Thursday, June 30, 2011

one way road trip to nevada

Post-masterfied Casey has a new job in Nevada! I accompanied him in transporting his belongings there and made a one-way road trip out of it.


The drive was at times vast, yet pleasant and we even saw examples of real working cowboys along the way! Unfortunately, we were rushed to make it to Nevada before the close of the business day so there wasn't much time for snapping photos along the way...

one of the best parts of the drive

the uhaul near the border of oregon/nevada

Arriving in Nevada, we unloaded Casey's cargo and headed out to explore the Rubys and Wasatch Mountains for a few days before I flew back to Oregon. The Rubys were fantastic...way beyond my original expectations. The longest (and probably best) trail in the area goes along the rim of the mountain range, but since it was still packed in with snow that was over my head and I wasn't able to bring much in terms of gear, we were limited in range. Therefore, we stuck to the semi-snow free canyon.

the rubys from afar

in one of the canyons of the rubys

 i heart aspens

 snow

canyon of the rubys

aspen! 

tiered beaver dam in the rubys

still in the rubys

sky rockets in flight

casey on the trail

casey and me

metamorphic

 glacial valley

pleasant valley with the rubys in the background 

 one last view of the rubys

After spending a couple of days in Nevada, we moved on to Northern Utah. I, admittedly, was a bit disappointed with this part of the trip. The Wasatch were much more spread out and not as appealing to the eye as the Rubys, and with Salt Lake City being so close, it was obviously more populated than it was in Nevada. For whatever reason, many of the US Forest Service campgrounds were closed and after driving around for several hours looking for a good place, we ended up just getting a hotel and checking out Salt Lake instead.  It was pretty windy and rainy that day and the lake smelled horrible. I still have high hopes for this area and am blaming the situation on being unfamiliar with the region. At least now I have a reason to go back and prove myself right...

storm rolling in on the great salt lake

 at the great salt lake right before i flew back to oregon