New Road Art

Note: I've been working on this post for about a week (yes, sometimes it takes me a while!). Today I got a phone call that NDOT had taken a loader and dump truck and removed the road art from along the road. An email thread on our local listserve indicated that according to Randy Hesterlee, Assistant District Engineer for NDOT, someone had called the NDOT office complaining about the road art being a safety issue. NDOT stated they have a right-of-way 100 feet from the center line in each direction and removed road art within that distance, except for things hanging on the fence, which they didn't think caused any danger. If any one wants to claim the road art as theirs, they can call John Ogden at 775-289-1700 to arrange a pickup.

Some new road art has been appearing on the road to Great Basin National Park. I was talking with another local about it, and he said he stopped when he saw one of these new pieces being installed. A sixth grader, who's being homeschooled in North Snake Valley, made these creations. They represent images in our dark night skies. The one above is the Dolphin, leaping from the waves.

She did a great job welding lots of details onto the dolphin. The wind blew it over, so we tried to stick it back upright so more people can enjoy it.

This one was put up earlier in the summer and is the winged pegasus. I heard that it was put up in celebration of the Dark Sky Certification of Great Basin National Park.

Again, the details are marvelous. Here are the feet.

And a close up of the head.

Desert Girl really wanted to go for a ride!

The Big Dipper (I think--could also be the Little Dipper) is new near the Baker Ranching Exhibit (which has some marvelous metalwork done by Bill and Kathy Rountree).

Each of the stars has a spigot.


Nearby is this constellation. Do you know it?

If you need a clue, the name is written on it.

The queen not only has her crown, but also her "W" shape. And the mirror lets anyone who wishes to be queen see herself. It's a great design!

We stopped and took a closer look at "Hang Out," which has been up for awhile, but we hadn't made the time to really look at it.

Again, the detail was fabulous. So much thought went into each part!

There are decorations hanging out too.

Last year this concrete buck appeared under the juniper tree. It looked really cool, and I wondered how long it would take some idiot to think it really was a deer and shoot it. Well, it took a few months, but eventually someone did blast it. (Doesn't give you much hope if someone can't tell a concrete buck from a real one; plus shooting from the road is illegal.)

We found the face on the ground, and Desert Girl held it up for a photo.

This is another constellation, but you might have to go by the British name to identify it. They call the Big Dipper the Plow.

Here's the Flower Bed. Or maybe the Bed of Roses? Part of the fun of Road Art is trying to figure out what they are. Most have puns as part of their art.

This is a true masterpiece: "Wheeler Peak." The "peak" is make of bicycle wheels. But there's more.

The faces that adorn the sides are made from old bike seats with interesting adornments. They kind of look like aliens. Which is fitting, since the Internet says that a UFO crashed on a nearby dry lakebed, and that the ETs took refuge in the area. (Seriously, this does exist on the Internet. See more here.)

Then check out this huge dreamcatcher, called "Baker Mix." it is made with all sorts of baking utensils, like whisks and slatted spoons and measuring cups and cookie cutters. It is amazing.

A few paintings also dot the fenceline, some calling attention to the beautiful night skies over Snake Valley.

I would usually say go take a look at this marvelous art, but most of it is now gone. You can see some more road art in these posts: 2015, Our Little Solar System, Solar System Restored, 2012, Rollin Springs, 2009, Introduction to Road Art.

Snake Valley Festival with Family

 We so much enjoyed having family here during the Snake Valley Festival! They went to so many events and even helped set up and move items. We enjoyed the community breakfast to start off the second day. (The first day was the ice cream social with music and the beer tasting and silent auction.)

The book sale was a hit with the schoolteacher!

Desert Boy put some money in the bag for his sister's road art project. It didn't end up winning (the amazing Mt. Wheeler bicycle wheel art won), but she helped raise some money for the Great Basin Water Network.

We had fewer parade entries this year. I'm not sure if it was because more kids than mine wanted to watch the parade than be in it. Desert Boy wanted more candy. But this wasn't an election year, and there was no candy! He has already said he wants to be in next year's parade. Fortunately we had a band, they fit in the back of a pickup.

And a few fire trucks.

And some horses! We love the horses and horse riders!

Later Desert Girl hooked up with some friends and convinced a papa to read a book she had bought at the book sale.

Then it was time for some games on the Baker Hall lawn.

And activities.

Desert Girl had a winning strategy for the kids' silent auction raffle. She bought tickets to put in bags for different items. She put most of her tickets in the bags that didn't have any other tickets and won a whole bunch of stuff. She didn't really care too much what it was, she just felt lucky. She enjoyed showing her friend Isaac the goodies.

Later we had a great water fight (didn't manage any photos of that but the kids and I were happily soaked from head to foot). Then we took a break to change and get ready for the evening. Desert Girl rehearsed for the talent show--a rendition of What does the fox say?

The BBQ dinner was delicious.

And then it was talent show time. Desert Girl needed a little coaching (I was teased for my impersonation of a pageant show mom), but Desert Boy had no qualms about being a weight-lifting joke teller.

Desert Boy and his friend Ava won the Junior Snake Valley competition.

We watched some amazing talents, such as eating a stick of butter, recycling water, tying maraschino cherry stems with a tongue, stepping through paper, and other things you would never even imagine. I did tree pose for a minute, with kids providing some wind to blow me over.

The crowd was duly entertained.

At the end of the night we had a Mr. Teen Snake Valley, Mr. and Ms. Snake Valley, Mr. and Ms. Junior Snake Valley, and Mr. and Ms. Senior Snake Valley. I'm sure they will all represent the valley well.

The next morning we got up for the Snake Valley Slither, a 5k race. Desert Boy ran it in his sandals, not very fast.

Spectators looked for shade, as it was hot even at 7 am.

Nevertheless, everyone who started finished, some even with big smiles!

Desert Boy rallied to run at the end.

Then we had a quick kids' race.

The little girls were adorable, and Desert Girl was so happy to get a medal. She had carefully picked out her running costume.

Even our little one-year old ran!

It was a great event, even though it was tiring, and we look forward to it again next year, the third weekend of June.

For more photos of the Snake Valley Festival, check out the Facebook page.

New Road Art

 The Road Art contest is underway, so we decided we would contribute something. Desert Girl painted most of these with a little help from me.

A couple miles away is this road art:

At first it's just eye-catching with it's large size. It's worth a stop to look at it more closely because this isn't just road art, it is true art, with amazing detail. Here are the five faces:

We noticed another piece of road art along the way:

Hopefully there will be a few more entries this week. It's always neat to see the creativity!