Day 4 began from our hotel in Green River, Utah. Somewhat to my dismay, I discovered that we had actually passed the famous Arches National Park in Moab, Utah on the way to our stop in Green River. But it was just as well - this trip was a high speed jaunt from the Midwest to the West Coast, and there was a lot of ground to cover.
That said, we still found some opportunity to explore. It turns out that nearby to Green River was a hidden gem called Crystal Geyser. This geyser is a rare cold-water geyser, which erupts due to built up carbonization pressure rather than steam pressure, like its famous cousins in Yellowstone. Crystal Geyser historically erupts once a day, but the timing and duration are not all that reliable. Be that as it may, we took the plunge and decided to take the small detour to see if it happened to be erupting this morning. Lo and behold, it was!
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| The soda-like water bubbled during our whole visit! |
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| Frozen water near the spring |
We were lucky to see the geyser in action, but even if it hadn't, the hike and the view was excellent!
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| Cherry holding up the boulder! |
We spent the rest of Day 4 driving across the barren state of Utah, which had very few towns, but some otherworldy vistas:
Soon, we arrived at the edge of Nevada, where we drove through the Great National Basin - a whole lot of nothing between the Rocky Mountains to the east and the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range to the west:
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| Some Wool Lambs |
Finally, we arrived at our camp for the night at Ely, Nevada, where we stayed at one of the surprisingly nicer hotels on our trip, the Holiday Inn Express! For such a tiny town, it was really surprising to find such a nicely equipped hotel, complete with a warm indoor pool and spa, and a rarity during these pandemic times - a hot breakfast, administered in a very secure social distancing fashion!
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| No cars in either direction for miles! |
Due to the lack of traffic on this road, it was not uncommon for speed limits to be 80mph or even higher. Unfortunately, on the road was a small town called Eureka, which had a speed limit of just 25mph. I was unable to drop from 80mph to 25 mph quickly enough, and ended up getting a pretty costly speeding ticket...
After clearing the ticket at the courthouse in Eureka, we continued west towards California, but not before passing the Great Sand Mountain, a collection of great sand dunes in the middle of Nevada!
