Cattmosphere: 2017

Sunset at the Great Salt Lake

October 8th: Spent the night adjacent the Great Salt Lake just west of Salt Lake City. From my journal:

Along the southern shore of the Great Salt Lake, driving toward the Cedar Mountains and the Great Salt Lake Desert beyond. Salt crystals floating on or left behind in little ponds and marshes sparkle pink and white in the morning light. A kind of brown haze, like the inversion smog in Phoenix overlays the land ahead.

We pass the Morton Salt factory with its gleaming piles of glistening white salt. I can see other salt piles across the lake (or part of it). This lake and the desert beyond are around 4,200 ft in elevation. Yellow bottlebrush seems to be the only flower...

I can see a factory in the distance, spewing white gray smoke that seems be the source of the haze. We pass a Cargill salt plant. Closer to the polluter, you can see the emissions shaping a snaky "S" in the sky just above the lake, showing the slope of the air currents. Beyond it, the air clears with very high visibility.

On the mud flats that follow, people have marked words, names and symbols using rocks and beer bottles. "C. K. & D.B." in a heart, arrows, hearts, peace signs, initials--most illegible from the car because we are viewing them from an oblique angle. I assume they are meant to be visible from the air.

There is a lot more water than one might expect in a desert--I suppose that why they call them mud flats. ATV trails mark the surface like crop circles in an English wheat field.

We stopped at the Bonneville Salt Flats rest area. Amazing view, shimmering with a thin layer of water.

Sunset at the Great Salt Lake

Hotel: Oquirrh Mountain Inn (pronounced Oak-er).

Sunrise at the Oquirrh Inn

The ever-present trains follow us across the long landscape.

I don't know what these are, but there were several of them. Weather stations?
UPDATE: I discovered just yesterday (04/21/17) that this is a sculpture known as the Tree of Utah. Learn more at https://www.viamagazine.com/road-trips/where-west-weird

The thin layer of water is so still it makes perfect reflections.

A rare anachronism: a working telephone booth!

Finally, we get to Nevada! Which greets the traveler immediately with its casinos.

Small town of West Wendover sports several casinos and this happy cowboy!

Nevada has created wildlife corridors over the freeways, and are building more. There is a lot of wild land out here and though it looks empty, it is filled with wildlife.

Wildlife corridor under construction.

Stone formations mark the land.

We stopped at the California Trail Interpretative Center. Next big milestone is Winnemucca. We chanted, "We're gonna run amok-a when we get to Winnemucca!" Little did we know...

Yep. Nevada looks a lot like it does in the movies.

Winnemucca was a big turning point for us, for it was there that we left the predictability of the Interstate Highway system and ventured onto state roads. We didn't want to go all the way to Sacramento to catch the I-5, so we cut catty-corner across the northwestern part of Nevada and the southeastern part of Oregon. We had no idea how far that next leg was going to be!

At Winnemucca, we took a right and headed north on US 95, planning to pickup Nevada 140, which becomes Oregon 140. So, about 8 miles before you hit the 140 turnoff, there is a Chevron station. We drove past it and turned onto 140. About 1/2 mile in, there is a sign, "No gas for 179 miles."

I looked at the gas gauge. No way we could go 179 miles! So we had to turn around the van/trailer on a narrow road and go back to the Chevron. Why isn't there a sign at the Chevron station? I asked them. They said that they keep putting one out, and the state comes along and takes it down. What sense does that make?

Here is my journal entry for that day: Sign says "No gas for 179 miles." We only have a 1/2 a tank. Turnaround gingerly on a 2-lane, no shoulder road. Back 9 miles to intersection with NV 290--only gas station north of Winnemucca. $2.89 a gallon. Turned around and a white pickup truck appeared out of nowhere. He followed us back onto US 95, then disappeared completely as we crossed the Paradise Summit (4,907 ft.). There are literally NO roads or turnoffs, he just vanished. Reminded me of my Tonopah angels. I told Rick our angels were reminding us they are still watching over us.

As you can see from the map above, the 140 is not too far from the Black Rock Desert where Burning Man is held. Believe me, this really IS the middle of nowhere!

On the NV 140.

Journal: 4:15 PM PST: Into the wilderness. The road is a dead-straight dusty black strip of pavement leading across flat scrub land toward a distant mountain range--a cliche image of Nevada. Cattle grazing indicate some human population, but the map reveals nothing. Literally, nothing but road, straight for now, but squiggles indicate mountain driving ahead.

The only town out this way is Denio, 66 miles in, which used to have a gas station. Now it is only the Denio Hotel / Tavern / Store / Cafe. We would have spent the night here in the dark starry desert, but it was hunting season and they had no rooms left. So we had no choice but to continue ontoward Lakeview in Oregon.

Denio--the shadows on the mountains look like the knuckles of some giant hand...

This is the Nevada Outback, with Winnemucca as the gateway. When we first entered the land of NV 140, I could feel the strong presence of Spirit to my north. Later I realized it was the Fort McDermott Indian Reservation. There must be some very powerful shamans there.


The last picture in Nevada before we lost the light.

After Denio Junction we entered into the Sheldon National Antelope Refuge, more empty miles with lots of warning signs for animal crossings, like these:

Antelope Crossing

Wild Burro Crossing

Elk Crossing

Horse Crossing

All those signs and all those miles and the only wildlife we ever saw were birds! Disappointing. I would have loved to see some wild horses...<sigh>.

We crossed into Oregon after dark and it was clear we were high in the mountains. Very curvy road and I think I was thankful that I couldn't see how high we were or how close to a drop-off!

The stars came out brilliantly overhead and we stopped to watch them for a moment at a small pullout. A couple of hours later, and we were able to check into a hotel in Lakeview. Very relieved to at last be in Oregon!

We had breakfast at the Antler Grill in Bly, Oregon, a town that smelled strangely of used kitty litter...

Still on the west side of the Cascades, but much greener than Nevada!

Squaw Flats Store in Sprague River.

Red sticks, yellow leaves, golden grasses with green feet standing beside the quiet shallow river. Granite outcroppings, the river sparkling silver, blue and black, the spaces between the trees illumined pale green with spots of sunlight. Must paint this.