Right off the bat, there's not gonna be any "racy" stuff this time. Some may see this as a good thing, some may be dissappointed, but it seems like no matter what I write, I can't please everyone...
So this is for anyone who's ever travelled through Nevada. If you haven't been there, or even if you have, you usually just think "Las Vegas, Deserts, Hoover Lake (you know, the lake that is dammed up by Hoover Dam) or maybe some area 51 aliens type stuff. So a couple weeks back, I took a trip through the back roads of northern Nevada, just because... nobody else ever goes there, so why not. You wouldn't believe what I found, and it was both amazing, beautiful, and weird in a way you would never suspect.
After heading south from Mountain Home, Idaho, I ended up passing through some hard-scrabble border towns (Owyhee and Mountain City) then took a detour on some back road. The aspens, mountains, and wildflowers were gorgeous here. Tall stands of white aspens, wildflowers galore, rugged mountains and just green- green everywhere. Not the Mars-like desert you expect. So eventually I ended up at what is probably the weirdest town I have ever been to- Tuscarora. It sits, out there off by itself, at the end of a dirt road, miles from anything important, the nearest town of any size (Elko) being over an hour away. This place was just... fucking WEIRD. But in a really cool way. Imagine "The Hills Have Eyes" mixed with "Mad Max" and a healthy dose of Burning Man, and you might have an idea what this place was like. Most of the buildings here were in various stages of decomposition and disrepair, but those that were standing were just... the residents who lived here (of which I would guess there were maybe two or three dozen or so) felt like "Fuck it; we can do whatever we want! Just go nuts!" You'd see things like an old model T pickup with a skeleton in it. Giant sculptures of a huge slipper and a detergent bottle in the yard. There was an old hotel labeled "Pottery School." Where apparently, they actually do hold pottery classes. Random rusted machinery of all descriptions- old appliances, motors, and who knows what else, just strewn everywhere. And this giant brick tower plopped on the western edge of town. Because, I guess, Why not? The pictures don't do it justice, but I'll upload some:
Anyway, I spend the afternoon just wandering around here, then drove down to Winnemucca to spend the night. There was this carnival type thing going on, live rock n' roll, carnival booths, food, and so on, which was pretty fun.
Then the next morning, I could have just shot straight up highway 95 to Boise but, that would be boring, right? No, I instead headed over to Paradise Valley, a quaint, and really cool little back country town with all kinds of historic old buildings, part ghost town and part functioning modern village. The little store here served lunch and drinks, and everyone was super friendly here. Then, over two mountain passes, where the scenery got more and more spectacular, and the road got moree and more progressively gnarlier. If you've never driven over Windy Gap pass, well, let me say there are few roads that inspire sheer white knuckle shrieking terror more than this road. It just switchbacks steeply down the face of the mountain, the dirt road about as wide as your vehicle... and with 1000 foot drop-offs. In other words, it was awesome... once you make it to the bottom. Anyway, it was all in all, a super fun little adventure, and fun to check out some places that not many other people would venture. Maybe there's a good reason for that, ha ha.
