September 8, 2018 Crossing Nevada

One thing we noticed about our drive across Nevada on I-80 was the prevalence of mining, and geothermal leaks.  We saw one plant that appeared to be capturing the geothermal energy.  No idea what is being mined (some kind of mineral?), but in some places whole mountainsides were being scraped off.

We also noticed that most of the towns that are anywhere near mountains have labeled a nearby mountain with the town initial.  A HUGE initial, visible for a long way.

Geothermal leaks.

Lovelock, Nevada

Mining.

Winnemucca, Nevada

Geothermal leaks.

Mining.

Mining.

September 7, 2013 Tufa rock formations, Pyramid Lake, Nevada

These were some of the strangest rock formations we've ever seen.  We climbed all over this thing, and it is riddled with caves both shallow and deep;  some were blackened by many fires.  There was evidence of people partying (graffiti and broken glass) but it was remarkably unspoiled.  There were lots of other piles of rock like this, but I think we picked the best one to investigate!

Here's the explanation....

The pile of Tufa rocks we clambered around on was at this beach.

Here's the whole thing; it's way bigger than it looks here!
That's a road to the beach, not a walking path....

I'm thinking this part of the rock pile might be why it's called Indian Head beach.

Can you see Bubba there on the right?  (hint: he's wearing blue)

An amazing archway.

September 7, 2013 Pyramid Lake, near Fernley, Nevada

We spent 2 nights in Fernley, Nevada (east of Reno) and are glad we did, since it gave us a whole day to wander around the area.  Our choice was to drive up to Pyramid Lake which is big blue lake plopped down in the middle of sagebrush desert in the Great Basin.  Since it's on a Paiute reservation, there has been very little commercialization and the waters remain pristine.  We drove around both sides of the bottom half of the lake, and kept noticing these strange rock formations beside the water, which is the subject of the next blog post!

This shows the size of the lake.

Anaho Island.
This is the pelican rookery during the summer.

These ravens looked pretty comfortable.
We didn't want to intrude and had lunch at a different table.

The pyramid.

Beautiful shade of blue.

Whatta man!