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2008 Nevada Extraterrestrial Highway & Lunar Crater Tour -
Page 4
Click on pictures to view enlargements and
captions
 Despite my own common sense, when I found the
turn-off to Twin Springs Ranch Road to be a somewhat primitive dirt road, I
directly disregarded the common sense decision of staying on the
well-traveled asphalt highway in the middle of nowhere and headed off into the even more-remote desert - after all,
there is no sense in owning a GS if you are going to stay on pavement the
whole time. At first, the road appeared to be a driveway for a ranch
house. Skirting their barn and what appeared to be the ranch junkyard, I
found a narrow trail heading north. There were no fresh tracks, but the
trail/ road was pretty well-defined and it was heading in the right
direction (north), so I figured I'd give it a shot. Starting out, the
road was hard-packed sand and would easily support speeds of 50+ miles per
hour. About a half-mile into the desert, I started to notice some lighter
colored soils on the road, and like most roads in the desert, found these
to be loose and silt. The patches would grab the front wheel and suck the
whole bike right in, thus I had to drop my speed to around 20 miles per
hour for most of the way to Highway 6. This wasn't too bad, as other than
some deep pockets of sand, the riding was easy and it was only about 13 miles
to Highway 6, and at least it wasn't asphalt.
 At the intersection of Highway 6 there was a
rest-stop, which had to be somebody's idea of a sick joke. From what I could tell, this is the 'Blue Jay' rest-stop named after the adjacent Blue Jay Highway Maintenance Station on Highway 6. A few picnic
tables, a trashcan, and some non-native trees that barely provided enough
shade for the ants that had built their piles beneath. I couldn't imagine
someone actually stopping here for a picnic in 120-degree heat. There
were no outhouses, but I had not seen another vehicle in the past hour and
a half, so I took the opportunity for a piss-break, figuring that the poor
little trees around here could use some moisture anyway. The wind was still
blowing strong, with gusts that would almost knock you off your feet.
Storm clouds still loomed overhead, but there was no sign of rain... that is except for the ant pile that happened to be upwind of my pee-stream.
 On Highway 6 I was quickly back up to cruising speed
and came to the turn-off for Lunar Crater National Natural Landmark. The
turn-off is hard to miss - just look for the only sign on the south side
of the highway, as there is literally no sign of any other civilization
for miles. The flagger I had spoken to earlier was pretty much right-on
with his description of the highway mile markers. The road into the
crater is actually a 24-mile loop that starts and ends on Highway 6, and
it is classified as a Backcountry Byway. I entered the Byway on the
western-most entrance on Highway 6. The road is a little rougher than
what you'd expect for a 'backcountry byway'. It was well-defined and
hard-packed, but had washboards that would kick you right off the edge if
you took them too fast. The area was fairly well marked with signs at
almost every intersection  identifying the direction and distance to each
of the features in the area.
I had not seen another person or vehicle for
nearly three hours at this point, which is one of the reasons I love the
Nevada desert. To be alone in the wide desert valleys, surrounded by a
landscape that has been relatively unchanged for the past few million
years is really quite spiritual. I also love it because it tests you as
an individual, and teaches you to be completely self-dependent. Any type
of help is a long-ways away out  here, cell phones are useless, and it
would take a long, long time before somebody just happened to stumble across your mumified body.
Basically if something goes wrong, you alone have to deal with it, which
teaches you to avoid problems in the first place. That is a lesson that
several people in the world today could definitely benefit from.
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