Caliente in Nevada!
8-7-06--In truth, we didn't visit the aptly-named town of Caliente, but we did stop at a cemetery outside Austin, which was just too scenic not to photograph. This portion was the Masonic burial ground, I'm guessing.
Nevada is big and empty. Population seems to be concentrated around a few cities. We drove through several scenic sounds, all managing to look like vintage "Old West" without the tourist-trap sheen of places like Sisters, OR, or Park City, UT. In particular, the old mining town of Pioche was delightful, built along a winding old highway climbing a hill up to the now-dormant silver mine. Pioche has preserved, without actually refurbishing in any way, its old aerial bucket tram, by which (I'm guessing, not having read the historical marker) ore was probably ferried down the mountain to be refined. Here are some shots of Pioche and its tram:
As I said earlier, the predominant experience of Nevada is that it is big and empty. Here's an image of "Lake Valley," a plane that is probably the size of the Willamette Valley, but with a population that probably measures in the dozens. Sean and I were awed by the vastness of it--and glad we don't have to live here!
We reached Zion shortly before sunset, and will upload more pictures tomorrow, if we can. Internet access is $5.00 for 24 hours, and I'm hoping they're literal about that 24 figure. I'll also need to charge the laptop sometime soon--tricky, as there are no outlets anywhere in the campground. Perhaps we could take a short road excursion tomorrow morning...
posted by Mark Anderson @ 1:18 PM
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