Pahrump, NV to Hawthorne, NV to Minden, NV – June 9 to 15

On the road again, this time to Hawthorne, Nevada. The clock read 9 a.m., and the thermometer was already reaching the 92 degree mark in Pahrump. It was a good day for travel, as there was very little wind, good roads, and low mountains. The highest elevation was at Tonopah, Nevada, at 6,300 feet. The black truck is always happy in these situations.

We did have two near mishaps caused by idiots trying to pass us, which marred an otherwise uneventful day. A semi attempted to pass us into oncoming traffic and had to ditch on the gravel shoulder of the oncoming lane to avoid a head-on. He didn’t miss a beat, keeping his speed at 70+ in the sloped gravel until the oncoming traffic passed and he could get by us and back on paved road. We were doing 65 at the time. All were safe but it could have much, much, worse. We thought he was going to roll the truck. Good grief! What an idiot! The second near mishap was when a 5^th wheel toy hauler tried to pass us and at the half- way point realized he wasn’t going to make it before a head-on and had to nearly lock it up to drop back behind us. YIKES!!! What is wrong with these people?

We arrived in Hawthorne and the Whiskey Flats RV Park at around 2 p.m. (really glad to be off the road!). The park has 60 concrete sites, all pull-through. This Good Sam park has all the basic services, including a small convenience store, laundry, showers, but no pool; it’s very neat and well kept. Dick had cell service; I had none, as we have different carriers.

Whiskey Flats office, store, laundry,
showers and restrooms

View from our site

Our site at Whiskey Flats

As we were coming into town, we noticed hundreds of bunkers built into the ground; they looked like perfectly spaced, uniform lumps in the ground, so we were interested to know what they were. It was such an unusual sight to see hundreds of sod-covered lumps around us.

We discovered that Hawthorne is home of a U.S. Army ammunition storage depot. The depot was established in 1930 after a major disaster at an ammunition depot in New Jersey occurred in 1926, killing 21 people, and seriously injuring 53 others. The monetary loss was $84 million, just over $1 billion today, mostly in consumed explosives. A court of inquiry investigating the explosion recommended that a depot be established in a remote area of the U.S., within 1,000 miles of the west coast to serve the Pacific area.

 

The depot covers 147,000 acres (226 square miles), with 600,000 square feet of storage space in 2,427 bunkers. This depot claims to be the “World’s Largest Depot” and is divided into 3 ammunition storage and production areas, plus an industrial area that houses the command headquarters, facilities engineering, etc. The Hawthorne depot stores reserve ammunitions to be used after the first 30 days of a major conflict, so it is only partially staffed during peacetime. However, it will rapidly expand staffing as needed.

Aerial view (from internet) of the entire depot. Highway winds through on the right.

Row after row of bunkers line the highway and
stretch for as far as the eye can see.

Our neighbors during our 3-day stay here are Fred and Sandra from California. They’re “sort of” full-timing. Was fun to talk with them, and get to know them during the short time we were there at Whiskey Flats. Will stay in touch to see how they’re doing.

Sandra and Fred; she's holding a dishcloth I knitted for her.

Weather in Hawthorne was much more to our liking: low 60s overnight and highs near 90 during the day, with partial cloud cover in the late afternoon. Surrounded by mountains, there was a light breeze most of the time.

Tuesday Dick did some minor repairs to the rear jacks; the pin broke on the crank adaptor. A trip to Ace Hardware was in order; 81¢ later we were good to go. We decided on pizza for dinner that evening, so after a quick stop at Safeway for a few items, we headed to Old Nevada Pizza. Yum! We had enough leftovers for another meal.

Old Nevada Pizza

Wednesday was another warm day, with temps in the mid-70s by 7:30 a.m., rising to the low 90s by mid-afternoon. The lovely breeze helped quell the heat, though. We decided to hop on the motorcycle to ride the 12 miles to Walker Lake, just up the road a piece. Once a thriving tourist community, the Walker Lake community is dying due mainly to environmental impacts. More than a century of upriver irrigation (from the Walker River which essentially is the only river feeding the lake) has reduced the lake to just 20% of its original volume. The fish, including the Nevada state fish the Lahontan cutthroat are essentially gone. The shoreline has receded far beyond most of the boat ramps. Once about 27 miles long, the lake now stretches less than 15 miles, surrounded by thousands of acres of barren wasteland. No longer do folks come to fish, enjoy water sports, or support the local economy. Sad.

Walker Lake - notice how low the lake is below,
from the boat ramp.

Later that day we prepared for the next leg of our trip to the Lake Tahoe area, just 127 miles. By 9:15 Thursday morning we were ready to head out. We said our goodbyes to Fred and Sandra, who were also leaving, heading to the Reno area. The roads were good, but heavy winds made the black truck work a bit harder. Once we left highway 95 and onto NV208, we drove through beautiful and lush farm land, over the Walker River. (We now see why there is no water in Walker Lake!) We left a reasonable elevation of just over 4,300 feet, but drove across curvy mountain roads reaching 6,300 feet in elevation. Sometimes it feels like we’re the little engine that could!

We arrived at our destination: Silver City RV Resort, Minden, Nevada, at an elevation of 4,724 feet at about 12:30 p.m. Actually, the park is just a bit south of Carson City, so we’re closer to shopping and any services we may need other than what’s available in the park. The park itself offers fuel, propane, a well-stocked convenience store, 2 laundry areas, a pool, showers, spa, an onsite hair salon and 206 concrete pads with picnic tables, WiFi and cable TV. Again, we’re surrounded by mountains.

Silver City RV Resort office, store, pumps; hair salon is to
the left.

Our site at Silver City

The park

Laundry, showers and restrooms; there are also more of
each up near the office.

View from our site.

Temperatures here are a bit cooler at night than our previous stops, due mainly to the mountains and elevation…and good sleeping weather! The temps dipped to the low 50s overnight, but rose to the mid-70s during the day Friday. And—the wind does blow here! (We’re getting really tired of wind!) We were specially blessed on Friday, by meeting our new granddaughter Anastasia for the first time. Our daughter Hollee came for the afternoon from Incline Village, Nevada, just over the mountain on north Lake Tahoe. What a great time, and what a little cutie! We certainly enjoyed these few hours, and there will be more to come over the summer. Hollee’s husband David was working his Pilates business in Incline Village, and as a local rock star, had a gig that evening so he was unable to join us.

Our granddaughter, Anastasia, at 7 months.

Mom Hollee and Anastasia

Anastasia and the "counterpillar" I made for her.

Me with Anastasia

I prepared shrimp primavera for dinner; Hollee brought salad; Dick picked up cheesecake for dessert. YUM!

FINALLY, on Saturday, I had a long overdue haircut! Yippee!!! It’s short, it’s spikey, and it’s wash ‘n’ go! Love it! Dick hopped on the motorcycle for a 70-mile round-trip ride to historic Tallac Resort on the south shores of Lake Tahoe. I stayed home to read and knit.

"Iris, is that you?" Just one of the irises at Tallac

The Tallac resort area was first established in the late 1850s when silver was discovered in Nevada, and the south shore of Lake Tahoe became a thoroughfare for the wealthy folks from San Francisco, Sacramento and Virginia City. Luxurious resorts and hotels were built to accommodate the new clientele (who expected more than rustic accommodations and fare) offering chartered boat rides on Lake Tahoe, card-playing rooms, saloons and an ahead-of-its-time sensational dance floor mounted on springs. A casino was built, as were numerous outbuildings, to accommodate over 250 guests as they enjoyed the opulent ballroom, string orchestras, croquet, tennis, steamer rides and promenade strolls along the lake. In addition, elaborate estates were built by the Baldwin, Pope and Heller families. Covering 150 acres, examples of these estates still remain and are on the National Register of Historic Places. The “era of opulence” was drawing to a close in 1916 so, due to environmental and economic concerns, the decision was made to tear down the Tallac Point resort and casino (owned by the Baldwin family). The foundations of the resort, casino and outbuildings can still be seen.

The Baldwin Museum

Tallac history through china

The Washoe Indians were the first to inhabit the
Lake Tahoe Area; their artifacts are found in the
Baldwin Museum building.

The Pope House

Cave Rock on the way South Shore Lake Tahoe

The Tahoe Queen, an authentic Mississippi paddlewheeler,
offers cruises around Lake Tahoe, and into Emerald Bay
home to the lake's only island. Dinner cruises are
available.

Map of Lake Tahoe

Today the Tallac Historic Site is comprised of the Baldwin Estate, the Pope Estate and Valhalla, and is open daily during the summer months for guided walks and tours. They were acquired by the U.S. Forest Service between 1965 and 1971; a restoration effort is currently underway to make the structures safe and restore them to their grand elegance

.

Happy Father’s Day Sunday! As I mentioned, it’s a bit cooler here in the mornings as was evident by the temperature reading of 46 degrees on Sunday morning. We rode our bicycles around the park in the morning, and Dick did a few maintenance things around our site before we headed to Incline Village to spend the afternoon with Hollee, David and Anastasia. They had also invited a friend, Paul Levy, to join us since Paul’s family was in Mexico. The following photos were taken of Lake Tahoe on our drive from our RV site to Incline Village.

We barbequed a tenderloin and chicken, had potato salad, corn on the cob, French bread, fresh fruit (melon, strawberries, blueberries, grapes), and lemon bars and brownies for dessert. YUM! No one went away hungry! Had a wonderful time, and…we introduced everyone to Pegs and Jokers! First-time player Hollee won. We left about 7 p.m. to drive over the mountain about 20 miles, before it got dark. We did see a cinnamon colored black bear in one of the high meadows on our drive, as well as several mountain blue jays. Cool!

Dinner: L to R: Anastasia, David, Hollee, Paul, me.

Grapejuice, one of the 2 cats that rule the roost. Max, the other
one has been in hiding since we arrived.

Hollee, David and Anastasia (can you tell David
is a Packers fan?).

Anastasia

That’s it for this week. Stay tuned for more excitement!

Hugs,

RJ and Gail

A = Rockport, TX
B = Kerrville, TX
C = Fort Stockton, TX
D = Carlsbad, NM
E = Santa Fe, NM
F = Holbrook, AZ
G = Williams, AZ
H = Pahrump, NV
I = Hawthorne, NV
J = Minden, NV