My SUV on its last journey
After a breakdown on Friday and a diagnosis by a mobile mechanic on Saturday, it was time to drive from Salt Lake City, Utah back to Topaz Lake, in the Eastern Sierra on the California/Nevada border. We reserved a rental full size SUV at one agency to fit our gear in, but it was unavailable when we showed up. They tried to pawn off a RAV4 as full size, then substitute a pickup truck at 2X the price, but we eventually found a minivan elsewhere at a much more reasonable rate.
From our refuge at the Courtyard Marriott near the airport, we were on the highway west in minutes. Crossing the rest of Utah and all but the last few feet of Nevada would be a trip of over 550 miles, about 8 hours. First you pass south of the Great Salt Lake. We had to pull off near a Morton Salt facility due to a very loud whistling sound, caused by the weather stripping on both sides of the minivan windshield. Copious amounts of gaffers’ tape later, the musical vibrating minivan was silenced.
Next you cross the Bonneville Salt Flats, for about an hour. Near the far end is where the Bonneville Speedway is, where drag races are held, land speed records are broken, and many car commercials are filmed. This week none of that would be happening, since a heavy rain had left standing water on much of the salt flats, and water-softened rock salt elsewhere. There were reflections in the water and mirage reflections int he distance, and it was impossible to tell the difference between the two until you were close to the area that you thought had been flooded from a distance.
From the Nevada border to Wells there were some interesting mountains.the Toano Range and the Pequop Mountains. From Wells you can see the colorful aspen-decorated Humboldt Range, where I’ve camped at Angel Lake in the past.
Immediately after Wells was the exit for Deeth, where I encountered interesting and chaotic weather on a photography trip to the Rocky Mountains in the fall of 2006.
Next you can see the Ruby Mountains, where aspen appeared to be in peak color. It was tempting to look towards Nevada’s best-known leaf-peeping site or Lamoile Canyon and consider the trip out and back from Elko, but the drive today would be long enough without adding side trips to it.
The center of the state tends to be pretty dry and uninhabited, which is either beautiful or barren, or both. It’s not hard to see in the middle of the state how important mining is to the economy, as you pass mining machinery for sale, roads with names like Newmont Mine Road, and the mines themselves, with mountains of tailings growing toward the sky. The boom and bust cycles as people chase one resource or another also tend to leave some interesting abandoned towns and facilities that can be interesting to explore.
We exited US-80 by Fernley, home to a large Amazon.com warehouse, and continued through Yerington, where we were treated to a moonrise during sunset. The following evening the moon would rise entering a total eclipse.
The trip started September 7 with Lassen Volcanic National Park, passed through the Olympic Peninsula, to the Canadian Rockies, then down the Rocky Mountains to Grand Teton National Park. It ended September 26 with the return from Salt lake City. I was hoping to add a week-long extension to Colorado to enjoy fall colors there, but life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.
Returning early would give me time to prepare for my two-night photography workshop in Bodie State Historic Park. Besides, if I’d have to be replacing my SUV, I had that unplanned expense to deal with… good thing I didn’t have the breakdown another 600 miles further from home. But if you do take long trips, I can’t say enough for roadside assistance plans which give you the protection of a tow up to 200 miles!
I’m going to post the story of this trip on my blogs in installments, in reverse order, so that once they are all posted, they can be read straight through in chronological order to the end, no matter what section new readers may arrive in. Here’s the new post describing the prior day, leading up to the loss of my SUV: http://activesole.blogspot.com/2015/10/end-of-line-explorer-road-trip-September-2015.html
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| Total lunar eclipse, as seen from home at Topaz Lake on September 27, 2015 |
Comments
Have a safe trip.
+Aarno Tapio Pennanen It was safe, but did not end well for my vehicle!
Sorry to see about your vehicle. Looks like you got some great shots though. I've been in a van with a whistly windscreen. Wish i had gaffers tape at the time. Was horribly annoying.
+Shelly Gunderson The worst part was that the whistle was exactly the same frequency as the warning beep no my SUV the day before! The radio couldn't drown it out. It definitely would not have worked to listen to that for 8 hours!
I've posted the prior day story as well: http://www.jeffsullivanphotography.com/blog/2015/10/22/end-of-the-road-for-my-suv/
Wow, that was quite the trip with the phone and then the car. Hope things are better from now on.
Did I miss it? I didn't see what actually happened. It seams that vehicle has been a frequent thorn in your travels… Bummer!
+John Getchel I'm trying a series of blog posts that will appear in chronological order on my blog, so they last one came out first, and the next one explained the prior day, including the vehicle breakdown: http://activesole.blogspot.com/2015/10/end-of-line-explorer-road-trip-September-2015.html
I should explain that better in the blog posts themselves.
good luck with the selection of a new car !
Oh man a total loss? A real bummer indeed! What will you do for your transportation now?
+John Getchel Unfortunately, yes. Given the before dawn to after dark or later night schedule I'm often out shooting, I need a vehicle that's easy to hop into the back of to sleep. I'm 6'2", so I need about 6.5'. I've been spoiled lately with +Lori Hibbett's '99 Suburban, offering extra room for gear and food at my feet, so we don't have to put it on the roof and worry about bears getting into it as we sleep. The mileage seems to be about the same as the Explorer. So I'm comparing the prices of mid-2000s Explorers and Suburbans.
That sounds like a great vehicle to have! I just put a shell on my trusty Titan so I can do more exploring!
Yikes.