October 21-24, 2019; Cortez, NM – Sparks, NV.
Day 4: Cortez – Green River and Arches National Park. The drive from Cortez to Arches is another one of those Southwest US drives that takes you through some beautiful country. The buttes change from colorful smooth-sided mountains to ones that look like shale and back to the smooth rock again. We had a decently early start from Cortez, but even so, the wait to drive into Arches, on a Monday, was over 20 minutes long. We drove to the far side of the Park to do the Devil’s Garden hike – and the very large parking lot was full – completely full. Did I mention it was a Monday, in October, not a holiday? We decided on plan B and did several shorter hikes, taking us to the Broken Arch and Sand Dune Arch,
the Windows
(we took the primitive trail back and got to see the “Parade of Elephants” area,
and the Delicate Arch upper overlook. Although not quite the day we planned, due to Arches being one of the “a little too loved” National Parks, it was glorious overall. We had an easy hour drive (only one flagman, which was brief) and we arrived in Green River for the night. We continued with the budget hotel – Motel 6 for the night. And we found that was a little too “budget”. We had trouble with the door lock, uncomfortable bed and bath towels that were about the size of my hand towels at home. It was conveniently located near the Tamarisk Restaurant, which overlooks the Green River and is across from the visitor’s center which is next to a 1/3-mile walking path along the river. The Tamarisk was very good, with a well-stocked salad bar, good quality veggie burgers (have them add the fire roasted chilies – really good and not spicy), and garlic fries. We relaxed for the evening and I even finally had a little time to play guitar.
Day 5: Green River to Ely, NV – Great Basin National Park. With an early start, we drove along Interstate 70, which is one of the most beautiful highways you could ever find. There are no superlatives that could encompass the beauty of that part of the country. Driving west on I70 in Utah needs to be on everyone’s bucket list. I was busy behind the wheel, but even if I had the opportunity to take pictures, they could not have done justice to the scenery. At one point, when cresting a mountain pass – the road is cut through the rocks near the top creating a “V” that frames a spectacular view. When we got off on US 50 (“The Loneliest Road in America”) we continued through valleys and mountains. We grabbed a late breakfast/ early lunch at The Rancher Café in Delta, UT. The pancakes were huge, and instead of syrup they give you a homemade raspberry jelly/ syrup. We saw a lot of folks ordering the soup after we had ordered our own meals, so will need to try that if we ever make it through that way again. We arrived at Great Basin National Park by early afternoon, and went up to Wheeler Peak –
we didn’t attempt the Peak trail, opting for the Alpine Lakes trails which only went up another 450 feet – since we were starting at 9800 feet, that seemed like enough exertion to me. I had not had too much trouble hiking in Arches, which is about 7000 feet above sea level, but being close to 10,000 feet, you notice a significant difference in breathing. The first 200 feet in additional elevation were difficult, but as we kept it slow and steady our heart rates evened out and we enjoyed the hike, and all the views. The lakes were almost completely empty since there had been little rain and it’s fall, in spring after the snowmelt they are full. After hiking and a little hair-raising driving as John navigated back down the switchbacks with 3000-foot sheer drops we made our way to Ely, NV. We chose the Ramada – it had an indoor pool and a little casino (almost every hotel has a little casino in Ely). The room itself was nice, the hot tub comfortable, but the restaurant in the hotel provided the worst meal we have had yet on the drive. I did win $35 on the slots, though I forgot to get my sunset photo, since who leaves a machine when it’s paying?
Day 6: Ely to Sparks, NV. Continuing along the “Loneliest Road in America” – where you can drive for 10 or more minutes without seeing another car, we ended up getting to the one lane “follow me” just in time as the follow me car was turning around to take our side along the road. And it was a very long “follow me” section – taking almost 15 minutes before we were back on open road again. We drove to Sparks and checked into the Nugget Hotel and Casino we found on “Hotel Tonight” app – even with the “resort fee” it was both a really nice hotel and very budget friendly – for midweek in October. Great gym – seriously – really nice gym, beautiful indoor pool and hot tub, big rooms with fridge (no microwave for the popcorn). We drove the 30 miles to Virginia City – I needed to get my historical nerdy gene to work. It takes an hour due to the mountain switchbacks, but a pretty mountain town it is. Unfortunately, they don’t do the historical re-enactments in the off season, but we did get to eat at the Palace Saloon (in my ongoing quest for the best veggie burger I had theirs, not as good as the one in Santa Fe, but good). We wandered through the museum, which shows videos produced in the early 1980’s with Merle Olson discussing the history of the area – including how Mark Twain got his start as a humorist reporting on local news for the city paper.
Back in Sparks for the evening we gambled and my streak continued – but also caused me to miss another sunset.
Day 7: hanging out in Sparks. We finally had a down day – mine was taken up dealing with techie issues with the blog site. At first, I thought I had been hacked, which made me furious since I had paid for the extra site protection. I finally found out the problem was my email. It turns out Hotmail does not like emails from Bluehost. It doesn’t send them to spam, or trash or ANY folder – they just don’t come through. At all, no matter how many times you try. And I needed to click on a link stating they had the correct contact information. After an online chat, a 20-minute phone call with tech support, and another online chat, I finally got the problem fixed by changing to John’s email for the site. I did get in a workout, played my guitar, got a massage, had a reasonably priced “linner” (combination of lunch and dinner) at Ballinons (it’s a restaurant in a casino where you can play Keno from the table) – they advertised an $11.99 prime rib which John said was pretty good. No veggie burgers, so I ordered fried shrimp. For being inland, not bad. I did manage to get my sunset picture!
And I continued my win streak in the casino that night.