in this part of the state. Hot summer days are always cooler near the summit of Lamoille Canyon. Winter snows can close the road. By April or early May, winter snows have usually melted and the road is clear all the way to its end at 8,600 feet. There are some issue 58 - page 8 fantastic views of Mt. Fitzgerald and Snow Lake Peak from the trailhead parking at the end of the road. The high meadows accessible from this trailhead are often covered with late spring alpine wildflowers in June and July. Arrive at the end of the Lamoille Canyon Road in late September and you can photograph some wonderful aspen color. Aspen groves prefer higher elevations. Here they start at the 7,000-foot level just as the road starts to climb up from the valley floor. They cover both sides of the canyon. There are several wide spots scenic pullouts along the canyon road where you can set up a tripod. One of the most spectacular views looks southward, up a round-bottom side canyon carved by a glacier. From that turnout, you can see the effects of several glaciers, coming from several directions, that long ago carved Lamoille Canyon. This spot makes an especially effective photograph when winter snows cover the summit of Ruby Dome, the canyon walls, and the bowl-shaped valley floor. During the summer, stay in the campground on the bottom of this valley and be ready for the first light. On the south side of the canyon road are deep, rounded valleys worn smooth by ancient glaciers. On the north side of the road are rugged peaks that rise straight up, several thousand feet above the road. Melting snows filled waterfalls dropping from high crevices and cascaded down onto the pavement. I photographed streams filled with spring runoff and long icicles hanging from wet canyon walls in early morning shadows. With a longer telephoto, I framed the snow-capped crags and deeply-eroded towers that rimmed the south wall. In the morning the sky was clear. By midday, small clouds moved in and made the sky more interesting. A heavy overcast covered the canyon by late afternoon and made a very dramatic scene when the setting sun broke through the clouds and illuminated the valley. The snowcapped peaks were all red. You ll need a minimum of a half-day for this trip if you are starting from the town of Elko, Nevada. With an RV or a tent, you can stay in Thomas Canyon Campground and be ready for some great sunrises and sunsets. There are no supplies in Lamoille Canyon. There is one restaurant in the town of Lamoille and several more in Spring Creek. There is a large selection of lodgings and restaurants in Elko, the largest city in northeastern Nevada.

9 issue 58 - page 9 Ruby Lake Refuge Spring-fed lakes and marshes fill the southern end of the Ruby Valley. This high mountain valley is surrounded by sage-covered hills and the eastern ridge of the Ruby Mountains. The remote Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge is a major resting spot in September and October for many thousands of migratory waterfowl. More than fifty species of birds stay here through the winter. The peak nesting season is May through July. Trumpeter swans and bald eagles can be seen through late autumn and the winter. As the crow flies, Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge is only a few miles east of Lamoille Canyon. But it s a long drive all the way around the Ruby Mountain Wilderness Area to the refuge. I drove a very scenic unpaved road starting from the town of Lamoille, Nevada. The road skirts around the northern end of the Ruby Mountain Wilderness and ends at the pavement of Highway 229 at a spot marked Poverty Gulch on the map. You can get to the refuge by heading south from the town of Wells, Nevada, on Highway 93, or you can get there by leaving Interstate 80 at exit 321. That intersection, marked Halleck on the map has no services available. You ll need a full gas tank for this trip. So fill up at Wells or Elko. The refuge is 60 miles south of exit 321 off Interstate 80. There are a few direction signs along the way. The route is fairly obvious and very scenic. The road south to the refuge follows the foothills of the Ruby Mountains along the western edge of the remote Secret Valley, over the Secret Valley Pass, and down into Ruby Valley. From the end of the pavement on State Route 229, it s another thirty-five miles of well-graded gravel road to reach the Ruby Lake Wildlife Refuge. This road was smoother and easier to drive than some Interstate Highways I ve traveled. You won t need a 4x4 for this trip. There s a point near the southern end of the Ruby Valley, before you reach Ruby Lake, where the far side of the valley, to the east, seems to drop over the edge of the earth. That incredible panoramic scene is most beautiful in the spring when the whole valley is green. Even more spectacular are the ragged peaks to the west, along the eastern edge of the Ruby Mountains. For the best photography, take this drive in the spring when the peaks are still covered with snow. Arrive in late September when aspen groves fill the side canyons with yellow foliage. Above the road and below the peaks are many scattered outcroppings of large boulders and eroded stone towers similar to the Alabama Hills along the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada Range. There is an access road into these formations near the old Rock House. You can t miss this landmark on the Ruby Valley Road. A few miles south of the refuge boundary an old log cabin built by Jacob Bressman in 1880 still stands along the road. There is a lonely grave out behind the cabin. Just beyond the cabin, a road marked Auto Tour leads out into the refuge, along the edge of the wetlands. The lakes, ponds, and waterways of the refuge cover 37,632 acres. There are three major ponds: The North Sump, The East Sump, and The South Sump. The Visitor Information Office is on the main road. You can t miss it. Stop for a road map and information about the birds and their current locations. Narrow, unpaved roads follow the tops of most of the levees. You can roll down your car s window and shoot from your mobile blind or get out and set up a tripod and a camp stool (and a portable blind if you have one) and wait. The landscapes are fantastic and they re all reflected in the ponds. This is one of the most beautiful wildlife refuges I ve ever seen. From the south end of the Ruby Valley, continue south on a dead straight dirt road across the Long Valley to finally reach Highway 50, called the Loneliest Road in America, about thirty miles west of the mining town of Ely, Nevada. Start this trip with a full gas tank.

10 Tuscarora There are dozens of old ghost towns scattered across the Nevada desert. The town called Tuscarora is the most familiar to me. When I was a child, my father told me about his experiences working there as a young man. Gold was discovered in these remote hills back in issue 58 - page 10 For sixty-five years, Tuscarora held the record as the best producing mine in northeastern Nevada. When the mines finally gave out in 1932, this isolated settlement, perched up on the wind-blown hills above the Independence Valley, began its slow decay. My father headed to California. I drove north out of Elko on State Route 225 over the sage-covered Adobe Range. Twenty-six miles north of Elko are old stone buildings at a spot marked Dinner Station on the map. This was a rest stop for stage coaches running between Elko and Tuscarora, back when Tuscarora was the larger and more important city. Today, food and gasoline is available five miles north of Dinner Stop at the intersection of State Route 226. This paved road heads west over the Independence Mountains towards Tuscarora. Like most of Nevada s back roads, this road crosses open cattle ranges. You must watch for cattle on the roads, especially at night. Thousands of Chinese railroad workers settled in Tuscarora when the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad was finished. The largest Chinese community in Nevada was called Little Shanghai by the rough and rowdy miners. It didn t last long and there are no visible remains of it today. Except for a very small operating US Post Office and a museum and pottery studio run by a family who lives year-around in Tuscarora, there are no shops or services. The most visible landmark is a tall brick smelter chimney on the hill above Tuscarora. It s all that remains of the largest of the six mills here. When you arrive, drive the few streets and get a feel for the layout of the town, then park your car, gather up your camera gear, and start exploring. I walked the unpaved streets photographing the tar-paper shacks and the stone buildings. Ancient travel trailers with permanently added rooms built of materials found on the desert stand behind weathered picket fences along Silver Street. A few people still live in Tuscarora, so you can t wander through yards and peek into windows. I photographed the bell tower at the old fire house and the old gas pumps. As I left Tuscarora, I stopped at the old cemetery below the town looking out across the remote Independence Valley. I unlatched the gate, walked through boot hill, and read dates on the tombstones. The cemetery is the perfect foreground for panoramic photographs of Tuscarora on the hill. From Tuscarora, continue north toward Idaho along Highway 226 to the Shoshone-Paiute Indian Reservation at Duck Valley before returning to Elko on Highway 225. I headed west out of Tuscarora, and drove forty-two miles of dirt road along the southern edge of the immense Owyhee Desert. This vast, flat, sage-covered plain reaches north into the state of Idaho. There are few wide-open spaces in the West that are as wide-open as the Owyhee Desert. Out there in the middle of nowhere are the remains of the boom town called Midas, Nevada. The few remaining shacks that were once schools, stores, and houses are surrounded by a large camp of old travel trailers. The bar in the center of this community is the meeting hall and social center. There are no other commercial facilities around. It s forty-five miles of dirt roads west to the nearest town at Golconda, Nevada.

11 issue 58 - page 11 Pyramid Lake And The Black Rock Desert After exploring the Elko area, I drove west and stayed overnight in Fernly, Nevada, a few miles east of Reno. From Fernly, a road heads north to Pyramid Lake, the largest natural lake in the state of Nevada. Pyramid Lake is surrounded by the Paiute Indian Reservation. The road north forks at a small Paiute community called Nixon. The road to the left follows the west shore of the lake. There are many large tufa formations along the western shoreline. These spires of calcium carbonate were formed under water long ago by the calcium in freshwater springs flowing up through alkaline lake water. Receding water levels have exposed these limestone towers. From the western edge of the lake, photograph the perfectly-shaped pyramid formation on the far side. Some of the largest tufa formations on Pyramid Lake are located at the north end of the lake. The area called Needle Rocks is on the shoreline and can be reached by an unpaved road from State Route 445. This area is best photographed at sunset. Whether they are wading the shallows in huge flocks or soaring over the lake in long formations, the white pelicans that nest on Anaho Island are worth the long trip out to Pyramid Lake. Anaho Island National Wildlife Refuge is located near the eastern shore of Pyramid Lake. To find the unmarked dirt road that leads out to the edge of the lake nearest the refuge, ask for directions at the Ranger Station in the Paiute community of Sutcliffe on the west shore of the lake. You will need a 4x4 to drive any of the routes off the paved roads. Back at the Nixon junction, on the south end of the lake, the other road (State Route 447) that forked to the right heads north. If you have the time, keep going. A long and narrow range of hills along the eastern side of Pyramid Lake blocks any view of the lake from that road. State Route 447 follows the western shore of Winnemucca Lake, now completely dry. There are several large tufa needles standing on the hillside, far above the still-visible waterline. As you reach the northern end of dry Winnemucca Lake, watch the shoreline on the right side of the road for hundreds of strange hummocks formed of the same calcium carbonate tufa material. Most are about ten feet in diameter. Some are broken open on top and reveal that they were formed as hollow shells with a thin (six-inch) crust. The tufa domes are back lit by morning light across the dry playa. In the distance, the silt-covered lake looks wet when heat waves rise forming a mirage. For the best spot to photograph this large subject, head northeast out of Gerlach on the road that follows the north shore of the playa. Eight miles east of town on State Route 34, the road rises to a point several hundred feet above the desert. That s probably the best spot for a high-angle panoramic view. Drive a few more miles east and the road drops down to the edge of the playa. At the point where the road reaches the very edge of the dry lake, a side road veers out onto the flat surface. My favorite photograph included a few sagebrushes in the foreground to give a greater feeling of depth to the scene. If you like wide-open spaces, you are going to love this place. Before driving out onto the dry silt surface, stop and check for soft mud. The gas station attendant in town told me that every spring he pulls cars out of axle-deep mud along the edge of the playa. He also warned me about shallow pools far out in the middle of the playa that don t completely dry until mid-summer. The surface, in mid-may, looked very dry along the edge, so I tried a few high-speed runs out toward the middle of the playa. The distant hills didn t look any closer from the middle of the Black Rock Desert.

12 Heading Home Leaving the Black Rock Desert, I headed northwest across some very wide-open spaces miles and miles of sage-covered hills that are definitely of volcanic origin. I photographed old windmills and sod-roofed pioneer cabins (above). The only paved road, State Route 447, across this very remote and desolate corner of Nevada leads to the green and lush Surprise Valley in the northeastern corner of California. At the California border, irrigated alfalfa fields along the edge of the forests of the Warner Range marked a great change in the environment. I was climbing up and out of the Great Basin that great western desert where all the rivers flow toward the center of the basin, soak into the sand, and evaporate. I stopped for dinner in a cafe in the beautiful little town of Eagleville, California, where the well-preserved architecture is worth an extended stay the next time you pass through the Surprise Valley. My life-long career in photography began at San Jose State University in After college, I enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, serving as a photographer and darkroom technician. In Germany, my skills and experience with equipment and lab work were developed and polished. I took the opportunity to photograph the beauty of nature in the Black Forest. Returning to California in 1965, I produced industrial and military training films for Raytheon Electronics and began showing my color nature prints. From 1969 through 1981, my photography was exhibited and sold in West Coast galleries. During the early 1980 s, I taught color darkroom workshops, then expanded to include field trips. Former customers, who had purchased my framed photographs, wanted to learn photography. My Pacific Image Photography Workshops offered adventures to the Pacific Coast, the Southwest deserts, national parks, Hawaii, New England, Canada, England, and the South Pacific. The workshops evolved into writing and sharing my adventures with others. Photograph America Newsletter provides information on where, when, and how to discover the best nature photography in North America. Photograph America Newsletter is published quarterly (four issues/year) by Robert Hitchman assisted by technical associate/wife, Katherine Post Office Box 86, Novato, CA Have a great trip and send me a postcard! All contents of this newsletter copyright Robert Hitchman Please don t make copies for your friends. This is a violation of Federal copyright laws. This newsletter survives on subscriptions.