Being from a part of India, where winter is just another word in the dictionary, I had naively assumed that I was conditioned to hot summers. But after a few hours of driving on US Route 93 in Nevada, I had to contritely accept that a dry 45-degree heat, without the cooling touch of humidity, was not my cup of tea.
As I approached Ely, 250 miles North of Las Vegas, I rued my decision to leave the air-conditioned comfort of cavernous casinos and venture into the high desert of Nevada.
Pronounced ‘Eee-Lee’, Ely was primarily developed as a stage coach station on the Pony Express and Central Overland Route during the days of the Wild West. Its boom came when copper was discovered around here in 1906.
A Highway 50 signboard
Today, it is a quiet little town that sits on what is often cited as the Loneliest Road in America — Route 50. Constructed in 1926, it stretches 3,000 miles from Ocean City, Maryland, on the Atlantic coast, to Sacramento in California, just a stone’s throw from the Pacific.
The highway’s 300-mile run through Nevada from Ely westwards to Carson City is called the ‘Loneliest Road in America’ because it used to be a lawless section of the Pony Express Route, on which wiry young men rode carrying mail during the 19th-Century gold rush era. In fact, the requirements were ‘young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen. Must be expert rider willing to risk death daily… Orphans preferred’.
From a fairytale
Hearing me whine about the searing heat, the waitress at the Cell Block Steak House — where you dine on the choicest cuts of meat in old jail cells — asked me if I’d like to stomp around on some glaciers. At first I thought that the girl was touched in the head. But the way she gave me directions convinced me of truth in her words.
The Great Basin National Park
This is how I came to know about the Great Basin National Park, the only national park entirely within Nevada. The scintillating scene she described comprised alpine forests and lakes ringed with glaciers that feed them. It seemed like an enchanted forest from the pages of a book of fairytales. The next morning, I drove off from Ely at 4.45 am, and 64 miles later, I parked at the Wheeler Peak Campground car park inside the Great Basin National Park. Along the way, I had been treated to a picture-perfect sunrise just as the road started to snake into the Great Basin Mountain Range. The altitude gained from the base to the car park was 4,569 ft, transporting me to a different climate zone. From the car park, it took me another hour to hike up to two pretty alpine lakes called Stella (10,400 ft) and Teresa (10,275 ft). I startled a few peacefully-grazing deer. And I did get to stomp on the glaciers that fed the lakes. It felt like magic because in another hour I would be sweltering in the 45-degree heat, but right now I was shivering in the cold and standing on ice.
Back at the car park, I met a bearded man who had just arisen after a fitful night’s sleep in his tent. He was doing his morning stretches and filling his lungs with salubrious mountain air. I shared my amazement about finding a spot of winter during the height of summer in Nevada, and he told me of a canyon in the Ruby Mountains, a short drive from the town of Elko. This canyon too had a microclimate system very much like the Great Basin National Park. So I set off towards Elko.
Through a magic portal
Next morning, on the little road through the Lamoille Canyon, I felt like I had gone through a magic portal. On the NF 600, the twisty road from the main highway through the canyon to the Lamoille Lake car park, I had inanely ignored the speed limit and a local sheriff had pulled up behind me. Fortunately, he was also a trekking and photography enthusiast and a local lad and, rather than a ticket, he just reprimanded me and then gave me some tips on the best route to trek up to the lake. His advice made that four-hour hike up to the Dollar Lakes and the Lamoille Lake one of the most memorable highlights of my road trip in Nevada. On this trail, I often had to walk across snowdrifts, and even logs thrown across streams to ford them had a layer of ice on them. The Lamoille Lake was still partly frozen. Besides that, it was a beautiful and clear day that made me go a little crazy with my camera.
I had always imagined Nevada to be the glitz of Las Vegas and the monotonous brown desert that is its countryside, but these two hidden gems completely changed my impression about the state. In fact, the next time I am in Las Vegas, I am going to take a week off just to camp and tramp around the Great Basin National Park.
Planning the trip
Fly Etihad Airways into Los Angeles and out of San Francisco. This is the best choice of airline in terms of cost, comfort and convenience, especially since US Immigration and Customs pre-clearance is done in Abu Dhabi and all you have to do once you land is collect your bags and walk out.
Sixt Rent a Car is a good choice because they have a mouth-watering fleet and have great deals on fun-to-drive American muscle cars like the Dodge Charger Road and Track, the Mustang GT and on Germans like Beemers and Mercs.
Booking and paying for your car in advance gives you the best deals. A credit card and a driver’s licence in English, with the name of the person renting the car, are required. Fancier cars like the Corvette might require two credit cards.
Road Tips
-Always carry enough water in the car. Drinks that replenish isotonic salts are a good idea too.
-Carry cash for fuel, as non-US credit cards are not accepted in Nevada service stations. Non-US credit cards work fine in hotels, shops, restaurants etc.
-If you’re visiting in summer, hiking from pre-dawn to 10 am is great, but not after that, as heatstroke is a real risk.
-As long as you have a smartphone, Google Maps will guide you. GPS is not required. But always carry a detailed road map in the glove box as it will definitely enhance your trip.
TEST DRIVE
The world’s first recorded long-distance road trip by an automobile is said to have taken place in Germany in August 1888 when Bertha Benz (the wife of Karl Benz) travelled from Mannheim to Pforzheim. It was a distance of 106 km.
These websites are great resources to plan your Nevada roadtrip:
www.nps.gov/grba/planyourvisit/the-great-basin.htm
