Heading For Nevada

(June 3,2009) After we left Ridgecrest, the weather began to change.  It got very windy and we did run into some rain.  Actually it was raining sideways because of the wind. 

 

Lucky for us it was a tail wind, so we got really good gas mileage on this leg of the trip.  We reached the little town of Lee Vining, CA about 6:30pm.  We debated about going up into Yosemite National Park but decided to press on instead.  I love this area, it’s very pretty.  One of the unusual  sites along this stretch of Highway 395 is Mono Lake.  (I couldn’t find a good picture of Mono Lake in my files so here’s a postcard picture of it.)

It is a large, shallow, alkaline lake that is impressive enough from a distance but close up has added interest in the form of unusual tufa (calcium carbonate) pinnacles, deposited over thousands of years around underwater springs and now left exposed because the lake level has fallen in recent times.

About 7:30pm that evening we reached Chris’s Flat campground on Highway 395.  We’ve also stayed at this campground before and it’s primitive but very clean and well maintained.  Chris’s Flat Campground is  located right beside the West Fork of the Walker River but if  you camp here, you need to be prepared for low temperatures during the night, because it’s  at 6,600 feet elevation.   It’s so beautiful in this area of the Central Sierra Mountains……

 

The night sky in the Central Sierra Mountain Range

June 4, 2009 brought warm sunshine

West fork of the Walker River borders one side of the campground

The beautiful Nevada sky…

We finally got rolling again and made it into Gardnerville, Nevada mid day, where we got some lunch.  The Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Center is located in this old school building in Gardnerville.

After lunch and filling the gas tank we continued on to the little town of Genoa, Nevada.  Genoa was Nevada’s first settlement, established in 1851. I’ll give you just a little history from a pamphlet I picked up there; John Reese and 16 other men settled what was then known as Mormon Station on July 4, 1851.  Mormon Station would become known as Nevada’s first permanent settlement.  Mormon Station was renamed Genoa by Judge Orson Hyde in 1855 presumably after a mission he made to Genoa, Italy.  The current town proper population is 220 people.  The elevation is 4,700 feet with a climate similar to that of an alpine village. Snow is common in the winter and summer temps can reach 100 degrees.  The town has several quaint shops & restaurants as well as two museums and a park.

 

The doors into the Genoa Bar are very tall and narrow, as you can see.  But  incase you can’t see the door knobs….they are very low down on the doors so that the cowboys couldn’t open them while sitting on their horses.

Next stop~Virginia City, Nevada.