Friday, August 02, 2013

The Drive North (Part 1: Tonopah and Benton Hot Springs)

I am back home, after spending two weeks in the Great Basin region of the United States.  It was a two part trip as I spent a week at a conference at Lake Tahoe and the other week involved exploring old haunts and playing with a grandchild in Southern Utah.  This is the first of at least three posts about the roads I traveled. 
Sage and his cotton candy at Simons

I got into Vegas twelve hours later than planned, which meant that I had to reschedule a breakfast meeting with a friend.  Luckily, he was able to meet me for lunch, but his wife had to work.  Upon renting a car, I headed to the Palm’s Casino where we ate at Simon’s, a delightfully weird upscale diner in which you could get omelets, hamburgers, sushi, Japanese bento box lunches, all topped off with cotton candy for dessert!  

After catching up over dinner, he took off for an afternoon appointment and I pointed my car north!  I wanted to blow Vegas as quick as possible!  Driving up US 95, I was amazed by the mid-day traffic and by how far out Vegas had expanded since I had last driven this road a decade ago.  I drove on, through the dry Amargosa River Valley.    It was 107 degrees, which ain’t bad for mid-July, but in the mid-day sun everything was hot and flat and boring. I wondered if the West no longer held it’s magic over me.  I stopped for a bathroom break and for a drink in Beatty, Nevada, a town I’d stayed in a few times exploring Death Valley.  As I continued to drive north, I passed the legal brothel just north of Beatty and abandoned brothels at Lila Junction.  I drove on through Goldfield, stopping again at Tonopah, a town that has always been on my retirement short-list.

Mizpah Hote, Tonopah
 Thankfully, my mood changed when I got out of the car in Tonopah, a place where silver was discovered early in the 20th Century and a town that gave Nevada a new beginning.  The late afternoon breezes had picked up and the air not nearly as hot due to the elevation.  I smelled sage and again felt the lure of the West.  As the sun moved behind Mount Butler, the shadows increased and the landscape once again became magical.  I walked around the town a bit, looking inside the Mizpah Hotel.  I’ve often wanted to stay there, as it’s a classic place, but every time I’ve been through this country in the past, it was always closed.  Once, driving to the Sierras, I left Utah at 3 AM and came into Tonopah in time to have a late breakfast their dining room named for one of Tonopah’s most famous guests, the boxer Jack Dempsey.  On this trip, I would have stayed the night, enjoying the richly furnished bar, had I not had reservations on up the road.

While in Tonopah, I also stopped at Whitney's Bookshelf, a new addition to the town.  Talking to Larry, the proprietor, who’d retired from Southern California, I learned that he opened up his book store four years earlier.  He seems to like to talk to those who visit, but admits that if it wasn’t for selling books on the internet, he couldn’t survive.   He had a deal on all paperbacks and I picked up a book on sail trim and another on racing techniques--not exactly books I'd expect to find in a desert. Before leaving Tonopah, I filled up my tank with the most expensive gas of the trip.  Some things never change, but then Tonopah isn’t exactly on the beaten path.  For another of my posts on Tonopah, click here.

Abandoned store and gas station
Not wanting to set up camp in the dark (yes, my reservation was for a camping spot, but one at a hot spring), I headed out of Tonopah around 6 PM.  At the junction of US 6 and US 95, I took a left and drove over Montgomery Pass into California.  The highway snaked through the pass under Boundary Peak, which is the highest point in Nevada even though the peak, which is higher, is in California.  The road followed the long-defunct Carson and Colorado Railroad, whose cuts could be seen running back and forth along the side of the mountain.  This narrow gauge line ran from Mound House, Nevada, along the Carson River, to Keeler, California.  It never reached the Colorado River.  D. O. Mills, one of the principal investors and President of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad once said that they’d built the line either 300 miles too long or 300 years too early.   The Virginia and Truckee had a hard time maintaining the line so in 1900, it sold the line to the Southern Pacific.   Shortly afterwards, silver was discovered in Tonopah and suddenly the line became a lifeline to the mines.  A branch line from Sodaville ran to Tonopah eventually this section of track between Mound House and Tonopah was converted to standard gauge.  The line over the pass and into California continued on as a narrow gauge although trains stopped running over the pass in the 1930s.  A request to abandon the tracks around the time of Pearl Harbor was denied.  It was felt the United States might need a north/south line east of the Sierras if Japan invaded the West Coast.  When it became clear there would be no invasion, much of the track was removed, but the line kept running in the Owen’s Valley until 1960.  Another portion of the line, between Churchill, Nevada and the Navy Storage in Hawthorne, Nevada, continues to be used today.  Much of the narrow gauge equipment used on the line can be found in the railroad museum in Laws, California.   

my "private" soaking tub
My destination for the evening was Benton Hot Springs which are located a few miles off US 6 on California 120.  At the town of Benton, I stopped and picked up a sandwich and beer for dinner and drove on to the springs in time to get my bivy tent up before dark.  I had questioned bringing it, knowing I’d be camping in the desert, but there was enough standing water around to keep a hardy group of mosquitoes airborne.  But as the sun set and the color faded from Boundary Peak, this wasn’t a problem as the wind was blowing.
my bivy tent
After eating my dinner and preparing for bed, I spent an hour in my private tub, enjoying the warm water as the stars began to pop out.  A waxing moon was also high, blocking many of the southern stars. As darkness covered the land, the wind died and mosquitoes took to flight and found myself staying mostly submerged, just my head staying out of the water, as a way to minimize my exposure. I crawled in bed at 9:30 PM and fell asleep to the sound of running water and buzzing pests.  At 1:30 PM, I woke to the sound of what I thought was rain, but the wind had again picked up and was blowing through the cottonwoods whose leaves quake with a rain-like sound.  The skies, however, remained clear and the moon was setting in the West.  I didn’t wake again until early in the morning, in time to watch the last of the stars be extinguished.  After making a few notes in my journal and reading a few Psalms, I got up and hiked around Benton Hot Springs.

cemetary above the village
source of the hot water
old mining camp
High above the springs is the cemetery with graves that go back into the mid-19th Century.  To the east of where I’d camped was the actual hot springs in which water was piped to each of the tubs within the campsite.  Along Highway 120 were a group of old buildings, one dating the community back to 1852, when miners would come to the springs to soak their aching bones.  Miners also discovered some profitable ore in the area and across the highway from the springs was an old mining camp.




Bed and Breakfast at Benton Hot Springs

After my walk, I came back to came and ate a couple of granola bars and some dried fruit for breakfast and then sat in the tub, enjoying the warm water, as I finished reading a book for the conference I was going to be attending at Tahoe.  When I finished the book, I packed up and got back on the road.  (to be continued)

A good ending photo

27 comments:

  1. first of three? Jeff this is about the 10,000th or 500.000 roads you have traveled. You really are a good teller of the journey and you take the time when on the move to get the scent of the place your telling us about. that is what i enjoy the most about your writing.

    We just back from MA last week and passed under the bridge marked Appalachian Trail going over the NY throughway. I though of you and your feet on that bridge.

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    1. Thanks, I enjoy making the most out of my travels!

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  2. nice...cool on the personal little hot spring bath under the stars...that had to feel pretty good....funny finding those books at a store int eh desert as well but hey i bet someof them dream of the water...smiles....

    we are in maryland for the week, best of both worlds...yesterday we walked orchards and ate/pocked nectarines right off the tree...then the afternoon/eve in the urban jungle...we lived here years back and was cool to be back and rediscover old memories...

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    1. It is always nice to go back and explore old haunts!

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    2. very true it is...i need to encourage the fam to get a bit more adventurous though like your trips...ha

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  3. Love to live vicariously through your life dude. You have adventures. I just try to write about them.

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    1. I don't always try to have adventures, but I always try to enjoy life and to be alert for possibilities

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  4. At first I was wondering why you were going up that side of Nevada when you were heading to Utah. I place I'd not realised was bordering Nevda at all. Any hoo. It finally dawned you were going to Tahoe and your conference.
    I followed the route on the sat-map and I have to say I don't know how people make a living. Are these small places surviving on Snowbirds as most places seem to have a camping ground or is there a continuing mining business with people supplementing income digging small but rich claims.
    Beatty; I was a bit shocked about the reference to brothels, I knew they existed in Nevada, but somehow I'd put then in East of Eden period in my mind. But having swooped along the road out of LV you'd have to conclude that are largely pointless in that town at least. Frankly, cool glasses of water and shade would be the prime requirements IMNSHO.

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    1. This trip involves a big triangle--from Vegas to Tahoe (with a stop in Virginia City) to Southern Utah and back to Vegas...

      There is still a lot of mining in Nevada--not only for silver and gold but other minerals. Also, there is a fair amount of government work done in and around Beatty as the Nevada test sites (used for everything from atomic explosions to testing new aircraft) as well as Yucca Mountain (where some home to store spent nuclear fuel) are located.

      Prostitution in brothels are legal in Nevada, but not in Clark Country (Las Vegas), Washoe Country (Reno) or Carson City (the capital). Being legal doesn't make it right and I would like to see a study done on the impact such a life has on women and what happens when they leave. Of course, if you walk the strip in Vegas (which I did not do this trip), expected to be handed advertising for "illegal" prostitution!

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    2. When you see a high school boarded up like in Goldfield you know the place is on the way out.

      Yes I understand the mining in Nevada on a large scale. But nowadays that's very light in employment. What do those that live along the roads do. Along it's length there are houses in from the route every half mile/mile or so. That's why I asked if average people have a source for themselves that keeps them. Not rich but ticking over.

      I expect the impact on the women is profound. And I also expect it isn't occurring in Nevada but in San Fran or LA even SLC. I doubt those who retire are exactly treated with the respect of a retiring plumber. It is very rare such studies are performed unless it impacts public order by them working on the streets.

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    3. Actually, there are not many homes on the highway, there are long gaps between homes--most who live outside of the towns are ranching and it takes lots of land in this country to raise cattle (a cow for 40 acres). There are service industries (gas stations, motels, restaurants) as this is the main road from Las Vegas to the state capital in Carson City and on to Reno.

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  5. I haven't thought about Tonopah since my younger days and my fascination with Grooms Lake and the F117A program. Because Area 51 wasn't really a good area for testing secret aircraft, the airforce base near Tonopah became the place of choice. I always thought that if I got enough security clearance to visit anywhere I wanted, I would go to Area 51 and the Tonopah AFB and see what there is to be seen. I'm guessing they have lots of fascinating stuff.

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    1. If I remember correctly, Tonopah had a real boom during the development of the B1 bomber, but when they did the B2, the work was done south and everyone flew in to the area for testing. The town has known lots of booms and busts, not just in mining.

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  6. that cotton candy looks quite scary to be honest!

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    1. I was thinking it could make a great wig, only it would be pink!

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  7. Hi, I'm river, thanks for visiting my blog. Your blog looks interesting and I'll spend a bit of time going through the previous posts. I've never seen cotton candy in a bowl, only in cellophane bags or wrapped around a stick. Out here in Aus we call it fairy floss.

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  8. I mainly know Tonapah as a town in the song "Willin'" by Lowell George. :) I'll come back and read the other posts about it.

    Lovely post - and I like the solitude of your time in Benton Hot Springs and that you read Psalms in the morning. Lovely.

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  9. Your travels always take you to such interesting sites and activities. And your camera never fails to deliver some wonderful shots.

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  10. Great trip. I've done nothing like that, but it sounded wonderful.

    Pearl

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  11. You've been hanging out in one of my favorite parts of the country :) I love AZ/UT.

    I have never seen cotton candy in a bowl before, though.

    PS: I'm sure you've been, where haven't you been???, so any big advice on Niagara Falls? I'm heading out in a couple weeks. My first trip there. (I've pretty much always gone west or south. My trips east were limited to mostly DC.)

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    1. TC, I lived for a few years in Western NY (Ellicottville) and headed to the Falls every time someone visited. There isn't much to see there except a lot of water--which is impressive--and a lot of kitsch-which isn't. If you have time, I hope you drive through the Finger Lakes of New York--truly wonderful country.

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  12. Loved this post! It reminds of when I first got here and was pouring over your railroad adventures. It seems like I've been hanging around the southwest for a long time and I need to head further north.

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  13. Sage: This is one of your best posts ever! I quite agree with you about blowing Vegas and driving North. You've reminded me that fascinating small towns still do exist! And what amazing treasures they hold! Simons sounds like my kind of restaurant too!

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  14. Being one with nature, is so rewarding and the perfect medicine for our soul. You take the adventures, I've somewhat traveled before, but mostly dream of doing again. I have a gigantic old ghost town book that gave me a few new haunts to search the last time I was in Nevada. My goal was to someday visit a vast majority from that book! You may beat me to these places! But hey, then I can feel the adventure from my computer screen! Awesome post, and photos.

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    1. Nevada has 100s of ghost towns-I've been to a lot of them, but not nearly all of them. I am interested in mining camps, especially social history of them and for some reason, they keep luring me back.

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  15. I really really want to take a trip like this someday Sage. You've inspired the wanderer in me!!

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  16. Another interesting chapter of your sojourn. From your writings I could surmise that you have the touch of a geographer and a historian, hiding behind a pastor, or a pastor hiding behind the two:). Great piece Sage.

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