Nevada - Day 30 - Pyramid Lake, to Winnemucca

Silver State RV Park, Winnemucca

Saturday, 30 April 2022

I was walking the dogs right before we left the campground today, and Dext was showing urgent signs of wanting to go meet another dog walking nearby.  That dog's owner said to me, "He must be young, huh?"  And I said, "Forever young."  It was very perceptive of the other owner to recognize the behavior that most dogs grow out of (mostly) as they age.  And Dext has gotten much better just in the last few months.  But I think the dog trainers I talked to in New England have it right: he'll live his life as if he's still with his litter mates.  Well, young at heart may keep him going strong.

Speaking of which, Gracie's still falling down - several times a day, usually.  And I think she's getting deaf, which makes sense if she's got a tumor pushing on her inner ear.  And Dext tried to get her to play one morning and she just turned away from him.  But she'll often trot along looking happy and I don't think she's in any pain.  She's just getting old.  It happens to us all.

today's route

I didn't want to leave Nevada without getting a look at Pyramid Lake, one of the remnants of the ancient Lake Lahontan.  I haven't had a chance before this, so I plotted a detour on the way north.

At one point I noticed a beautiful view of snow-topped mountains in the rear view mirror and I couldn't figure out where they were.  I didn't drive past them, but maybe I was seeing some of the Sierra Nevadas?  What I was driving through was a valley between ranges of hills.  And I passed a group of cowboys - though I think they prefer the term wranglers.  Anyway, they were on horseback herding a large number of cows from one field to another, as wranglers have done for generations.  Nice to see that some things don't change.

I passed a huge herd of horses in a large paddock.  Maybe they were the horses those wranglers used?  Or maybe there was a dude ranch around that I didn't see a sign for?  A whole lot of horses, anyway.

Two miles from the lake I came to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation, and a Scenic Byway began there.  Myself, I didn't see anything scenic about the road except the view of the lake I got.  I stopped at a pull-out area that had informational signs.

Just scrubland, besides the lake.

The caption on the historical marker, with some
information most European-Americans don't know.

Pyramid Lake

I've enlarged parts of this sign below.

That Cultural Center is just down the road in Nixon,
and I'd like to visit when I have more time.

Pelicans in northern NV?  I guess they like the sun.

Ice Age calcium.  Incredible.

We stopped a a small rest area because the dogs needed a walk.  Nobody else was around, I thought.  But after we'd walked by one of the 2 small restrooms, I looked back and saw a man standing on a rock outside it looking at the lake.  And after we'd walked a little further, a 2nd man came out of the 2nd restroom.  And after a little bit further, a pickup truck appeared from nowhere and turned onto the main road and left, presumably with the 2 men.  It's impossible that I could have missed seeing a regular-sized black pickup truck, and I couldn't figure out where on earth these guys had parked it.  Or why they'd left the truck to walk to the restrooms to walk back and immediately leave in the truck.  I have a lot of spare brain room, driving through desert country with not a lot to look at.

As we too drove down the road, I saw what looked exactly like 4 white pelicans flying past us.  But at that point I hadn't read that sign above, so I didn't know they were breeding here.  I wondered if maybe there were storks in this area.  But pelicans they surely were.

I passed through Nixon, where there was no highway sign but I passed the Pyramid Lake Paiute museum and visitor center, and passed several solar fields.  At Wadsworth, elev. 4,076' and 2020 population of 991, I saw another solar array but was struck by not seeing any people anywhere in town.  It was almost out of a Twilight Zone episode.  I finally saw a total of 6 cars moving, presumably with drivers, but I didn't see a soul anywhere.  It was about 11:00 Saturday morning.  Seemed weird.  We crossed the Truckee River and then left the reservation.

I joined I-80 near Fernley, where I passed a large Sherwin-Williams Paint plant.  

Farther along the road I came to 2 US Silica mining operations, spaced widely apart.  They call themselves "a global industrial minerals and logistics leader."

I saw a selection of billboards: one announcing the annual Run-A-Mucca Festival in Winnemucca at the end of May (for motorcycles and music, they say); another warning "Illegal Drugs . . . You May Not Be Buying What You Think . . . One Pill Can Kill" (a reminder that cocaine, e.g., can be laced with a lethal dose of fentanyl); and one I saw in another state a few years ago: "What To Expect When You're Expecting" except the drawing is of an excited teenage girl getting car keys from her dad.

I passed a smallish fieldstone house with an additional outside framework made of the bones of a large mammal - maybe elk (they're around this area).  This framework was attached to both the first and 2nd stories of this house and looked very strange.  Very close to this house was a 2nd house, even smaller than the first, also made of fieldstone, and this house had maybe 6 sides.  Perched on the flat roof was a much smaller 2nd story made of wood.  I'd guess an eccentric family lived in these 2 houses.

Once again I saw snow-topped mountains in my rearview mirror, but I know I didn't pass mountains with snow so where did they come from?  I'm starting to think northern Nevada is a strange area of the country.

For the last hour of the drive, we finally saw a little sunshine and blue sky.  It had been overcast and gray all morning, which is fine but gets a little old when the countryside doesn't have much variation in it.  Mostly a continuous view of broad valleys of desert plants and sand or sandy dirt surrounded by hills of various heights.  

There was no highway sign to say so, but I knew we were in Winnemucca anyway.  It had a 2020 population of 7,754 and sits at 4,295'.  It has a nice little downtown.  The campground was a little strange but had 2 small dog parks, so we managed okay.