Nevada: the Loneliest Road in America

Leaving Utah with its canyons and trilobites behind, I headed into Nevada on Highway 50, which is known as "The Loneliest Road in America".  It's even on the signs:

 And it certainly is empty.  Towns are all at least fifty miles apart, and most are nothing more than a gas station and a post office.  The land consists of perfectly flat valleys with dry, salty-looking lake beds that last about twenty miles, followed by a line of mountains rising up a thousand feet, then going down to the next flat valley.  Here are some pictures of emptiness, Nevada-style:

But Highway 50 has its share of geology and history.  This is where the Pony Express traveled, carrying important mail from Missouri to California during the tense period leading up to the Civil War.  Men rode horses across the scrub desert, changing horses every ten miles at station houses located anywhere water could be found.  Here's the remains of one station house:

Looks like a lonesome place to live and work, huh?  Here's another station, located near a local phenomenon known as Sand Mountain:

Sand Mountain is a spot where the sand and dust from a dry lake bed forty miles wide all gets dumped by the wind as it hits the nearest mountain range.  It's huge, and people bring dune buggies and sand surf boards to play on the dunes.  Here's a closer picture (but still not close enough to see the dune buggies):

Nevada also has fantastic camping.  I stayed at a place called Hickson Petroglyphs.  There were petroglyphs, not quite as dramatic or clear as the ones in Moab, but it also had 180 degree panoramic views of a fantastic night sky and a moon bright enough to cast a shadow, even though it was only half-full.  Just down the road I found a place that will DEFINITELY be where I camp next time I find myself on America's loneliest road: Spencer Hot Springs.  This is a lone hill three miles down a dirt road that has several seeping hot springs on it.  Some have been developed into pools, and folks have made campsites all around.  It is BLM land, so there are no facilities, but leave-no-trace camping is allowed.  I stopped by for a much needed soak.  It's hard to beat waking up in the first pre-dawn light, walking to see some petroglyphs, watching the sun rise over the desert, then heading to the hot springs for an early AM soak.  Here's the view from "my" spring:

 Nevada, you have been a wonderful surprise!