R and J in the USA

Well, we already called Utah the “I Can’t Even” State, so we can’t use it for Nevada as well. And we stick to Utah being deserving of the moniker anyways. We considered calling Nevada the, “Oh my goodness, that is so friggin’ gorgeous” State, but it’s a little too wordy, so we’ll stick to using it’s self-chosen nickname, the Silver State. 

Nevada is gorgeous in a way that, for us as visitors from way out of the state,  completely took us by surprise. We didn’t necessarily know exactly what we envisioned for Nevada outside the borders of the Vegas scenery that we had seen many times before, whether in person or on screen. We only realized it once we got in the state, but we actually had no sense whatsoever of what the Nevada landscape had in store for us. We also had felt mildly misled by a few things coming into the experience. A friend of ours had begged us not to drive north through eastern Nevada because it was, in their opinion, not at all beautiful. And, we planned to drive the width of the state over US – 50, a road that had long ago been dubbed the “Loneliest Road in America” in an article in Life Magazine for being so long without any “points of interest”. We found both of these reviews to be so far from the truth of our experience and, rather, found ourselves amidst jaw-dropping views that were so plentiful and so constant that we never got a break from a state of awe for one millisecond. One lesson to be learned from this is one that is known to the ages – beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So, keep that in mind as you read our reflections on each state. Places where we have used the words striking, stunning, gorgeous, awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping and so forth – perhaps you would feel more like our friend and find it not worth seeing. Perhaps you would  want to avoid the drive up north along the eastern route of Nevada that we found ourselves absolutely enamored with or maybe you would find yourselves lonely and bored driving through the middle of the state like that Life Magazine journalist. We’ll share with you our experience and some of our pictures that we will submit as evidence to back our case – but ultimately, the beauty of Nevada, like anywhere else is up to each person to behold or not. For us, there was beholding at every turn. 

Before we get into our day by day, a few things we learned about Nevada. We learned that it is the 7th largest state in the US, which also means that, in our short 6 days here, what we saw was barely a grain of sand in the many desert miles that fill the state. Secondly, we learned that, depending on how you define “most mountainous state”, Nevada is the most mountainous state in the US – a fact that, not only did we not know, we never would have even guessed. It has the most mountains above 10,000 feet and it has over 300 separate mountain ranges. Yes, you read that right. What that means is, no matter where you are driving in Nevada (or at least the parts we drove through) you are looking at a different set of mountains. We also learned that Nevada has two of the four North American deserts in it, the famous Mojave Desert and the only cold desert of the four, the Great Basin. We learned that the Great Basin is called a basin because the water that comes into it pools in the basin and does not lead out to the ocean. We learned about how Nevada came to be known as the Silver State, having the largest silver deposit in American history, the Comstock Lode, even though it also produced a tremendous amount of gold during the time in American history where digging up what could be pulled out of the earth was a priority for which many severe choices were made. We saw so much of the state’s mining history as we drove through the parts of it we managed to make it to. We learned that deserts can have all sorts of looks to them and they are not just what we had imagined in our minds of what something like the famous Sahara Desert would inspire. We learned that Nevada is called the Battle Born state because it was born during the Civil War and made its participation and support of the Union cause a part of its pleas for statehood that was granted by Lincoln in 1864 after the entire state constitution was telegraphed to Washington DC. We learned that Nevada prides itself on its nature as innovators and trailblazers, a place where risks are taken and gambles are made by hearty spirits willing to take the chance to strike gold, silver or opportunity in any form. And, more than anything, we learned that the Nevada landscape is stunning and awe-inspiring, for those willing to take the trek and able to see the beauty in the ways that life shows up in a desert where the mountains are always closeby.

We had a tremendous success, at least by Julie’s standards on our last day in Utah, when we finished all of our end of state routines before leaving the state. The Utah song was written, postcards were in the mail and all of our blog posts were written before we crossed the border out of Utah. For Julie, this was a huge deal, as she likes to enter each state with a clean palate, completely present to the visage and vibes of the new state when we cross into it. Nevada was our first state in many months that we had had that luxury (the only other states were a handful during the first 10 states before we had even started writing the blog). 

When we crossed the border into Nevada, we were immediately greeted with a sign that we were in this state that likes to throw the dice and take a few chances.

Our first stop of our Nevada visit was the Las Vegas Motor Speedway where our 5K would take place at 4:30 PST, just after sunset. When we arrived, the sun was still up and we took in the engine revving and smoke-making of an amateur event on a small track across from the speedway. 

The run was a huge event and was one of our most fun fun runs of the trip. We both agreed that it had the coolest man-made ambience of any run previous, as the entire course was laden with immaculate and plentiful Christmas light displays. It was pretty neat. You can read more about the race in our 5K section.

After the race, we backtracked about 30 minutes east on route 15 to camp on some BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land right outside of Valley of Fire State Park.

The next morning we headed into the park and took one of our favorite hikes of the trip so far. We stumbled upon a cluster of about a dozen bighorn sheep hanging out by the Visitor’s Center before it opened. We saw a rainbow of colors in the rock formations we climbed over and the slot canyons we walked through. We saw petroglyphs on huge red rocks that jutted out of the earth. We both ranked Valley of Fire State Park, a virtual island of stunning red rocks in the middle of the Mojave Desert, as one of our trip highlights.

Before our time in Nevada was done, it would definitely throw more than a few moments onto the list as contenders for top ten trip highlights overall. 

Like each of our days in Nevada, we had a jampacked day planned and were able to stick to our itinerary while also having the room to really revel in the beauty of each place we landed. 

Our next stop was Lake Mead, the largest manmade lake in the US when it is at its full capacity (which hasn’t happened since 1983). The scenery was stunning and Julie took one look at that lake and was heaven-bent on getting her butt in it for her Nevada swim. We ran into some lovely New Zealanders by the lake. You can read about our encounter with them in our People Along the Way section. Julie went to the water’s edge to dip her toe in and find out if she would be needing a wetsuit and was pleasantly surprised that the Mojave Desert in November brings some lovely temperatures for those looking to swim. Though the water was on the chilly side of warm, it didn’t dip into “cold”. Julie grabbed her goggles from the van and hopped into the water while Ryan was taking a nap. When she popped out of the water, Ryan was there at the water’s edge, grabbing some pictures of Julie’s swim.

We took a pop in the visitor’s center and got some education on the geology of Nevada and then made our way towards what some dub the 8th wonder of the world, the Hoover Dam. Unfortunately, time was limited and we didn’t have time to get into the visitors center to learn about the engineering marvel we were looking at – so we settled for simply gawking ignorantly at what we can only assume was an absolutely near impossible undertaking. We were in awe at the audacity of man and man’s ability to then back up that audacity. No matter what one might think about the wisdom or ecological impacts of damming an entire river, there is no question that it is a true feat of human ingenuity, ambition and prowess. Another way to say it – it was pretty neat.

Our next stop was the Red Rocks Indoor Climbing gym in Vegas. To rock climb? – you might be wondering. Nope. Our research told us that the gym offered use of their shower for $5 and we were both fairly ripe at this point. We had plans to go out to a fancy dinner and a show in Vegas, and we thought removing the stink of four days on the road, including one 5K the night before, was prudent. 

Well, before we continue, let us be clear, we fully intend to break the cardinal rule of this infamous city in the southern tip of Nevada. We fully plan to tell you what happened in Vegas. In our short time there, there wasn’t anything so juicy that it necessitated being left there anyways. While in sin city, we partook in none of the seven deadly sins, all of which are bountifully available to you here if you so choose. But, still, we are going to spill the beans. 

Interestingly, we have gambled and enjoyed casinos at least three times on this trip (Rhode Island, New Jersey and Alaska) …but, while we found ourselves in the mecca for slot machines and black jack tables, we walked on by, just not in the mood this time around. There were many fun amusements and interesting museums on and off the strip that we would have liked to take the time to see in Vegas, but we made it to none of them. After our shower, we got ourselves all spiffied up and went out for a fancy dinner to a place recommended by a friend and we followed it up with a show on the Vegas strip. We’d both been to Vegas before, Julie only a few times and briefly both times, Ryan many times when he had worked a consulting gig for the Las Vegas transit authority years back. We decided, on this trip, to go see the most Vegas-y show we could think of. David Copperfield had a show playing at the MGM grand. We didn’t even know that he was still performing. So, now we come to the part where we spill the beans and let what happened in Vegas out of Vegas. 

The dinner was FANTASTIC. We ate at a restaurant called Anima by EDO. How did they make cauliflower taste THAT good? We both like cauliflower, but that was next level. And, where did they find green cauliflower anyways? We are taking their word for it that that is what it was and, either way, we don’t care. It was so delicious, as was every other thing that landed on our plates, from Julie’s short rib to Ryan’s Iberica (which we found out was some kind of pork shoulder). Two thumbs straight and enthusiastically up. 

Next stop, David Copperfield. He is an internationally recognized illusionist that many consider to be one of the greatest magicians and showmen of all time – so we were excited. We are not theater critics and we are interested to have our blog be a source of positivity in a world rife with critique if you are looking for it, so we will not go into detail on our experience of the show. What we will say is this – we looked around us and saw many big smiles of enjoyment and looks of awe. For us, personally, the show didn’t quite land and we actually found many aspects of it to induce a bit of cringe. But we didn’t regret seeing it. We found ourselves wondering if our experience of the show might more be a reflection on us than on Mr. Copperfield, as the folks around us seemed to be loving it. And, regardless of what we thought, none of this takes away from all of the incredible things he has accomplished as an illusionist and the laudability of his intentions that he stated throughout the show, to inspire people to believe in the impossible and go after their dreams. David Copperfield is still a legend and we are still glad we got to see him live, even though we didn’t love the show. And, after all, we had no plans to indulge any terrible sins in Vegas that would be worthy of any creepy feelings upon reflection and, if you don’t have an experience in Las Vegas that is worth at least a little cringe, did you really go there at all?

We spent our first night, and, perhaps, only night sleeping in a parking garage. Most parking garages cannot accommodate our height, but the first floor of the Excalibur parking garage could and we appreciated the added security measures that the parking garage offered us while spending a night sleeping on the strip. And, even though we love parking in gorgeous spots, it turns out, when we put up all the window coverings, no matter where we are, it still just feels like home. 

In the morning, Julie decided it would be neat to grab an early morning run on the strip – and she was right. She enjoyed a phenomenon that she has found herself writing about in the past – the phenomenon of how, no matter what city or town you are in, in the morning, the streets belong to the runners. While there were a few folks starting their days on the strip and a few folks that maybe were still finishing their night before, a good portion of the small amount of people roaming the streets at that hour were fellow runners. 

By mid morning, we were on the road again, heading north from Las Vegas towards our next stop, Cathedral Gorge State Park. We would have only an hour to enjoy the stop and that turned out to be more than enough since the beauty of the park and its moon rock formations were right there at the road. Sneaking in between some of the tight canyons inside the cathedral rocks was pretty amazing.  We hopped out of the van and enjoyed a short hike to Miller’s Point where we took in the stunning views of the park. We were now in territory that our friends had encouraged us to skip due to its lack of beauty – and boy do we beg to differ. You can check out the pictures and decide for yourself.

Our next stop would be Great Basin National Park that we planned to visit the next day. We found a free spot to park on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) Land just outside of the National Park. We pulled in when it was dark and got another chance to view the beauty of a full dark sky. The air was perfect and the sky was towering above us. We loved the spot then, but when we woke up in the morning to 360 degree views of stunning open fields and mountain ranges on all sides, with Wheeler Peak just out the window, our enthusiasm for the spot surged. We gave ourselves the luxury of a full morning in the van that we hadn’t had in a while and did our best to get through the various piling up tasks that are tough to get to without times like that. 

We would only have 2 hours at Great Basin National Park. Ryan went on a tour of the Lehman Caves while Julie stayed and hung out and finished our Nevada postcards. We had originally planned to be there for a whole day and had planned to do a full hike, the shortest available loop being an 8 mile trek. However, our plans had changed that morning. Typically, Julie tries to stay 2 months ahead on the itinerary, but doing so is easier said than done, and over the last 2 months, she had gotten way behind in itinerary to the point where we had, once again, run out of runway in front of us (other than the general state by state order and a list of points of interest we hoped to see). So, when Julie went to register for the Oregon 5K that fit into our itinerary she found out that her delay had consequences – the race was sold out. The only other Oregon race option that didn’t include us flying back to Oregon months later was on Saturday morning in Salem, Oregon. This was doable, but only just barely, and it meant we had to move through Nevada faster than we had originally planned. Alas, we were both committed to our 5Ks in 50 States and so, we decided it was worth it.

So, we got to enjoy some of the beauty of Great Basin National Park, but not a full hike’s worth.

After Great Basin, we headed west to the Ward Charcoal Ovens State Park which was dedicated to six ovens formerly used during Nevada’s silver smelting heyday to create the massive amounts of charcoal necessary to turn ore into silver. Once the silver boom had passed, folks used them as shelters and bandits used them, on occasion, as hideaways from the law. They were impressive structures and the panoramic views at this point surrounding them were just incredible. 

At some point some 30 or 40 years ago, some journalist at Life Magazine had dubbed US-50 through Nevada as The Loneliest Road in America and the folks along this route had taken full ownership of the term. Nevada’s website encourages folks to take a roadtrip on “The Loneliest Road”, detailing all the neat state parks and towns to be found along the route. “Loneliness” is another human experience as subjective as beauty. To us, there was nothing lonely about this road and certainly not more or less than any road that went mostly through the countryside with towns few and far between and small when they did arise. We’ve both met plenty of people that have felt deep loneliness in the middle of highly populated areas. Julie is not a person that experiences loneliness often, but the few times she has, it was while being around other people. You could make the argument that it was because we are here with each other, and that might have something to do with it, but we would argue that there was nothing lonely about this road at all. The scenery was endlessly encompassing and the towns along the way were charming, friendly and fascinating. Each one we went through, we wished we had more time there. We passed through the first of them, Ely, without having much time at all to stop and then drove to a rest stop right next to US-50 just outside of the small town of Eureka to spend the night.

In the morning, we grabbed a tourist map and toured through the old town of Eureka, taking in the history and enjoying chatting with a handful of the locals. We would have loved a few more hours, but had to be pushing on if we were going to make it to Carson City in time to visit the Capitol before it closed. 

After we left Eureka, we found ourselves in what we both considered among the most beautiful stretches of road we’d yet seen. Every time there was a slight lift or curve that would reveal a new angle on the scenery, we would let out a new gasp of amazement. 

At one point Julie exclaimed, “I have to run on this road.” 

Our schedule was pretty packed that day and we had both agreed that we would run in Carson City after the Capitol closed at 5, but as the scenery along the “loneliest road” lay out before us in all its glory and the road had generous shoulders with plenty of room for running, the pull was just too strong and there was a diem in front of us that needed carpe-ing. At first, Ryan was going to wait in the van while Julie indulged, but once the van stopped, he realized this was a moment to be seized and put on his running shoes as well.

By the time the run was done, Julie turned to Ryan and said,

”We have now officially lived our lives to the fullest. Everything else is gravy.”

Ryan was fully on board for putting that run square on the list of trip highlights. Julie was ready to put it right up on her list of life highlights.

”That is one of the greatest experiences of my life.” Julie proclaimed, sitting atop the van after the run soaking in the moment and the peace of it all.

And our day wasn’t over yet. Our next stop gave that run a run for its money in terms of making it to the list of highlights. We had read about the Spencer Hot Springs on the loneliest road and we knew we were heading for a hot springs that was a little bit more local than some of the fancy hot springs resorts we had visited previously. Boy was this true. First of all, on this particular hot springs we had to travel down 5 or so miles of some of the bumpiest dirt roads we had been on. It was unpleasant, but manageable and SOOOO worth it. On our drive towards the springs, we saw one of the wild burros we’d heard about and were psyched that one was close enough that we were able to see it and grab a distant picture and far enough that we didn’t have to worry about getting one of the wild burro bites we’d also heard about. 

When we pulled into the spot the GPS told us was the springs, we were in the middle of what would undoubtedly be an amazing spot to camp for the night that we wished we had time to stay in, but we didn’t see any springs. Ryan hopped out of the van and walked over a slight hill and called from the other side. “I found it! It’s here.” 

There it was in all of its glory. Essentially a large kiddie pool with a pipe coming out of the earth that carried the hot mineral water and dumped some of it into the pool. There were two wooden planks generously put out to sit on and a strainer and scrub brush for grabbing any algae out of the pool. This was a super DIY hot springs experience and we loved it.

We hopped in the pool after grabbing a little bit of ice from our freezer as it was just a touch too hot to get in and stay in. Eventually we acclimated and it cooled down just a teeny bit, enough for us to get in. The scenery was amazing. There were no other humans for miles. We were in heaven. 

Another trip highlight. That’s two in one day and already a handful for the state of Nevada.

For us, there was nothing lonely about any of this. It was just about the most peaceful and rich experience we could ask for. 

We eventually hopped back in the van and waved goodbye to this special little spot as we headed back out over miles of bumpy road. 

In order to get to Carson City in time to see the Capitol, we had to forgo our originally planned stop at the Hidden Cave in Fallon, Nevada. By doing so, we made it just in time with an hour to spare. The capitol was beautiful and the folks inside were friendly and eager to tell us anecdotes of its history. The house and senate had moved out of the building to another building across the capitol complex back in the 70’s, but we were able to see the Governor’s reception room and the old house and senate and Supreme Court. We tried to get into the new house and senate building but, even though we made it 10 minutes before they closed, they wouldn’t let us in because of the time and because the construction going on on the building would preclude us getting any good pictures.

We strolled around Carson City in the area and decided to hit up the local Japanese restaurant for dinner. We would camp for the night 15 minutes north at Washoe State Park amidst more beautiful mountain and lake scenery. We were delighted that this campground had a working shower.

The next morning, we headed back to Carson City where Julie took in the Nevada History Museum while Ryan did some work in a nearby cafe. Julie learned all about Nevada’s mining history, and Carson City’s minting history and much more about Nevada’s past including some of the Native American history of the tribes that had lived on this land for eons before.

We hit the road for our super long drive into Oregon a half day earlier than planned in order to be able to get in an Oregon 5K. We decided to take the long way towards Oregon in order to spend as much time in Nevada as possible and to see as much of it as we could. We are finishing writing this blog sitting in the teeny town of Gerlach, the town closest to where the Burning Man Festival takes place every year up here in the Black Rock Desert. We have both loved the remote and mountainous desert scenery and are so glad we took the time to make it up to this northwestern corner of a state that has surprised us at most every turn. 

Nevada is a place that we have both found to be stunningly beautiful, but we also recognize it as a beauty that is not for everyone – if there is any such beauty that even exists. We’ve had some of the highlights of our trip and we have done our best to squeeze as much out of such a short time in such a vast state as we can. It’s a state that we both feel is more than worth returning to, and also find ourselves wondering if we’ll ever have occasion to do so again. It’s the kind of road trip that we found ourselves feeling so lucky that we had the chance to do this – to take a taste of a world and a life that is so different than the one we come from and that has filled us with such rich and fond memories that we will cherish long after we cross it’s borders.