C to D: Hickison Petroglyph, NV to Gooseberry Road, UT

7.19.10

We woke up before dawn to try to make it the 120 miles to a mechanic in Ely, NV (pronounced E-Lee) before the desert got too hot. We hoped that a flush of the radiator would solve the overheating issue. We covered the miles easily and quickly found a mechanic who was just finishing changing the oil of a van following a group of bicyclists crossing the country raising money for cancer research. They flushed the radiator and diagnosed our problem as having "gunk" in there and sent us on our way across the rest of the Loneliest Road towards Great Basin National Park. Great Basin is one of the least visited parks, and since we were there on a Monday, we had the place pretty much to ourselves. Max saw lots of marmots on the drive up and down - somehow Emily missed each one. Instead of climbing all the way to the top to see a Bristlecone Pine (the oldest tree in the world - Radiolab recently had a good piece on how the very oldest one was cut down by accident by a student researcher) and risking overheating, Max took the advice of a Park Ranger and headed towards the Pole Canyon trail, which at 4,000 feet elevation had a lovely cold mountain stream to sit next to and relax by. After waiting out the heat of the day, we continued to the nearby town of Baker, NV and found a $2 shower at the Sinclair Gas Station. Refreshed, we continued along to Utah, where we would spend the night. We have purposefully avoided Utah thus far on our cross country journies, and we can't vouch for the rest of the state, but US 50 (which joins with I-70 for the eastern part of the state) was gorgeous. Striated mountains and ancient trees dramatically gesturing out of the increasingly fertile Great Basin created the most consistently breathtaking backdrop thusfar. Annie did well after the flush. The weather and the speed limit were easy on her. We found a small, vacant ATV oriented campground in the Fishlake National Forest. Just off the highway but isolated by rock formations and a fast moving creek, it offered perfect temperature and no insects. We arrived an hour before dark, took Buzz for a good long walk around the perimeter, and cooked ourselves a relaxing meal in a beautiful place. This is what it is all about.