Month: July 2018

No photo.

The good news is it appears the Evans Fire is under control.  It saw no growth overnight and as of 1218pm Pacific Time it is listed at 63 acres and 50% contained.  I saw absolutely no smoke rising from the area when I drove into Reno this morning.

Kudos to the fire crews which quickly got a handle on this event.  I read last night that in addition to ground crews they used one multi-engine tanker (airplane) to drop retardant, several single-engine planes and 4 helicopters.  The same thing happened last year south of Bend OR when I was there, a fire there was started around 4 pm and various agencies immediately employed various resources and quickly got it under control.

Authorities think the Evans Fire was human-caused and are looking for the owner of a Jeep Cherokee which was seen in the area early Sunday morning.

Last Sunday, June 24, I decided to drive on some scenic roads north of where I was staying in Sonora, California.  My plan was to take Route 4 northeast about 80 miles to the little town of Woodfords where I would get on Route 88 and take it southeast to Jackson, then get on Route 49 back to Sonora.  First I had to get to Route 4…

From Sonora (I was actually staying in Tuttletown, just west of Sonora) I took Route 49 north.  First stop, not far up the road, was up Jackass Hill Road to see the Mark Twain Cabin:

The sign talks about Twain’s friendship with the Gillis brothers.  The Airbnb I was staying in last week is on land once owned by the Gillis family.  While my hosts now own the house they live in, someone else owns the mineral rights for whatever is underneath it.  In other words, if they strike gold by digging up their driveway it won’t belong to them.  Descendents of the Gillis brothers still lived in neighboring houses until just recently.  (I hope I got all those facts straight).

Back out on Route 49 I continued north towards the little town of Angels Camp.  First I had to cross a bridge over New Melones Lake.

Before getting to Angels Camp I went through an area known as Frogtown.

They take their frog jumping here VERY seriously.

This was what I found when I got to Angels Camp:

On the side of a building:

On the side of a trash receptacle:

And embedded in the sidewalk – a virtual “Hall of Fame” of past winners.  Note that the jump lengths get longer as the years go by.  Steroids??  Rigorous training??  5 Hour Energy Drink??

At Angel’s Camp I finally picked up Route 4 and started driving northeast.

I diverted off onto Parrott’s Ferry Road and came to an upper portion of New Melones Lake.  While I was standing on the bridge a speedboat came zipping by:

The wake created an interest visual effect when it reached the far shoreline:

I went back to the car to get the digital camera but no other watercraft came by to repeat the magic.  I came back to this spot on another day but it was windy and the lake wasn’t as calm so the ripple effect probably wouldn’t have looked as good.

Back out on Route 4 I continued northeast and stopped at Calaveras Big Trees State Park (see prior post from last week called that).  I also stopped at Lake Alpine, site of the somewhat failed bald eagle episode (see prior post on that, titled “The eagle had landed”).

I took this right before the eagle was first spotted:

I did go back to the path where I had taken the eagle pictures on Thursday of last week and waited two hours but never saw the eagle again.  I got there around 130 and the eagle had probably just eaten lunch and was off somewhere enjoying a nice eagle siesta.

Shortly after leaving Lake Alpine I came across this relaxing scene:

Somehow I don’t think I’d build my dream cabin at a place called Mosquito Lake, which is exactly what this lake is called.

 

 

And I’m not talking about kidneystones!

The 3 scenic roads I drove last week near Sonora, California all go over large mountains, part of the Sierra Mountain Range, at their northeast end.  Route 108, the southernmost road, crosses Sonora Pass (elevation 9,624 feet).  Route 88, the northernmost road, crosses Carson Pass (elevation 8,573 feet).  In between those two is Route 4, the subject of this post, which crosses both the Pacific Grade Summit (elevation 8,050 – just up the road from Mosquito Lake) and Ebbett’s Pass (elevation 8,732 feet).

These were taken Sunday, June 24 as I drove one of two scenic roads north of Sonora, CA where I was staying last week. I opted not to go to Yosemite National Park until Monday and, instead, drove northeast about 80 miles on Route 4 (one of my primary scenic roads), then went further north and traveled southwest on Route 88.  These were taken at the northeast end of Route 4, after I went through Ebbett’s Pass:

This was at the Kinney Reservoir.  I tried getting artistic using the tree limb.

This is another angle of the reservoir from further up the road:

I believe this is Highland Peak, looking south from Highway 4:

And yes, that’s still snow on the mountain.

And these are some other things I saw before getting to the little town of Markleeville and heading north to pickup Route 88 and take it back to Jackson and then get on Route 49 south to return to Sonora.

These were taken Sunday, June 24 as I drove one of two scenic roads north of Sonora, CA where I was staying last week.  I opted not to go to Yosemite National Park until Monday and, instead, drove northeast about 80 miles on Route 4 (one of my primary scenic roads) and then went further north and traveled southwest on Route 88.  I already posted a few pictures from Route 88 from when I drove northeast on it later in the week.

This is near the Kirkwood Resort, just north of Caples Lake:

This is Caples Lake (actually a reservoir), near Kirkwood, California:

This is the same lake but from a different angle, once the road curved around it.  This is the guy in the boat I posted two pictures of on Monday last week using my phone when I couldn’t get my computer to connect to my Airbnb host’s wifi network.  This lake contains a variety of trout and some young people were fishing along the shore just to my right as I was taking this photo and had caught some.  I don’t know if the guy in the boat was having any luck, as he was on the move…

This was looking north from the highway as the road climbed to a high elevation near a ski area close to the town of Kit Carson:

This is Silver Lake, which I posted some pictures of a few days ago.  This was the first time I had driven past it and this was in the late afternoon so the sun was illuminating the western face of Deadwood Peak.

These are photos of New Melones Lake as I was getting close to home (now on Route 49) near Sonora Sunday evening:

 

I left the house at 9 o’clock Sunday morning and headed north on Route 445 – one of my primary scenic roads.  After getting over the excitement of spotting a wildfire southwest of Reno which had been reported less than two hours earlier I saw these things as I drove north:

There is a big house in front of the mountain in the photo below:

I just checked the InciWeb website again (927pm Pacific Time) and there is no new update on the Evans Fire.  I will check it first thing in the morning before I head to Lake Tahoe.

After I had driven north on scenic Route 445 I went over the top of a hill and Pyramid Lake was laid out before me:

The lake is huge, 188 square miles, and the surface is at an elevation of 3,796 feet.

As I drove around the southern tip from west to east I could see areas where people were camping or hanging out along the shore and many folks were in the water engaged in a variety of activities:

And here I was, taking it all in from up by the road:

Much of the land around Pyramid Lake, and probably the lake itself,  is actually the property of the Paiute Indian Reservation.  In their native language their name is Pesha Mu Nobenena Kooyooe Panunadukwae.  A friend of mine told me several years ago when I was driving around New Mexico that when you are on Indian land and the speed limit is 35 miles an hour you had best not be driving faster than 35 miles an hour or you’ll soon have a black SUV with festive colored lights pulling you over and you’ll be headed to Tribal Court.  I saw signs when I stopped a few places to take pictures (from the main road) that vehicles MUST have a Tribal Permit before driving on the dirt roads down to the lake.

Here are some things I saw while I drove on Routes 446 and 447 around the southern tip of Pyramid Lake:

I drove past a tree next to the road which had a large bird sitting in it.  I went back and got out of the car with the digital camera and, of course, before I even got close to the tree the bird took off.  I had a little better luck with this one than I did last week with the bald eagle.  I’m pretty sure this was a red-tail hawk:

Further up the road I saw this sign asking people to keep this gate closed (which it is, it is just thin wire mesh so you can barely see it):

When I got to the east side of the lake I stopped the car and by just walking a short distance in various directions got all these shots:

This is looking southwest towards Virginia Peak, elevation 8,367 feet.  (The lake surface is at 3,796 feet elevation).

When I drove around the corner of this small hill I stopped to take a picture of this formation:

You can’t see them in the photo above but a flock of 11 birds, which I presumed were seagulls, was flying towards me, well above the dark part of the formation left of center.

You may just barely be able to see them in the photo below.  I could see them clearly with sunglasses on.

I quickly got the digital camera out of the car but by the time it was on and ready they were flying directly overhead and I was looking into the sun.  I changed my guess from seagulls to white pelicans once they had gotten closer, and that was confirmed when I saw several more flocks of them flying closer to the lake, very high up in the air.  I learned about white pelicans last year when I was near Denver (search “Pelican Point” on the Home page or use the calendar there to go look at posts from October 16, 2017).

After I took some more photos north of that spot and turned the car around I saw this one lone pelican circling slowly overhead.  I thought this was my perfect opportunity to get some good closeups but every time it turned so I’d get a good frontal shot the camera refocused, so here are the best shots of the bunch:

One of these days I’ll nail it but evidently I still need more practice.

Here is one more rock formation from this portion of the scenic road I was on:

Oh, and this is probably how Pyramid Lake got it’s name:

 

When I reached the northernmost point of my scenic road (when I got east of Tohakum Peak) I decided it wasn’t going to be very scenic any more and decided I’d turn around.  This is a 4-shot panorama after I went over the last hill, looking north, which made up my mind for me.  This covers a little over 180 degrees of viewing:

After reaching the northernmost part of the scenic road I was on east of Pyramid Lake I turned around and headed south towards Interstate 80.  This route would take be back through the little town of Nixon (a friend of mine is a huge fan of Richard Nixon so I dedicate this post to him).  Usually towns have a sign showing their name, population and elevation but Nixon didn’t have any coming in from any direction.  The population appears to be plenty big enough – I’ve seen towns with a population as low as 9 which rated a sign…

A local (tribal) police officer stopped while I was pulled off the side of the road to text these to my friend and I assured him everything was alright and that I was just a simple tourist who didn’t want to engage in distracted driving.

While in town I also spotted these vehicles inside a fence – and I hope they can stay there!

I drove further south on Route 447 and saw these things:

This is a 3-shot panorama – left to right:

And Nevada has the neatest “Historic Marker” signs I have ever seen:

When I got to the dreaded interstate I was delighted to find a Pilot truck stop (for which I have a loyalty card) and I was able to gas up for 2.909, well below the 3.25+ I was expecting to pay in Sparks.

After I drove scenic road #1 for the day (northeast of Sparks, near Pyramid Lake) I dropped down south of Interstate 80 and tackled scenic road #2, Nevada Route 50, or at least a small part of it.  A friend of mine had told me about this road but I never knew exactly where it was.  Turns out that Highway 50 crosses the United States from West Sacramento, California to Ocean City, Maryland.  The portion which runs through central Nevada is called the “Loneliest Road in America”.

(Photo credit: Newsweek.com)

(Photo credit: doityourselfrv.vom)

I drove a small part of the road as far as Fallon, NV and decided that was enough.  I love to drive but I really didn’t want to drive over 300 miles across central Nevada for 5 1/2 hours and then turn around and do it again.  Plus I was anxious to get home and post today’s photos, and update the status on the wildfire I spotted this morning.

Fallon itself is a cute little town.  Here are some shots taken on their Maine Street (yes, the ‘e’ is included at no additional cost to you!):

This sign painted on the side of a building caught my eye:

Note that the painter took some editorial liberty and changed the ‘r’ in YOUR to lower case…

I looked at some photos online and found this one as well:

(Photo credit: icollector.com)

A little ways east of Fallon I found this place:

A friend suggested I run some hot laps with my Altima but this is a dirt track and I just had my car washed this morning, otherwise…..