9-20-17 - (Day 51 - Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge)

It was cold this morning!!  We had 2 blankets and my robe on the bed last night.  Ferny Kat got right between us trying to keep warm.  It is definitely time to head south.

                                                                   Good Morning

We watched the rabbits scurrying around while drinking our coffee, waiting for the beautiful sunshine to warm up the temperature.

After 192 miles south, looking at gorgeous scenery and a few herds of elk, we are at our little paradise on a lake with a warm, howling, southerly wind. We have on our shorts and flip flops.  It's so nice to be warm.

We are boon docking for a few days at Pahranagat  National Wildlife Refuge, about 5 miles south of Alamo, Nevada.  It is a really great place, with 15 campsites, that are totally free.  When we arrived today, we got to pick the cream of the crop since no one else was here.  We chose number 3.   A pretty site that Ferny Kat has approved.   Everybody is happy!!

The lake is low but still pretty. We hope to unload Amber tomorrow and take a ride.


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9-19-17 - (Day 50 - Ely, Nevada)

We rocked and rolled all night in the howling wind.  Every time we got in a deep sleep, the wind would gust, rattling the outside stove vent, even though it was locked.  It sounded like jake brakes on an 18 wheeler.

We took a windy, 50 mile ride to the town of Ely, Nevada.  We saw a lot of pretty scenery.  The wind vanes are mesmerizing along the Loneliest Road.

We walked around downtown for a little bit, enjoyed the painted murals, then ate lunch at the Twin Wok.  It was a very good Chinese buffet.

We returned to camp and hiked 3 miles on the Sac Pass Loop.  A nice trail through the Juniper and Pinyon trees, with a lot of elevation and big rocks.  We saw lots of Jack Rabbits and Lizards.

We returned back to camp and watched an Osprey hunting at the pond.  He was fishing not catching.

Ferny Kat had her time outside.  The wind continued to blow, so we went in after a little while.

We watched a Roku movie and realized the wind had stopped.  We stepped outside and admired the thousands of stars in the sky.  It was too late and too cold to build a campfire.

With the snow predictions for Thursday, we will head south tomorrow.

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9-18-17 - (Day 49 - Great Basin National Park)

We got the big blanket out last night, and it felt so good!  Ferny Kat is still on Mountain Time and woke us up at 6 am this morning.  We need to figure out a way to reprogram her.

We watched numerous jack rabbits outside while we drank our coffee this morning.  There is a bumper crop of 'em here.

We spent the day at Great Basin National Park.  We just happen to arrive at Lehman Caves just in time for a guided tour, the only way you can go in the cave.

Ranger Diane, was our guide.  She was very enthusiastic about the cave.  She had plenty of information in the hour and half tour.  It was a very relaxing, pretty cave with the temperature 50 degrees.

After the cave tour, we stopped for our picnic lunch at the Upper Lehman Creek.  The bubbly sound of the creek was the ambiance of our lunch before motoring up the mountain.

We went from 7000 foot elevation to above 10,000 foot elevation with a 25 degree drop in temperature and the wind a howling.

We hiked 3 miles up the Bristlecone Pine Trail, with a 600 foot elevation.  It was a rocky, uphill climb.  We saw some beautiful bristlecone trees with a lot of history and we were able to see Wheeler Peak Glacier a little closer than on the road.

Wheeler Peak Glacier was a quite a surprise.  We weren't aware that Nevada had glaciers.  You never know what you will learn traveling around.

We took the short ride through Baker, went to the Utah state line to buy gas, and went back to our rocking camper.  Although, we have a little bit of wind break here.

Ferny Kat explored for a little bit outside.  It wasn't long, she was done with the wind.

We are in for the night, heating up some of our meal we prepped a couple of days ago.  We feel like we are a ship in the rough sea in Rap tonight.

The Pictures are here:

9-17-17 - (Day 48 - Sacramento Pass Campground)

We had a couple of left over pieces of New York Strip steak to go with our eggs this morning.  Pretty darn good.

                                                             on the road

We left our tight nit community of campers and drove 198 miles to a boondocking place. It is a BLM campground with covered picnic tables, a fire pit, and a grill.  We have a view of the mountains and the pond.  It is free and in the middle of no where.  Our kind of place

There is a lower and upper campground.  The upper campground is an equestrian campground.

We chose a site in the lower level, got set up, and decided to see what was up the hill about a mile away. We are so happy with our site.  We were the only ones in the lower level, and there are about 5 campers in the upper level.  We saw hitches to tie up the horses, but no horses, just ATVs.  We love our quiet campground.

We ate some of our food we prepped yesterday for dinner tonight.

We sat inside watching the wind blow the grass and the Jack Rabbits hop around.  There are lots and lots of Jack Rabbits and their ears are huge!  They look like deer in the headlights going back and forth across the road.   Quite amusing.  There must not be any coyotes in this area.

We had a dark, no wind, kind of night.  Campfire time.

We plan to go to Great Basin National Park tomorrow.  We haven't unloaded Amber due to cool weather conditions tomorrow.   We are hoping the predictions are wrong.

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9-16-17 - (Day 47 - Chore Day)

The temperature was 32 degrees this morning.  Ferny Kat hollered at Lauren when he got up this morning.  She was snuggled up with him and wanted his warmth.  She got over it when he turned on the furnace.

We drove 40 miles to stock up and fuel up.  We washed clothes and cooked food for easy heat ups this week.

Ferny Kat got in the back of the truck and played this afternoon while we grilled steaks.  She is one spoiled cat.

A few Pictures:

9-15-17 - (Day 46 - Moving Day)

Lava Flow Campground was cold this morning, a cool 42 degrees with a north wind howling.  It was time to head toward warmer weather.

                                                             On the road this cold morning

After 217 miles of traveling though the lava fields, hay fields, potato fields, and corn fields, we are at Welcome Station RV Park in Wells, Nevada.

It is a pretty, tightly nit campground, with green grass and big trees nestled between two creeks.  One of which is a bubbly creek, the other is smaller than the artesian well water ditch at home.  We were greeted by the friendly campground host and feel right at home

This will be our home for the next 2 days.  A great place to catch up our blog, clean up, and plan our next move.

Da Pictures are 1 click away:

9-14-17 - (Day 45 - Spelunking Craters of the Moon National Park)

We had to get up moving this morning for the guided cave tour in the park at 10 am.  We were right behind the Ranger who was supposed to be our guide for the tour.  The road construction flagger detoured us to the parking lot at Tree Molds Trail.  It's really bad communication when the Ranger wasn't informed that we could not get to the Cave Area.

The Ranger gave us some info on Broken Top Trail and Buffalo Cave.  It was a 1.8 mile loop with the trail head starting in this parking lot.

We had left so hurriedly this morning  that we forgot to bring our flashlights.  We used our cell phone flashlight in the cave, which is not that great in the dark. We scooted in the hole on our butts, walked hunched over for a little bit, was able to stand for a short time, then crawled out the other side.  Pretty cool for a couple of old farts.

                                                                       Crawling out

Three youngsters that were ahead of us were swarmed by bats.  I guess our weak flashlight didn't bother the bats.  Kinda glad of that.

After lunch at the camper, we went to the 1 pm tour at Indian Tunnel.  Ted, the Ranger was our guide. We had a group of about 12 people.  He talked about the Great Rift that occurred 15,000 years ago causing lava to to well up and form this massive area of rocks.  Ted said the volcanic activity is 300 years overdue for eruption, but don't worry.  Hmm!!!

Indian Tunnel was a large tunnel with a lot of light filtering in.  Ted said when you are in the cave it is called skylights, when you are above the cave, its called collapses.  LOL

                                                                  Thanks Ted...

The tour ended about half way through the tunnel.  We had the choice to either turn around and go back up the easy stairs  or climb out the other side.  We climbed out the other side and followed the trail to the caves.

We walked to Beauty Cave.  This is where I realized my lantern battery was weak.  Not to worry, Lauren had the powerful, Clyde flashlight.  Beauty Tunnel was nice, quiet, dark, and cool.  Pretty neat.

                                                               Easy climb into this lava tube

Our next cave was Boy Scout Cave.  We had to scoot in a tiny hole and then we were able to stand up and look around.  This is where we realized, the Clyde flashlight battery was weak.  We watched  the same three youngsters that were swarmed by the bats, climbing through a really tight space where they found icicles.  They advised it was really hard to get through the tiny tube.  We heeded their advice.

Getting in Boy Scout Cave was a challenge.  Climbing out,was even more of a challenge.  My back foot got stuck between rocks crawling out.  Finally, I realized I had to back up to get it my foot loose. When I came out the hole with a couple of guys waiting on me, I told them, "this is fun!!"  It actually was, even with the scuffs on my legs.

We climbed up the Inferno Cone, a quite challenging uphill climb with beautiful views.  We stopped at Snow Cone, Splatter Cone, and Devil's Orchard then headed back to camp.  We had planned to go on the North Crater Trail at the campground and look for Pica's.  It turned cold and started raining. We might try it in the morning.

                                                         Left over snow in the snow cone

We spent the day in this 7 mile round trip park enjoying the unique scenery.  We hiked 8 miles and climbed 63 flights.

Tomorrow is moving day.

Right here, the pictures: