As you probably know, Will and I have been planning this trip for the past few years. Along the way we’ve collected information from several people about must-see places and things to do. One of those things was to drive the Loneliest Road in America through Nevada. Fortunately, it was quite easy to plan our route to include this road as we traveled from Tonopah to Great Basin National Park.
If you enjoy driving on two lane roads, taking your time, stopping in teeny-tiny little western towns, and being able to stop right in the middle of the road to step out and take photos, then it’s time you drove the Loneliest Road. I think we were on this road for at least three hours, but it wasn’t a bit boring. Yes, there’s not much traffic, and really there’s nowhere to stop in between towns, but the views and the drive itself are incredible.
The small towns you pass through deserve some attention too. Everyone always talks about the camaraderie and family like relationships between friends when they talk about the tiny towns in the South, but these small towns out here in the west are every bit as friendly. The staff in restaurants cut jokes with the regulars, everyone knows everyone else and someone is always talking about how they’re on their way to help so and so with something that needs tending to. These people are living the small-town American dream out here.
A short bit before we reached the Nevada/Utah border, we reached Great Basin National Park. It’s a bit weird how the different ecosystems come together here. The vast desert abruptly ends with the rising of the mountains, only to immediately convert back to desert on the other side. With the campgrounds inside the National Park continuing to open in phases, we spent our first night at an RV park right outside of the National Park.
The next morning, knowing that another campground was opening that day inside the National Park, we woke up pretty early and drove to the entrance of the campground to make sure that we would get a spot once it opened. We were, thankfully, able to get a spot for the next three nights, and the campground was full by early afternoon.
We were glad to have three days here as one of those days was spent entirely inside the teardrop as it poured all day. Not a warm, summer North Carolina rain that brings relief from the heat either. It was cold here and the rain just made it a bit miserable.
The next day the weather was beautiful, so we drove up the road to the summit trailhead to take in the views and maybe get in a little hike. Something that’s important to note is that National Parks don’t really allow dogs anywhere that cars can’t go. Which means, for the most part, no dogs on hiking trails. Will, always being prepared, has been working on a really neat setup for the dogs in the backseat area of the truck. A while back we removed the back seats and had a friend make us a flat platform that fills in the entire space in the back. This platform allows us to keep a cooler for drinks on one side and leaves the remaining two-thirds for the dogs. On this platform they have small travel beds to lay on with room for their travel-buddy water container, and we have a fan that fits in the overhead attic space that circulates cool air down into their space. With it being pretty cold outside and knowing they had plenty of wayer and circulating air, we safely left the dogs in the truck while we took a hike up the mountain. We didn’t dare attempt to hike to the peak, but found another trail that took us into a Bristlecone Pine Forest. (Point to note: When you’re from the south, it’s really hard to resist throwing snowballs no matter when you come across it.) We were gone for about an hour and a half and the dogs were perfectly content when we returned.
The morning we were to leave Great Basin, I woke up and thought that things looked a bit odd outside of my window. I sat up, opened my door to get out and sat there, utterly confused as to what all the white stuff was all over the ground and on the step outside my door. It literally took a minute for me to register that it was snow. This Carolina girl has seen snow plenty of times throughout the years, but in June?!?! We were giddy. Once we got over our excitement we made our way back down to the RV park we’d stay in a few nights prior to pay for showers before we set off for Utah. And of course, because of the elevation change, we’d left all the snow behind.
So far Great Basin has been the first National Park that we’ve really been able to enjoy. We were able to stay in the park for a few days and got to do quite a bit of exploring. We’re excited for all of the National Parks we’ll be visiting throughout the summer!
Life in the right lane,
Rachel
DMG Exploration 