Hiking Sacramento Pass Trails in White Pine County

It was spring break, and we needed to get out of the house! Fortunately we live in a county where the population density is 1.1 people per square mile. We wanted to hike on a trail, so we headed to Sacramento Pass Trails on Highway 6 & 50, about 15 minutes northwest of Baker, Nevada. These trails were developed as part of a SNPLMA project and are some of the most overlooked trails around. Here are previous posts about mountain biking, trail running, and camping.

The kids were eager to go for a hike. That's when I knew what a toll all this social distancing is on them. They usually groan and complain, but they were quite ready to get out of the house, even when I said we were going to do a two-hour hike.

We drove to the upper trailhead and started on the Sac Pass Trail. The views were fantastic.

Then we took the Lucky Boy Trail to the junction of the Mine Shaft Trail and took that.

The Mine Shaft Trail heads to the east and goes around a long, rocky knoll. Our plan was to do part of it and take a shortcut back.

I was expecting a lot of wildflowers, but we didn't see that many blooming. We did see a lot of this phlox, which I think is grayleaf phlox (Phlox griseola). I've uploaded it to iNaturalist, but haven't gotten a confirmation yet.

The leaves are very grey, and the flowers extend a bit from corolla tubes (I think that's the right terminology). 

After a bit, we reached the loop of the Mine Shaft Trail. I convinced the kids to stop and smile.

We continued on a bit, going over a pass and onto the east side, where we could see the curving highway. Off on the distant hills, I could see...

 ...the scattered patches of lighter color. These used to be nicknamed the "silver dollars." When gophers or harvester ants disturbed the surrounding vegetation, winterfat would grow. However, when cheatgrass invaded the area, it took over many of the silver dollar circles. From closeup, the patches don't look very circular or even all that noticeable. But from afar, you sure can see a pattern.

 While we were hiking, the kids came up with a survival game. They picked different locations, like a deserted South Pacific island or the Sahara Dunes, and we each got to choose seven things we would bring with us to survive. It was quite entertaining as we considered different items.

When we got near the balanced rock and the wash, I suggested we take the shortcut. The kids readily agreed.

Going up the wash was a little trickier than I had thought. Of course we weren't looking for the easiest route, but the funnest route!

The kids are in the photo below for scale--these rocks are big!

It didn't take too long to emerge on the west side. 

I suggested we take a break and play on the rocks.

As we climbed higher, we got some good views.

It was such a nice place to scamper.

Eventually we decided it was time to head back. We decided to bushwhack. It was easy at first, through sagebrush, then a little more complicated through pinyon-juniper, but none of it was hard.

And along the way we even saw another wildflower, dwarf lousewart (Pedicularis centranthera).

In the next few weeks, hiking Sac Pass Trails should be ideal. They are currently snow-free, and even more wildflowers will be blooming. Take some water, as there is none available. And you're likely not to see anyone else, so take anything else you might need. It's a great getaway! As the temps rise, the trails will get hot in the middle of the day, so early and late in the day will be more desirable.

2020 Ely Film Festival

Ely, Nevada held its inaugural film festival in 2020. As part of it, they held a student film competition. The rules were: limit of 5 minutes long, theme of macabre (gloomy, grim), must include a scene from White Pine County, a pocketwatch, and the line, "Look at the fine mess you've gotten us into." The competition was announced in mid-January, with the entries due the beginning of March. I told the kids they had to enter, as I thought they'd gain some good skills from it. I advised them to do their filming in January and editing in February. Of course they didn't listen and were rather last minute. But hopefully they learned from that!

The Ely Film Festival had a fun schedule. We couldn't attend the Friday events, but we went for the Saturday afternoon session, which included a panel on drone photography. They showed a couple videos from Spirit of Nevada, a series that has done short videos for various places around Nevada. They've done four for Ely and the area, and they do a good job showing what the county looks like.

Next was a session about short videos that had been filmed in Ely, including this AT&T commercial that used the Nevada Northern Railway. We heard about how snowy conditions made the shoot harder than expected.

Then it was on to watching the student videos and awards. Desert Girl and her best friend made a movie. Actually they made three, but could only submit one. They learned lots about video editing on iMovie (fortunately after a few instructions, they flew through it), camera angles, and just how much you can make up and still have the audience believe you. They were a little shy when they were called up to the front, but did well answering questions. Their movie was called Murder Past Midnight.

Desert Boy wasn't so shy. He seemed to really enjoy talking in front of the crowd. His movie was called Scorched. It's set in a post-apocalyptic White Pine County. He lucked out in that when he filmed it, the weather was terrible.

Desert Boy ended up getting second place and The Nevada First Lady's Choice. He was delighted with that. Here they are all posing with Robin from the Nevada Film Office.

We were at the Postal Palace, so I had the kids pose in front of the post office boxes.

And here are the student films. Remember, the theme is macabre, so they are all a little dark.
Second place and First Lady's Choice:


This one was by an adult, and next year there will be an adult category.


Honorable Mention


Third place


First place


There were also feature length films shown in the evenings, but they were rated PG-13, so we didn't stay for those, but the people that did really enjoyed them. The directors gave talks about the movie, which helped the viewers understand the movies even better.

Friday night was The Great Darkened Days by Quebec's Maxime Giroux. The film won many prizes in Canada, including best cinematography. Much of it was filmed in and near Ely.



Saturday night was the world premier of Dutch Marich's Reaptown. Dutch is from nearby Ruth, Nevada, and the film was entirely shot in Ely.



I think this Film Festival is just going to keep growing. Nevada has some spectacular scenery, and I know of some film makers who filmed a month earlier this year specifically in White Pine County.

The dates for next year's Ely Film Festival have been set: March 12-14, 2021! Like their Facebook Page to stay up to date.

2017 Caves

In a beautiful local cave with friend Teresa and kids

2017 was a terrific year for caving. I went in caves at almost sea level down in Quintana Roo, Mexico, and in a fumarole cave at the top of Mount Rainier, over 14,000 feet high. Plus many in between!

I taught cave rescue classes in Texas, Arizona, and Oregon. The kids and I went to the National Speleological Society (NSS) Western Regional at Lava Beds in California. I was part of the CavesLIVE project filmed in Arkansas. Plus there was lots of great regional caving, including some super paleontological finds and assistance with archeological projects. Cave clean ups included two lint camps and a trip to a well known Utah cave.

Here are a variety of photos. In order to protect some of the caves, I don't necessarily give their name (plus some I've forgotten!).

Surveying a cave in Quintana Roo by float tube (Photo credit: Frank Bogle)


Hiking through the caves is sometimes easier than hiking through the jungle; with Carol and Peter in Quintana Roo


Sunlight filtering through an entrance into a fumarole cave in the summit crater of Mt. Rainier


The Buddha: a landmark in a local cave. It's survived many inundations.

Lint camp is surprisingly fun and brings out lots of smiles

I still don't know how this helictite column formed.

Another cave pretty: a gypsum flower

A trip through the humongous Talus Room at lint camp

A hydrologic oddity--water spouting off to the side. Only happens during fast snow melt.

The beautiful Model Cave harvestman (Sclerobunus ungulatus)

Checking out a cool earth crack cave in Arizona

Stations at a Flagstaff-area cave during a Small Party Assisted Rescue class

On rope next to my brother Ed

It's over a giant snow drift to get into this ice-coated cave

A minuscule millipede, only known from one isolated cave

At the bottom of Nevada's deepest cave, admiring the ice

One of the ephemeral oddities at the bottom of the deepest cave in Nevada

With friends in Blanchard Springs Caverns for the filming of CavesLIVE  (airing in mid-February)

Amazing cave folia

A rare posed photo with friends

Desert Girl in a lava tube at Lava Beds National Monument

Desert Boy in Valentine Cave at Lava Beds National Monument 

A cave millipede

Unusual bones found in a cave

Admiring cool carrot-like stalactites

My good caving pal Doug, who I will go into any cave with

Who will solve the mystery of the ripples on the broken inside of a cave shield?

Cool speleothems

Louise explaining coral pipes

It's always a treat to walk in a Nevada cave!

Classic boneyard ceiling (eroded partially by condensation corrosion)

The lone stalagmite

Checking out more bones in a cave

In a cave with a lot of graffiti for a little cleanup

Bonny smoothing out some of the graffiti in punk rock

A cool cave beetle

We're looking forward to another year with more fun caving. You never know what might be underground!