Day 19 – 6/18/2017 – On to Beatty Nevada

We are leaving Reno today, Sunday 6/18/2017, and are heading to Betty Nevada where we will spend the night before visiting Death Valley the next day.  We begin by heading east on I-80 and just outside of Reno we see this building.  We think it is power generation processes of some kind, and more than likely it is a solar generating plant. 

We turn south on route alt-50 in Fernley and not very long afterwards we see a very large solar panel power plant. 

Continuing alt-50 we cross a section of land that almost looks like salt flats with standing water in places. 

Reaching Fallon and continuing on US-95 we pass Fallon Naval Air Station.  It seems strange to have a Navy Base out here in the desert. 

About 10 miles south of Fallon we find a raceway of all things.  The name of the raceway is Top-Gun raceway; fitting name for being so close to a Naval Air Station.

We pass a section of the high desert that looks like sand dunes although we have seen no signs indicating there are sand dunes around here.  I think we were near the Walker River Reservation. 

As you can see we are currently on fairly flat roads, but heading on towards the mountains again. 

Nearing Schurz we can see the mountains to the west.  This one has a trail winding its way to the top and beyond.  It must be pretty steep because of the number of switch-backs.

We have reached Walker Lake and on the west side are mountains.  Carmen gets a picture of the mountain and foothills as we are driving.  Mountains on one side and the lake on the other side of the roadway.

As we are beginning to make a bend in the road around the mountain we see a sign with a mountain sheep or goat on it.  And sure enough as we go around the bend I see a mountain sheep up on the rocks but Carmen does not get a picture.  So I make a U-turn to turn around and head back to where I saw the animals and hope they are still there.  They were and we can see two easily and one hiding behind them.

Carmen was able to also get a picture of a couple of the mountain sheep.  We took a number of pictures excited to finally having seen animals where a sign said to beware. 

Looking across from where the mountain sheep were we can see the lake and the mountains beyond it. 

Not far beyond the mountain sheep and south of Walker Lake we came to Hawthorne.  Come to find out there is an Army outpost here, Hawthorne Army Ammunition Depot.  All of the buildings and bunkers are for munitions and explosives.  There are many buildings and bunkers and it is reportedly the largest depot; it said so on the sign.

There even is a Navy section at the depot, a NavSea Mine Logistics Branch.  And in this section we can only see buried bunkers, going way back to the mountains.

As we are passing the bunkers in the field, the road we are on is dedicated to military veterans for every military engagement, including the World War I, the Cold War, the Global War on Terror and this one for World War II. 

Driving along we see this mine shaft by the side of the road and wonder if it is still in operation.  Although the front looks like it is boarded up. 

Just outside of Luning we can see these mountains in the distance.  I think Carmen was looking west at the time and the mountain at the end of the cascade I think is Mt. Dana at 13,061 feet. 

Here is more of the varied terrain that we are passing. 

Now here we are out in the middle of nowhere, well not really nowhere, but far from any large city and guess what we find.  Two street rods!  Hope they have good soft seats because they have a long way to go.

Reaching the top of Redlich Summit, at an elevation of 5053 feet, we descend into this valley.  We still have about 100 miles to Beatty and we should be there in a couple of hours.

We must be getting closer to Beatty and Death Valley because we can see the sandy ground leading up to the mountains.  These mountains are to the west and somewhere there is Mammoth Lakes and the eastern road to Yosemite National Park, which is probably closed to traffic. 

As we are driving along US-95 we see this in the distance.  It is a solar concentrator which uses mirrors to concentrate a large area of sunlight, or solar thermal energy, onto a small area.  You can see by the distortion that there is a create deal of heat in the air.

Just north of Tonopah, Nevada, at Red Mountain, we can see what look like mountain top astronomical observatories.  If the nights are as clear as the day is today, then they should see quite a bit.

When we thought the rest of the ride would be consumed with desert and mountains we see these Joshua Tree cacti.  I feel like I am in the movie “Day of the Triffids” and they are coming to get us. 

As Carmen was taking the pictures of the cactus, we drive by these wild mules.  It was really nice of the mules to walk into our frame while Carmen is taking pictures since it is usually a car, tree, or sign jumping into the picture.

The area has had a number of mine shafts, or what we think are mine shafts, like this one in Goldfield, Nevada. 

Going through Goldfield, we can see many different old pieces of equipment.  Only we didn’t stop and Carmen got a piece of the car when she took this picture.  Still it is an interesting piece and we are not sure what it is.

Still in Goldfield, we drive by this, what I think is an old narrow gauge train, but I'm not sure if its a real train or one made for display purposes.  Either case it is interesting.

When we are about 70 miles from Beatty, we see another sign about putting chains on again.  So far south and I wonder, until I see the sign that we are at the Goldfield Summit at 6,097 feet.  The views are not much different from one side of the summit to the other.  We have also gotten back into seeing Joshua Trees.

Again we come to a hill with a long straight stretch that we can see for a long way. 

We reach the north entrance of Death Valley which is the Scotty’s Castle road.  We were going to take this road into the National Park, but we found out last night that the road is closed due to flood damage, so we’ll be using the road out of Beatty.  Beside we did not want to stay in this motel for the night.  Ha.

Looking west we can see the mountains that are part of Death Valley National Park.  We’ll be inside there somewhere tomorrow sweltering in the heat since it is over 100º now and rumored to be near 118º. 

As we are driving and very near our destination for the night, we see this herd of mules.  Not sure if they are wild or domestic but there sure are many of them.

Now what do we have here?  Out in this empty field an old plane; how did it get here?  Did it crash land or was it hauled and placed here. 

Just before entering Beatty and we see more of the wild mules.  We are spending the night here in Beatty and the elevation is 3,300 feet. 

Tomorrow we are leaving fairly early to enter Death Valley National Park.  We figure to see as much as we can before the temperatures go really high and we have a long way to go.