Road to Aspen

Tufa deposits at Toulon
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Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Outside of Fernley, NV, an older van with the banners, "This Too Shall Pass", pasted on the back end.

We had just left the lush High Sierra and it's spectacular "Vista Points". Now our latest Nevada Vista Point highlights Great Basin views of a tiny cottonwood tree-lined stream, rolling brown hills and a large gypsum plant. This seems somehow beautiful in its own way. Black volcanic rock clutters this land, cushioned by clusters of brush. To our right the Humboldt Range, hazy profiles of the sleeping Ancients.

Beautiful vista point at the San Rafael Reef
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We detour near Toulon to see the Tufa formations. These must be dark brown rock writing long caligraphy across the hillsides.

Near Carlin the land has been wrecked by fire covering many square miles and in some places right up to the edge of the road. Around here we move parallel to the train and we both enter our own little tunnels on the side of a mountain.

Things to try on the road

Bill at the Reef
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: Count the number of cars on a train running in the opposite direction...nearly impossible at 75 mph.

West Wendover

Hey, for $22 per night on weeknights, you can stay at the Red Garter Casino (very basic) and cut across the parking lot and have a meal on a balcony in an Italian Villa under a lavender sky surrounded lush silk vegetation. The Rainbow Hotel and Casino is entirely mirrored multiplying neon display lights, slot machines and moving framed photos of Niagara Falls and California coastlines.

Utah. Utah is a georgeous state with so many different types of landscapes. Broad expanses of salt at Bonneville. Shruby pines mixed with with small trees turning autumn shades of orange. Finally in Southern Utah, the canyons and reefs, deep red rock and strata of any type you could imagine.