On The Road Again ...
Ahhh! It's been a long winter, but we're finally hitting the road again.
The general idea is to hit Death Valley (since it's a super-bloom year), and work our way through Utah over to Moab (and nearby Arches and Canyonlands National Parks) ... and get some serious sun. (Map) It's the maiden voyage of our new Outback, and we've got her loaded down with bikes, daypacks, car-camping gear, and plenty of food and drinks. We finally should have the time to figure out how all the gizmos work!
We launched a bit late the first morning, due to uncertainty with the weather. The forecast called for a reasonable chance of rain in Death Valley (who'd have thunk that!) and rain/snow along the route down. After contemplating possible alternate itineraries, we decided to take our chances with the weather, and drove to Bend, OR. Much to our delight, we were able to pack in a couple of hours of mountain biking before dinner. The trails were beautiful ... silky and twisting (visualize ear-to-ear grins!) And, we deposited some karma in the karma bank - by saving a woman from a 3-mile hike-a-bike (likely in the dark) by fixing her up with a spare tube. She was totally happy! Had a quick dinner and some music at the Bend Spring Festival (kinda smaller than we expected).
We had tentatively planned on heading down through Reno and the east side of the Sierra's in California, figuring we'd get another chance to stop at the oh-so-awesome Mono Lake. But, due to the bad weather predicted for that area, we opted to go further east ... through Nevada. A long second day of driving just happened to take us along one edge of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge (of Bundy fame). Apparently, there are lots of birds there, but we didn't really see them ... it just looked like a lot more flat, dry, sage-covered high desert ... which is eastern Oregon.
Nevada surprised us. Yes, there was lots of desert, but what we didn't expect were big mountain peaks (10,000 - 12,000 ft). And we had lots of time to look at them! We pulled into Tonopah (the Nye County seat) for the evening, staying at the very-nicely-restored Mizpah Hotel, which was once the tallest building in the state (at 5 or 6 stories). It's hard to say what brings visitors to Tonopah ... it was an old mining town, and they may give tours of some of those operations. There also was a rumor that people went there to look at the stars. Or maybe it's just not-Vegas! We don't really know, but it's really in the middle of nowhere, and a population of only a couple thousand. It worked for us.
The general idea is to hit Death Valley (since it's a super-bloom year), and work our way through Utah over to Moab (and nearby Arches and Canyonlands National Parks) ... and get some serious sun. (Map) It's the maiden voyage of our new Outback, and we've got her loaded down with bikes, daypacks, car-camping gear, and plenty of food and drinks. We finally should have the time to figure out how all the gizmos work!
We launched a bit late the first morning, due to uncertainty with the weather. The forecast called for a reasonable chance of rain in Death Valley (who'd have thunk that!) and rain/snow along the route down. After contemplating possible alternate itineraries, we decided to take our chances with the weather, and drove to Bend, OR. Much to our delight, we were able to pack in a couple of hours of mountain biking before dinner. The trails were beautiful ... silky and twisting (visualize ear-to-ear grins!) And, we deposited some karma in the karma bank - by saving a woman from a 3-mile hike-a-bike (likely in the dark) by fixing her up with a spare tube. She was totally happy! Had a quick dinner and some music at the Bend Spring Festival (kinda smaller than we expected).
We had tentatively planned on heading down through Reno and the east side of the Sierra's in California, figuring we'd get another chance to stop at the oh-so-awesome Mono Lake. But, due to the bad weather predicted for that area, we opted to go further east ... through Nevada. A long second day of driving just happened to take us along one edge of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge (of Bundy fame). Apparently, there are lots of birds there, but we didn't really see them ... it just looked like a lot more flat, dry, sage-covered high desert ... which is eastern Oregon.
Nevada surprised us. Yes, there was lots of desert, but what we didn't expect were big mountain peaks (10,000 - 12,000 ft). And we had lots of time to look at them! We pulled into Tonopah (the Nye County seat) for the evening, staying at the very-nicely-restored Mizpah Hotel, which was once the tallest building in the state (at 5 or 6 stories). It's hard to say what brings visitors to Tonopah ... it was an old mining town, and they may give tours of some of those operations. There also was a rumor that people went there to look at the stars. Or maybe it's just not-Vegas! We don't really know, but it's really in the middle of nowhere, and a population of only a couple thousand. It worked for us.
Activities
- Mountain biking in Bend (Kent's > Phil's > Lower Whoops > Phil's)
5-Star Moments
- Gotta be the mountain bike ride!!
Tom's Stress Points
- Weather - should we just head to Utah?? Are we going to get snowed on in Nevada?
Sleeps
- Bend - Entrada Inn (totally fine, but a bit away from town)
- Tonopah - Mizpah Hotel (nice)
Eats
- Bend - Nancy P's Cafe & Bakery (excellent breakfast croissants)
- Tonopah - Topanah Brewing Company (decent BBQ), Mizpah Hotel (decent breakfast)
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