A "Lonliest Road" Road Trip

A few weeks ago Calvin made his 6th trip across Nevada by bike. The route follows Highway 50, dubbed the Lonliest Road in America, from the California state line to the Utah state line.  

 Lunch in Eureka 

Calvin and Vance coming into the last rest stop.

I joined Calvin in Ely, NV on Thursday night before Friday's last push to the border.

Ely isn't a large town, but they make the most of their attractions.  They have a "mural walk" highlighting the murals on many of the town's buildings.  They were fun to see, but my favorite was the oldest, dating from the 1930's. Pure Nevada.

The road approaching town passes through Ruth, which is now a giant open pit copper mine. In the late afternoon sunlight the colors of the tailings were quite spectacular, but when I took a picture in the morning they didn't look quite as bright. This is just part of the Robinson mine. You need a panorama shot to get it all. The mine reopened in 2012 and they plan to work it until 2022 when they will begin reclamation.

While Calvin was riding Friday morning I went garnet hunting. Garnet Hill is a BLM site just outside of Ely where you can go rock hounding and keep what you find. I was totally unprepared to hunt garnets, no rock hammer, goggles gloves etc., so I just looked around on the ground. I did find garnets, although you almost need a microscope to see them.

Just after lunch I picked Calvin up from his ride and we proceeded along another really lonely road to Cedar City.

The last time I picked Calvin up from this ride we spent two day touring around Cedar City, so this time we just stayed over night, but we did get the chance to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. (Not exactly Shakespeare but always entertaining.)