Tuesday

This morning we woke up in Delta, Utah and headed west into Nevada. I've never seen such a place as what we drove (and what we drove again later in the day on the way to Tonopah, NV). There was just NOTHING there. Desert, sage brush, open range with cattle, and that's it. Nearly 100 miles between gas stations/civilization.

In the middle of it all, we stopped in Baker, Nevada to visit Great Basin National Park. This is a must-visit if you're driving through this area! The 18 mile (one-way) scenic Wheeler Peak drive has outstanding views from as high as over 10,000 feet looking out over the barren desert. At the peak is a wonderful campground that we wished we had time to stay at. The weather was much cooler at this altitude, and the air was clean and crisp. Carter and I did a 3 mile round-trip hike to see the Bristlecone Pines, the oldest living things on earth. You need to see these someday....some look very healthy, but most look like they're hanging onto life, but have a portion of their trunks with healthy bark and some branches still growing needles and cones.

From Baker, we continued west towards Yosemite where we'll be staying Wednesday and Thursday nights in North. We made it by about 8:00PM to Tonopah, Nevada, where I'm typing from the Jim Butler Inn.

Not sure when we'll have internet access again....