A Hike with the Cousins

One morning last week while the California cousins were visiting, Uncle Tom offered to take us for a hike along Silver Creek. It was a sunny, windless morning, thus perfect for the hike. We started right at the edge of the creek, crossing over it.

Henry came, too, and found a nice deep pool where he repeatedly swam to get sticks out. It didn't matter to him that both the air and water temperatures were well under 50 degrees F.

We hiked along the creek for awhile, dodging the huge sagebrush and greasewood brushes, and peering over the edge to get periodic glimpses of the creek. Big snow years and flash floods in 1952, 1982, and 2005 have cut down the channel considerably, leaving sheer banks of crumbling dirt over twenty feet high in many places.

Eventually a couple nieces and I couldn't resist the urge to go hiking right along the creek bottom.

We weren't wearing footwear appropriate to get wet, so it was a bit of a struggle in places to stay dry.

I was amazed at how many springs entered the creek, as shown by abundant watercress in areas. The watercress generally grows where the water temperature is steadier and there are more nutrients, which is what the groundwater provides. The faster-moving stream water generally has less nutrients and during the winter gets much colder and in the summer warmer than the groundwater.

Here's Ruby, showing her appreciation for our adventure hike.

Uncle Tom still had Desert Boy and was up on top of the channel at this point.

And the nieces wandered up to find a cow skeleton. They took some of the vertebrae and the jaws home with them.

Eventually everyone came down to the stream. We proved our balancing skills crossing the log across the water.

Grace and Lola, who regularly go to gymnastics classes, had no problem whatsoever. Notice the jaw bone in Grace's hand!

Uncle Eugene kept a stick with him to make sure he wasn't going to plunge over.

Part of the fun of the hike was the many times we had to cross the creek. It was just wide enough that it was hard to jump over, so we had to look for places with stepping stones or add some of our own.

Grace is carrying Desert Boy down next to the stream now.

I was awed by the roots of the big cottonwood trees. Much of the dirt that had previously contained the roots had washed away, leaving the tendrils hanging.

Grace, Desert Boy, and Lola continude to find a dry path next to the stream. Desert Boy was actually wearing irrigating boots, but he had flooded them fairly early on. Nevertheless, he seemed to get the concept that he was supposed to stay to drier ground. Most of the time.

And then we came to a small waterfall. It was cool looking, and the perfect end to the hike. Almost.

Lola, Grace, Desert Boy, and Uncle Tom pose in front of the waterfall.

And then it was time for the big find, a bit of aquatic life that resisted capture, but was eventually subdued...

...a crawdad! Ruby is ready to taste it. Now this was the perfect end to the hike.

Museum of the Future

We have a coming attraction to our area:

Museum of the Future--Coming Soon

Here is the future Board of Directors.

Happy Thanskgiving!

Wishing all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thanks for taking the time to check out this blog.

I am truly thankful for all the wonderful things in my life, and am glad I can share some of them here.

We've been enjoying visiting with family, and Desert Boy loves playing with more cousins.

Nevada Northern Railway: Food Train

This past weekend the Nevada Northern Railway held their special food trains. The price of admission to ride the train was canned food that would be donated to the Food Pantry to help those who needed food for Thanksgiving.

I took Desert Boy and three of his cousins. Desert Boy had ridden the train in May, and since then whenever we go to Ely we have to at least go and look at the trains.

The train was a lot colder in November than May, but we had warm coats, a blanket, and sat close to the wood-burning stove in the passenger car.

We pulled out of the train yard with Desert Boy making additional train noises. He sure likes the train whistle--"choo choo."

The train took us along nearly the entire length of the town of Ely, and I found it fascinating to look at the town from that perspective. The town seemed longer by train than by car, and the slow speed meant we could look the entire time and take it all in.

We passed the Renaissance Village, an architectural reconstruction of the town's early mining days.

The village was larger than I had expected, and seeing it made me really want to go and explore it. An adventure for another day!

We also got to see some of the town's brothels. This is an area of Nevada where they are legal. In the above photo, the Big Four Ranch brothel is in the foreground. In the background is the old football field and a kids' playground.

The Stardust Ranch is also in the neighborhood.

Here you can see some of the local businesses along main street.

Then we headed out of Ely and through an old tunnel.

Desert Boy has been watching the PBS kids' show Dinosaur Train, and he called the tunnel the time tunnel. His cousins had fun listening to and encouraging him. They kept spotting dinosaurs running away on the surrounding hills.

It was quite dark in the tunnel.

Eventually we came out the other side.

We found we hadn't traveled back to the Jurassic, instead we had traveled to the North Pole! Next weekend the train begins its Polar Express train rides, where Santa is waiting at the North Pole and there is hot chocolate and cookies for everyone. Sounds fun.

We continued further up the canyon, heading towards the town of Ruth, where the huge copper mines are located. Many of the pennies made before 1982 contain copper from these mines.

Before we got there, though, we saw plenty of other mining activity, reminding us why Nevada is nicknamed the Silver State. Mining is still a huge component of the economy.

The kids had to rest a little--seeing so much and the mesmerizing clickety clack of the wheels on the track made the train a good place for a little snooze.

As we got close to one of the huge mine tailings, we saw a mega-dump truck dump some of the overburden on top of one of the piles.

Then we went past some old, abandoned mine shafts.

This one had an interesting looking gate on it.

We ventured outside periodically, where the view was much better, but it was also much colder.

The train stopped under the bridge, and then we backed up on a side rail and turned around.

On the way back down, I noticed this sign above my nephew's head. It says "Nevada Brothel Owners' Assn. Supporting the Olympics in the spirit of the Old West. For historical or public relations tours please call..." Although I've mostly gotten used to living in Nevada, every once in awhile there's something that makes me blink twice.

The train has quite a few signs on it from when Salt Lake City hosted the Olympics in 2002.

It was relaxing riding back down the canyon...

...and going through town again.

We saw some really nice meadows and a stream running through them. In the background of the above photo is the train depot and shop.

Our train ride ended, and we had to get off the Ghost Train and reenter normal life in the current time period. It was a wonderful trip, and we were really surprised that more people hadn't taken advantage of it.

The Nevada Northern Railway will continue to have special train rides on selected weekends in the winter, and then when the weather warms up will go back to a six-day-a-week schedule. It is really a neat experience, and I look forward to the next ride. All Aboard!

Playing in Leaves

One nice, warm, calm day recently, we went out in the yard to play in leaves. I raked up a pile, with no illusions that the pile was for anything except to play in. We always have several truckloads of leaves to haul from our yard every autumn, but it was too nice a day to actually start that. So that meant it was time just to have fun!

Desert Boy quickly got into the spirit of things. He liked being buried up to his neck in leaves. Then he invented a game of picking up a bunch of leaves and throwing them.

I'm not sure why that amused him, but it did. And I was comfortable so I just watched.

Of course two-year old attention spans are rather short, so before long it was time for another game. This one consisted of running back and forth through the leaves. It went on for quite awhile. I kept hoping he might be using up some of his abundant energy. I find that his abundant energy comes from a very deep source and can last much longer than I would ever expect!

With the leaves scattered, it was time to rake them back into a big pile and get buried again.

And then it was time to get back up and start the cycle all over again!