Birthday Trip to Big Warm Spring at Duckwater

 Ava wanted to go to Big Warm Spring at Duckwater for her tenth birthday, and we fortunately were able to join in. This amazing hot spring is located kind of in the middle of nowhere, but that's part of the charm. I have a previous post that gives a lot more info about the spring.

The kids took turns with the underwater camera.

It was great having goggles and masks to see more.

The water was gorgeous, as always.

And no chlorine, so it doesn't hurt your eyes!

The main spring head is a cave-like hole about ten feet deep.

The older kids started floating down the channel, and I headed after them to see what they were doing. I got distracted by the abundant aquatic vegetation.

And the Railroad Valley springfish.

I couldn't see the kids, but I could hear them...

...they were taking a break just around the corner.

Then they wanted to keep heading downstream.

I stopped to admire the goldenrod. You always know that summer is coming to an end when you see the goldenrod blooming.

We eventually got out and walked back to the main pool. Some of the silt that had been stirred up had settled, allowing for some fun underwater photos.

It was a terrific afternoon! Happy birthday, Ava!

First Time at 4-H Camp

 This is the first year for our kids in 4-H. My husband participated for many years as a kid, showing animals. I also participated, even though I was a townie and never showed animals. I have fun memories of doing tree leaf collections and baking cookies.

4-H is so much cooler now, with a whole variety of projects. Desert Boy is signed up for a lamb, shooting, legos, and computer coding. Desert Girl is a cloverbud (younger, non-competitive 4-H) and signed up for entomology and flowers.

Other possible 4-H categories include baking, sewing, crafts, model rocketry, outdoor cooking, photography, robotics, welding, woodworking, and more.

There are lots of 4-H meetings, but we've missed them all because we live so far away and currently don't have a local club. But we heard about 4-H camp, which was over the course of three days. We already had other activities planned for the first and third days, but we could attend Saturday, which was Family Day. We drove out to White River Valley and to the unmarked camp, which is on private property. 4-H camp has been held at the same spot for a long time, next to a hot spring. My husband used to go there. A metal building is a new addition and allows for a variety of activities out of the hot sun.

The first activity of the day: an obstacle course. First, get through the spider web.

After making a simulated campfire, run to the pond.

Two swimmers had to swim across and get some rubber duckies. Desert Boy volunteered to be one of the swimmers and did okay. He could really use a swim team, but we'll just have to improvise!

Then they tied themselves together and hobbled through the door. The team that Desert Boy and Desert Girl were on won, and later they got a free icee for their efforts.

Not long after it was lunch time, with some delicious hamburgers.

It was getting hot after lunch, so it was time for a water game. PVC pipes had holes in them, and the kids had to cover the holes with a goal of filling the pipe to the top.

Water kept spilling out of the pan, making it a cold task.

When that was done, it was time to swim! My husband and I looked at the hot spring, which was off limits. The water was quite hot.

First, a group photo.

Then into the pond! The water comes from the hot spring, so is quite pleasant.

The bathtub used to be a soaking place, but it needs a good cleaning.

We enjoyed our day a lot, and the kids begged to stay longer. We could have, as there was a fatal accident on the highway by a construction zone and we were delayed a couple hours. Drive safely!

The kids are already asking about 4-H camp for next summer, and it's tentatively planned for the second weekend in July. Hopefully they can make it and make even more great memories. And maybe next year, more local kids will participate, which will make it even more fun. :)

Exploring Central Nevada-Part 3: The Mountains

This is Part 3 of 3 of the Exploring Central Nevada blog post series.

If you missed them, check out

Part 1: Hot Springs

Part 2: Ghost Towns and Fossils

 We had left Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park and had a few hundred miles to drive home. We could take Highway 50, but why not explore a little bit more? I had researched that there was a really great drive through the Toiyabe Mountains, along Big Creek and over a pass and along Kingston Creek. We were driving a tough 4WD pickup truck, so I knew this would be a good time to do it. As soon as we entered the canyon, we were impressed, tall mountains surrounded us. How would this road turn out?

The wildflowers were spectacular. Here are some shooting stars near a spring on the side of the road.

 The road got steeper and narrower, and we had ATVs coming from the other direction. We were hoping the road wouldn't get really gnarly. Fortunately, it was nothing that a little 4 Low couldn't handle, and we went up and over some amazing high country. On the other side, we stopped by beautiful Kingston Creek to play in the water and enjoy the scenery.

Desert Girl was delighted to catch a butterfly.

I could have stayed there overnight, but we had other plans, so we kept going.

Further on we passed the start of the  Toiyabe Crest Trail, marked as TCT on a sign. This trail is 75-miles long, built by the CCC in the 1930s, and according to some, doesn't look like it's been maintained much since then. It starts on this road and extends south to the South Twin River Trail. It skirts the tall peaks and follows along the high country. It sounds like it would be a fun adventure...someday! Apparently finding water along the way is part of the challenge, with up to 20-mile long stretches dry.

Not much farther down the road we found a large reservoir with lots of campers and anglers. At one end, though, we had it all to ourselves.

We enjoyed dinner in Eureka at the Urban Cowboy Bar and Grill, and then continued on our way. The evening light on Ely made me want to stop and take a photo.

We didn't stay, but instead headed to nearby Cave Lake State Park, where we luckily nabbed the last campsite at the Lakeview Campground. After claiming our campsite, we quickly went back to the lake to check it out.

The kids had fun showing their babysitter the fish and crawdads.

It's such a scenic lake! The surrounding mountains cradle the lake.

We ate some food and then Desert Girl went with me for a walk along the shoreline to enjoy the sunset.

 It was one of the longest sunsets I've ever seen, with the clouds continually changing colors and being reflected in the lake.

The kids wanted to pose for a photo. Then it was time for showers (hurray!) and enjoying the campfire. We were all too lazy to set up the tent, so we just put our sleeping pads and bags down on the ground and in the back of the truck. It looked like it would be a perfect night for sleeping under the stars.

I still wanted to get more photos, so I headed back to the lake to get some long exposures. The moon was rising fast enough that I wasn't going to get a good Milky Way photo, so I hoped for some star shots. What I wasn't expecting was to get so much color in the cloud.

Crawdad hunters were out, roaming the shores, so I had some interesting flashlight flares in some photos I took. Then the moon rose and lit up the other shore.

When I got back to camp, I took one more photo. Then it was time to snooze.

The next morning we got groceries and headed home. Overall, it was a great trip, and we all enjoyed exploring more of Nevada that most people don't have an opportunity to see.

Exploring Central Nevada-Part 1: Hot Springs

 In mid-June I got a hankering to go exploring. I took some time off off work, and we loaded up, the kids, the au pair, the dog, and me. We headed west on U.S. 50, lunched in Ely, and then took a quick stop at Illipah Reservoir, where the wind was fierce.

Just a little bit further on, we stopped on the side of the road to let these huge oversize loads go by. They definitely take up more than one lane! Being in a mining state, this is a fairly frequent sight on the highways.

After a swim in Eureka's pool, we continued on and exited the highway to head to Potts' Hot Springs, also called Monitor Hot Springs. We found the old Potts ranch and stopped to enjoy the view.

It was still nice and green out in the meadows, and the late afternoon sunlight was gorgeous.

The road to Potts' Hot Springs was marked as 'No Public Access,' so we respected that and continued on to Diana's Punch Bowl, which was about 30 minutes away. I had previously visited this spectacular site, and was eager to return. The sun had already set by the time we arrived, so we set up camp at the base and then wandered up to observe the hot spring under the full moon. Diana's Punch Bowl is a 30-foot deep cauldron that's about 50 feet in diameter. It rises off the valley floor, seemingly without rhyme or reason. The evening primrose was blooming right on the edge. The water in it is reportedly very hot, about 170 degrees F, so we didn't want to go in.

Our camp was simple, and I love primitive camping in the middle of nowhere. We heard some coyotes howl in the night, but no sounds of civilization. It was wonderful.

I awoke early and got some sunrise photos of Diana's Punchbowl.

It was just cool enough that steam was rising. And the full moon was setting.

 With one angle, I captured a lot of steam.

Then I wandered down over the other side, and the shooting stars caught my eye.

The hot water in the nearby creek is cool enough to soak in, but it's not very deep. It looks like at one time someone worked to improve it, but now it's in a fairly natural state.

Orange algae dotted one end, and steam rose along the channel.

I went back to camp and everyone got up and ate. Then it was to the top for a group photo.

Our next destination was to the Toquima Campground, which was totally empty. We set off on the quarter-mile trail to Toquima Cave. I admired the buckwheat on the way.

The trail meandered through the pinyon-juniper to some cliffs.

I got distracted again by flowers!

When I caught up to the kids and Charlie, Desert Boy was scaling the huge gate over the entrance. The kids were so happy to climb.

Through the gate we could see some amazing pictographs. Some call these the best pictographs in the Great Basin. It's very unusual to see yellow coloring in pictographs.

We admired them for awhile, speculating on what they mean. Then we headed back to the vehicle and continued over the pass to Big Smoky Valley to Spencer Hot Springs.

After we soaked in the pool for awhile, we wandered around to check out the other hot springs. The trough was too hot for me, but the others could handle it.

After a bit, we had our fill and headed to Austin for a break at the playground. Austin has the best playground I've seen along Highway 50, and as an added bonus, some folks stopped with their dog, and Maggie had the best hour playing.

Next up...on to fossils and ghost towns!