Western Nevada Loop (Part 2)

[soc.diver]

On day three of our Western Nevada Loop trip we woke up and took a short hike to check out some of the hundreds of test holes and mine shafts in the area around Aroura, NV. About the only

thing left in Aroura is some concrete foundations. All

the buildings were sold for their bricks when the mines shut down. We drove over to the graveyard and checked out all the headstones. That place reminds you how easy we have it. There are a lot of young kids buried up there. There is still an active mine in the area and the trail out to Hawthorne takes you past it. After we drove down out of the hills we turned right and skirted the edge of the valley. About a three quarters of a mile from the turn we found the old stage station at Fletcher, NV. There is a considerable amount of running water so we had to make the only creek crossing of the trip. You can tell that the snorkel was totally necessary... Tacomas are Boss. We continued across he valley, out to the highway and up to Hawthorne for our first fuel stop. The little Honda destroyed its front tire tube right before we got to the highway so it was recovered and spent the rest of the trip back in the truck.
We fueled up in Hawthorne and drove east along Highway 95 out through the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. This facility is right where you would expect an undersea warfare center; in the desert...where there is no water...Go Squids. Just before Luning we turned left onto 361 and followed it north to the Rawhide Mining District trail. Another left turn and the road turns to sand again (pavement sucks) and takes you generally north around a huge dry lake

bed. The wind had really kicked up and was creating a mini dust storm. After about an hour of dodging sand pits in the road we came up on the active Rawhide Mine. We took the road around the eastern edge of the pit and headed across the high plateau north of the mine. This was a good drive due to numerous silt pits and dry washes. We were planning on making camp in the hills on the north side of the plateau but quickly realized that the trail is actually the bed of a dry wash and with a chance of rain, we decided to press on. Due to the high winds a rare type of clouds called Lenticular clouds had formed all over the sky. It made for an other-worldly atmosphere. The trail brings you out onto the dry lake bed just south of US 50 right across from Sand Mountain. We got there just at sunset and Eron shot some incredible pictures of it. The drive into Fallon was one of the most incredible sunsets I have ever seen. We had dinner in Fallon and then camped about a mile into the Pony Express Trail.

Continued in Part 3...