Ely NV car camp, Memorial Day 2015
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Stanley Chiang and I braved the wet weather and drove out to Ely, Nevada for a Memorial Day car camp. We managed to visit some interesting sites and do some stellar hikes, in spite of the storms that just kept on coming.
Here's a series of photo dumps from the trip.
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On Saturday morning, we drove south 100 miles to escape the weather. We scouted the petroglyphs at the White River Narrows Archeological District and drove up the narrow Wrong Way Canyon.
go to the White River Narrows gallery
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Our next stop was Whipple Cave. The road out to the cave was quite obscure, so we were startled to find brand new, colorful BLM signage at the parking area. We just came to see the cave opening, since the entrance is a fairly serious rappel. As we reached the cave entrance, the storms reached us.
go to the Whipple Cave gallery
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We drove back to the Ely area, hoping that the weather would break. When we got a little sun, we drove up to the Garnet Hill rock collecting area on a very slippery, muddy road. We didn't see many garnets, and we did get rather wet when the storm started up again, so we took off (driving very carefully). We headed over to the adjacent town of Ruth to see the incredible destruction from many years of open pit mining.
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We waited out a substantial thunderstorm at the White Pine Public Museum in Ely.
go to the White Pine Public Museum gallery
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On Sunday morning, the weather started out cloudy but dry. Stanley and I drove out to Rowe Canyon on the west side of Ward Mountain in the Egan Range, just south of Ely. The roads were rather slippery, but we made it to the trailhead without a problem. I had hiked Rowe Canyon before and I wanted to show Stanley the glorious cliffs, but they mostly stayed in the mist. Darker clouds motivated us to retreat after visiting the major narrows about halfway up.
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Of course the sun came out after we returned to the bottom of Rowe Canyon. We took the opportunity to drive north to the next canyon, Ragsdale Canyon. I had thought that we'd just stroll up the wash for 20 minutes or until the next black cloud rolled by, but the weather and the scenery kept getting better and better. The canyon plows through cliff band after cliff band, creating a series of narrows that didn't want to end. There was a fair amount of brush, rocks and deadfall, but we couldn't make ourselves stop until we got a glimpse of the snow on top of Ward Mountain. This was a fabulous hike; highly recommended!
go to the Ragsdale Canyon gallery
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Looking for an easy hike on Monday, Stanley and I drove south and east from Ely to Cave Lake State Park, tucked into a pocket of the Schell Creek Range. We checked out a large cave along the Cave Creek road, then went for a hike on the nearby Cave Lake Overlook Loop.