Thursday, March 24, 2016 (Travel to Sportsman's Beach BLM Campground, Walker Lake, NV)

It was 9:33 when we pulled out of the sani-dump and headed down the road...saying goodbye to Tuttle Creek Campground. What an awesome spot...we will definitely be back.

On the way back to Lone Pine, we got caught in some road work and were held up for about 15 minutes at the intersection with Movie Road. Finally, the pilot car came through with traffic from the other direction...and then it was our turn. A frustrating delay to our travel day!

At Lone Pine, we hit hwy 395 and headed north. It was an absolutely beautiful travel day...here are some pictures I took along the way. Again, just click on the picture to enlarge for a better view.
The first community we went through was called Independence...this is the Inyo County Court House...

Highway 395 is not at all what I was expecting. For the most part, it is a divided highway...more like an interstate highway. The scenery is beautiful...

We travelled through an area with a lot of lava rock...

 This photo doesn't really show how red this volcanic cone really is...

 At Bishop, we took highway 6, that heads northeast towards Nevada...

The colours in the mountains are spectacular...and a very picturesque ranch down an the base...

The soil on this hillside is so pink...

We crossed into Nevada and headed up Montgomery Pass, I took this picture looking back down the valley...

 Montgomery Pass...elevation 7167...

From there, it was down hill...for miles and miles! Highway 6 ends down at the bottom, where it intersects with highway 95...we turned left (north). Looks like another dry lake bed ahead...

We went through Mina, NV...a mostly abandoned and decaying mining town,,,

 Not far from Hawthorne, NV now...

Hawthorne Army Depot is a large US Army Ammunition storage depot...the storage bunkers surrounds the city. It covers 147,000 acres, 226 sq. miles, has 600,000 square feet of storage space in 2,427 bunkers and is the worlds largest depot.

We drove through Hawthorne, stopping at the El Capitan Casino where there is a free RV sani-dump. We were hoping there would be potable water available but no luck...just a dump station. So we continued on...passing a memorial cemetery...

Entrance to the Hawthorne Army Depot...

Walker Lake is just north of Hawthorne...

 That's the small community of Walker Lake...

 Hmmm....looks like they used to have waterfront property....

 15 miles north of Hawthorne is Sportsman's Beach BLM campground...our destination for today...

We pulled into the campground shortly after 2:00. There is a loop of small(ish) back-in sites up top near the highway...but we continued down the hill where there are some more spots...away from the noise of the highway. The spots down here are in a large gravel area with picnic tables. We chose a spot at the end by itself...the picnic table is on the wrong side of our rig but we won't be using it anyway. We unhitched, put the slides out and immediately changed into shorts before continuing our set up. It was a beautiful warm day...

 After getting all set up, we went for a walk down to the boat launch...

Walker Lake is a beautiful terminal lake (no outlet) located near the town of Hawthorne, Nevada. Walker Lake is a remnant of ancient Lake Lahontan that covered much of northwestern Nevada during the Ice Age. Walker Lake is a desert paradise but has been slowly dying for the last 100 years. The lake continues to shrink, because most years the Walker River does not flow into the lake.

 The lake is considered a fresh water lake but with the water level continually dropping and alkaline levels continually rising, Walker Lake is turning into an empty salt lake, with life ceasing to exist. Walker Lake's main fish species, the Lahontan Cutthroat trout have essentially become extinct in the lake because the salt levels are too high for the fish to survive. For more info on Walker Lake, check out the Walker Lake Crusaders website.

The lake is getting further away from the boat launch with the lake level dropping 4.1 feet yearly...

After our walk, we sat outside in the sunshine enjoying a bevie...again, something that we didn't expect to be able to do. We'll take it while we can...I really don't think we'll be able to do it much longer as we head north.

We plan on spending two nights here, making tomorrow a chore day...laundry, groceries, diesel, etc. Then will continue north on Saturday. So far so good with an internet connection...stay tuned!