Dancing toward the Roost

     We left Evanston on 9/15, for Nephi, Ut, where we parked outside Gary’s cousins, Doyle and Ann.  We enjoyed visiting with them, as we prepared for our Fall adventure heading south to Arizona.  The next day we drove on to Great Basin National Park, in Nevada.  This is one of America’s least visited National Parks, located in eastern Nevada, just across the border from Utah.  We easily found a nice camp spot, selecting a handicap spot that had a beautiful level patio.  My ankle really appreciated that and Rusty loved the cement.  We found out the campgrounds fill up most nights, so we were glad we had arrived about 1:30 in the afternoon.  The weather also turned nasty right after we arrived and we waited a couple hours for the rain to subside before we set up our satellite. 
     The next day was all sunshine, with a fresh coating of snow on  Wheeler Peak at 13,063 feet.  We drove up to the trailhead at 10,000 feet and although we started for the Bristlecone Pines, Katy only got a short distance before she realized that wasn’t going to happen.  We forced ourselves to be content with the short and level nature trail through the forest, leaving longer more rugged hikes for the future, with a more reliable ankle.  It wasn’t short on beauty though and we enjoyed the snow and glacier through binoculars while also enjoying the sunshine.

         That evening we attended a great star show, put on by one of the  Dark Rangers of the park.  He had a terrific telescope and we viewed several of the more magnificent sights in the amazing dark skies.  We started with  Alberia, a double star (one blue and one gold), located at the tail of the Swan.  Next we saw the Hercules star cluster, with about a half million stars in the viewfinder.  That was followed by a great view of Jupiter rising, where we could see four of her moons and the gas bands around the planet as well.  The Milky Way was extra bright, as we were looking through the galactic core of our galaxy and then viewed the same part of Andromeda, our nearest galaxy neighbor.  About then, the moon rose, a beautiful sight in itself, and the telescope was trained on it.  As we looked at the terminator,  (line where the dark side meets the light side of the moon), we could see many of the craters and seas on the moon.   It was one of the best telescope viewing treats we’ve had.
    Sunday morning we set out to explore the underside of the park by touring the famous Lehman Caves.  We took the long tour and saw all areas open to the public.  Despite the plural name, it’s a single cavern of limestone and marble.  It is one of the region’s most profusely decorated caves.  We saw the usual speleothems, but also saw the shields that Lehman Caves is famous for.  These are two roughly circular plates that are fastened like flattened clam shells, often with stalactites and draperies hanging from their lower plate.   One interesting spot in the cave, was the lodge room, where the Ely Elks lodge used to hold meetings.  Dances were also help there in the 20’s during the speakeasy era.  It was fun to imagine those goings on in so primitive a place.
     In addition to all the sights, we found three geocaches in the park.  Two were earth caches, which focus on significant and/or unusual geologic sites.  We enjoy the learning required in completing those, as we usually have to do a little research to answer the questions they pose.  The other cache was located at an alien bus stop, a sign of  things to come as we head next to the Extraterrestrial Highway to do some serious geocaching.
     We found a great boondocking spot at Ash Springs.  It was mentioned in the SKP’s Days End Directory.   There are developed Hot Springs there and although the fenced area with restrooms and picnic tables is posted no camping or overnight stays, there was a cattle guard that lead through the fence.  There were no signs on that side, and we parked there.  We stayed 3 nights and thoroughly enjoyed swimming in the Springs after each dusty day of caching on the ET trail. 

      Nevada’s highway 375 was officially designated the Extraterrestrial Highway by the state legislature in 1965.  A power trail cache series was placed there with 1000 caches in a 100 mile stretch.  Due to traffic concerns with snowplows this series was disabled last year.  It was replaced with new caches added in August of this year.  There are now about 1500 caches along this stretch of highway.  We never intended to do the whole thing at once and had no idea how many we would wind up with, as this was our first time on a trail of this magnitude.  The first day we cached for 7 ½ hours and got 231 caches on the trail and even found one where we were staying on our return.  The second day we cached for 8 hours and found 327 caches on the ET trail and the Area 51 mailbox caches as well.
     I must mention the “Little Al E Inn”   at Rachel, Nevada;  It’s in the southern third of the trail and has a great menu.  We reached there about 9am the second day.  The two gals working were sitting outside.  When   they saw our dogs, they offered to hold their leashes while we went inside to use the restrooms.  Gary had forgotten his sunglasses that morning and when we asked if they had any for sale, they said no, but one of the gals went to her truck and found a pair for Gary to use.  We returned them about 4 that afternoon when we returned for their famous Alien burgers on our way home to the Springs.  All in all, it was a fun adventure and brought our cache total to 1900.

     Our next stop was at the home of friends in Kingman, AZ.  Gary had been nervous about crossing the new bridge at Hoover Dam, but as he’d been told we were over it almost without realizing it.  We wound up staying in Kingman for 5 nights.  We visited with some friends from Evanston and Gary got a new pool cue while there.  Of course then he had to try it out, so managed to find two tournaments while we were there.  (Placed 6th and 5th out of about 20 in each tournament)
     The last stop we made was at North Ranch, a SKP park just north of Wickenburg, AZ.  We’re still using coupons from our working days with Escapees, so we can stay for free with full hookups.  We spent three nights, and found 10 new geocaches in the area.  We also drove up to go through the Shrine of St. Joseph, in Yarnell, an awesome recreation of Jesus crucifixion and resurrection. 
     We will arrive back at RoVer's Roost tomorrow, 30Sep.  A little early, but Gary is eager to rejoin his pool league.  My quilt class starts on the 18th and I have a couple orders to get done before then.  We'll be glad to be back, although it's still going to be a little warm for the next few weeks.  All in all, our littlest rolling house, the Class C we bought last Fall, worked very well for us this summer.  It was easier setting up and traveling with the Class C and we loved having the car for running around and geocaching.  
     Dancing toward the Roost.............................
     Hugs, Katy, Gary, Rusty and Spicy