Our 1st Day of Caching in NV

It was very windy with a high level of dirty air quality as we drove north to Las Vegas last week Thursday.

We drove across the new bridge, but with the high side walls, you don't see any of the dam or Lake Mead as you cross.

This was the view of the casino skyline in Las Vegas.

I think this was a community center. We were stopped at a light. It was difficult to read the sign at the entrance while watching traffic and two GPS systems.

It was colorful and definitely a bright spot in that area of town. Cool artwork. We geocached for a couple of hours, checked into the casino/hotel and had dinner, then went to the airport to pick up our caching companion, Janice from Austin TX. The next morning we headed to our weekend caching destination.

As you may know this is our third trip to the Tonopah area for geocaching. This is to be our LAST trip.

It was the first trip for Janice. So we made the initial first stops for caching the ET Highway for her benefit.

Just a reminder we are a LONG way from anywhere. Open range for 110 miles. I think about 160 miles between gas stations.

We made the obligatory stop at the Rachel cafe for a potty break, souvenir shopping, and photo opportunities for Janice.

 The stream was flowing at Warm Springs. A mineral steam. It is what made this place famous 90+ years ago. The stone buildings are in more disrepair each year.

Cattle have free range of what used to be a famous hot springs resort.

We left the paved roads for the dirt backroads east of Tonopah and west of Rachel. Lots of wild horse sightings during our three days. We didn't take the time to play around with Hubby's horse calls this trip. We were on a mission!

We saw herds of 9 and 11 to small groupings of 3. We saw more horses than cattle on this trip.

a colorful hillside

Snow melt caused some flooding on the main road. Luckily, there was a narrow track along the side of the mountain we used to get to the other side.

A corral for cattle round-ups. It looked like it is used although nothing was happening the day we passed by.

Seeing the wild horses was a treat the first day, but coming across the ruins of a stone house was a bonus.

The stone walls are standing, but the roof has caved. The brush has invaded the former building. I wonder who lived there. Why so far from civilization? What did they do for a living? Rancher? Miner?

It wasn't as dusty/dirty/windy in the back country. It was cloudy and we wore our layers the first day. It was a successful afternoon with a couple hundred caches to add to our total. At the end of the day we were about 30 miles from the paved road and 40 miles from Tonopah and our 'home' for the next 3 days.