It has been a while since we did an extended road trip for fun. Our last two trips to Utah were short and included delivering my in-laws motorhome to some cousins and moving my mother-in-law to Farmington. Our good friend, Dave, who owned a Watermaster inflatable fishing raft, passed away last fall and his wife asked Scott if he knew anyone who might want it. Our friend, Clark, who lives in Nevada was looking for one, so we contacted him, arranged the sale and decided to deliver it on our trip. The trip was originally scheduled for April, but lingering winter weather conditions delayed it as there was still lots of snow on the passes. Then Scott had his annual opening day fishing trip to eastern Washington along with waiting for a surgery date to repair his torn rotator cuff. The surgery finally happened May 10 and 2 weeks later with his arm in a sling we took off.

We hit several new areas for us, did a lot of hiking, visited several sets of relatives and some friends, and explored some interesting sites. It was over 2 weeks of relaxation and fun. I was glad to get back out on the road and start hiking again.

We loaded up our car and teardrop trailer (we call it The Critter) and headed out May 23. This past winter we had some big high tides that brought a lot of wood up onto our beach and Scott had cut a lot of it up and put it in some boxes to take with us for campfires. I wasn’t used to driving towing the Critter and was a little nervous but he said he would do the driving. His right arm was in a sling and he just put a folded towel on the center console and propped his arm on that then drove left handed. The only thing he needed help with was the windshield wiper as it is on the right side. I did do some driving but he did the majority of it. He likes to drive.

He had made some campsite reservations ahead of time so we had a rough idea of some of the places we were going and when. The first one was outside Twin Falls, Idaho at Bruneau Dunes State Park. We stopped in Twin Falls at the Costco for gas and just to look around. We like checking out Costcos in different areas as they carry some local things we don’t find in our store. We ended up getting some beer from Idaho, a pair of flip flops and a pair of pants.

I didn’t realize there was sand dunes in Idaho and it was a nice park. They even rented “surf” boards so you could surf down the dunes. The campground wasn’t full and we had a nice site. There is an observatory there as they have very little light pollution and the evening we were there the park had arranged to have a master astronomer give a presentation. We walked to the observatory and the man had his telescope set up except the sky was very cloudy. He gave a talk and the only thing we could see was the moon and occasionally Venus. It was a nice evening even if we didn’t see a bunch of stars. The place was very quiet and we slept well.

The next morning we drove to Ely, Nevada. Clark and his wife and another friend were there fishing and we arranged to meet up with them at the KOA. We spent two nights there visiting and checking out the area while they fished. It will be a few months before Scott can fish. Clark was happy with the Watermaster and took it out fishing the next day. It gave us a little more room in our car. He told us about some interesting things to do in the area and we started exploring. We drove to Great Basin National Park a short distance to the east. We wanted to do the hike that had a lot of Bristlecone Pines but unfortunately the road to that trail was closed as there was still 3 feet of snow at that elevation.

We did manage to get a spot on an afternoon tour of the Leyman Cave. We had several hours before the tour so we did a short hike on the Oseola Trail. Got part way out on the trail when we encountered lots of water over the trail and decided to turn around and head back. It was pretty flooded in some areas from all the snowmelt.

There was some snow at the side of the road and Scott scooped some of it and put it in our little day cooler to keep the sodas cold. We had a nice lunch at a viewpoint then went back to the park office to get ready for the tour. It was an interesting tour. The guide was a geologist and did a good job explaining everything. We were checked to make sure we had not been wearing anything that had been in a cave with other bats in the past 10 years. They didn’t want a chance of these bats getting the white nose syndrome. It is a fungal disease that is killing bats in the U. S. We love caves with stalactites and stalagmites and have been to several in other states. The tour was an hour long and I wished we could have spent a little longer in certain areas so I could have taken more photos but we moved along at a pretty good pace, stopping occasionally for the guide to explain different features of the cave and some historical information.

The next day we headed out to Cave Lake State Park at an elevation of 7,300 feet off Success Summit Road and set up camp in the Elk Flat campground. The lake had been drained as there is work being done to stabilize the Cave Creek Dam which helped create the 32 acre reservoir. The Cave Lake campground is closer to the reservoir but with no water we had a better view out over the valley at the one we stayed in. We did a short drive up the Success Summit Road to look around then went to the Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Park. These ovens were in operation from 1876-1879 and helped process the silver that was being mined. It was interesting to see and read about them.

We had a very quiet evening with a campfire and some stargazing as the clouds had cleared out. The temperature dropped and we bundled up a little and the mosquitos that had been hanging out during the early evening finally went away. We enjoyed the few days we spent in Nevada seeing some new things and visiting friends. The next morning, after a nice sleep, we packed up and headed to St. George, Utah for the next part of our trip.