Monday and Tuesday, October 1 & 2, 2012 (Travel Days to Fremont Indian State Park, Richfield, Utah)

Well after 3 long travel days we arrived at Castle Rock Campground in Fremont Indian State Park late yesterday afternoon.  It is about 20 miles southwest of Richfield, Utah and has access to the Paiute ATV Trail system.  As you know, we left Valley of the Rogue State Park on Sunday and drove as far as Susanville, California (about 5 miles before, actually)...that was 236 miles (377.6 kms).

Tuesday we left our camping spot just outside of Susanville at 8:15 and made the steep descent into the town.  It was just a gorgeous morning...

Susanville is at the base of a mountain range and as we headed east towards Reno, Nevada, it flattened right out...

Until the next mountain range, that is...and we were to find this repeated many times over the next couple of days...

Beautiful countryside (this post is going to be all about the scenery because all we did was drive and take pictures along the way)...

We drove through Reno and Sparks...

...where we got onto the I-80 for a bit...

We turned off I-80 at Fernley, NV and after stopping for diesel, took highway 50 to Fallon where we stopped at Safeway for groceries...casinos everywhere; there was even a section in Safeway with some slot machines!

Highway 50 across Nevada was named "The Loneliest Highway in America" by Life Magazine. There aren’t a lot of towns along the way – Fernley, Fallon, Austin, Eureka and Ely are all there is.  I found this website that has alot of info on the route... http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/05-12/the-loneliest-road-trip-highway-50-across-nevada-central-nevada-usa.html
Fallon is the last modern town, so we thought we should stock up with food there (and of course, diesel in Fernley) before we continued.  And off we go...

This is Sand Mountain Rec Area...pretty cool looking, we may just have to come back sometime...

Reaching another mountain summit...

...and down we go....

...and it flattens right out again...

We went up more summits and down....and flat...repeat...repeat...but such a great drive.  The changes in the landscape was so varied and changed so often...

It was going on 4:00 when we reached Austin.  It is pretty well built on the side of the mountain...

...and it really climbs as you leave the town...

There are many switchbacks as you climb up the mountain...

...until you reach Austin Summit, Elevation 7484 feet!  Poor Buster got his workout on that one!

We had hoped to find a spot in this area to stop overnight...and we thought we had when we pulled over at the top of the summit in a large gravel area.  However a fellow that had also stopped said that it was a spot where truckers pull over for the night and usually leave their engines running.  There was a forestry campground across the road so Steve thought he would walk over and check it out before driving the rig in.  He thought that one spot might work so we drove in. After backing into a pull-through site because low branches didn't allow us to drive right in (the kind that just loops off the main road), we gave up...it was just too unlevel.  Left with the choice of going back across the road to the gravel area or continuing on, we chose to drive further.

We ended up driving another hour...through a very desolate area...but first we had to go down the other side of the mountain...

...it probably felt so desolate because it was getting late...you can tell the sun is getting low in the sky by the truck's shadow...

And with no cell service, I don't know if I would have felt comfortable just pulling over to a spot off the highway, even if we had found one.

About a mile or so before reaching Eureka, there was a large 'historical marker' (describing the Eureka mining industry) pull out.  It was closer to civilization and we had cell reception so we decided it would work for the night.  We had driven 325 miles (520 kms)...a very long day!

While we were watching a movie in bed later on that evening, a semi-truck did pull in but he didn't leave his engine (or reefer) running...thank goodness.  Later on, a camper also joined us for the night.

Tuesday morning we were on the road at 8:15 again.  It was another gorgeous day...more great travel weather!  We drove through Eureka...

This picture did not turn out very good, but it was such a cool building, I thought I would put in in anyway...

...we carried on across central Nevada towards Ely...more beautiful scenery...more mountain passes and more flat lands...

 

Ely is also another big mining community as was evident as we approached the city...

 

And this is Ely...

More beautiful scenery....

Some people have ranches way out here...

This driveway entrance was totally covered in antlers...very cool...

And we finally make it into Utah (sorry about all the reflection from the windshield)...and we also crossed time zones into Mountain Time, loosing an hour...

We were looking for a place to pull over for lunch when we came across this deserted cattle ranch...so we pulled in.  There was a cow lazying in the shade but she didn't stick around long after we arrived...

We had a nice break...it felt so good to get out and walk around.  Then we were on our way again...

We came over a mountain pass and saw a big billow of smoke...looks like a forest fire (we later learned that it was a controled burn...

A little oasis in the middle of a desert...

We went through the small town of Milford and then onto Beaver where we filled up with diesel...and then it was back to the Interstates for the last bit of our trip.  We took I-15 north to I-70 east.

In all of our travels in the last 27 months the last 3 days of travel have been the most consistantly scenic and relaxing because of the lack of traffic!

We arrived at the visitor's centre at Fremont Indian State Park at 4:30 and talked to the attendant there.  We have our choice of campsites in Castle Rock Campground, about a mile away nestled in the canyon on the other side of the Interstate. It's a small campground with 31 sites and after October 1 they are on a first come, first serve basis.  That's great, we don't have to worry about getting kicked out due to reservations.

When we first arrived at the campground, we were a little discouraged because the so-called pull-through sites are small and even if we could fit, the curve is too sharp...yes, they are the kind that loop off the main road.  But a little further along, we came to site #14, a long back-in site...and it is perfect.  We managed to get a satellite signal and our MiFi also has a strong signal...all is good!  The spot is just gorgeous!  There are no hookups but with the additonal solar panels and some open sky, we hope not to have to use the generator as much.

The view from the back of our site...

Now, the biggest plus of this State Park (and why we chose it)...it has a number of access points to the Paiute ATV trail system!  We are looking forward to exploring the area but after 3 very long days of travel (close to 300 miles/480 kms today), we are exhausted, so tomorrow might just be a relaxing day.