By Shelby
We worked from our hotel room at the Nugget in Sparks, Nevada from Monday to Wednesday. We had a lot of leftover Chinese food that we ate for dinner. It was great to have a bathroom so easily accessible. We even checked out the pool and hot tub a couple times.
Thursday morning we checked out of the hotel. We had really enjoyed our stay there. Fortunately, the snow storm had passed by Wednesday, giving the roads a chance to clear up. We were hopeful that we’d be able to make it to Lake Tahoe.
Our first stop of the day was the grocery store. We had a lot of driving ahead of us to our next destination and the weather was going to be very cold, so we got microwavable meals to eat for the next few days. We didn’t want to have to cook outside in freezing weather.
Our next stop was Huffaker Hills trailhead. I had hiked this trail in the summer a couple years ago when I lived in Reno. It was nice to be somewhere familiar again. Unfortunately in winter, the snow was deeper than we had expected and we ended up trudging through knee-deep snow in a few spots. We did get a nice view of downtown Reno in the distance, so I guess that was worth the wet feet.
Next, we had to decide if we were going to attempt the Mt. Rose Highway to Lake Tahoe. The morning road condition report had said that snow chains were required, but it hadn’t snowed for days. We also checked a few live feeds of the highway and it didn’t look too bad. We decided to attempt it and turn back if we had to.
Fortunately, the highway seemed nearly perfect. There were just a few wet spots, but nothing that would require snow chains. The snow plowed along the road was really tall, taller than the Prius. It was pretty amazing. The white mountains and pine trees were very scenic.
We made a quick stop at a scenic viewpoint of Lake Tahoe. We had to climb up a massive snowbank to see over the snow. It was very pretty. After that, we drove down into Incline Village. We had wanted to do a short hike, but the snow was too deep without snowshoes.
We drove down to the lake and ate lunch at a pullout off the road. After lunch, we went to a small public beach to walk out to the lake. Most of the scenic pullouts I had wanted to stop at were unplowed and covered in snow, so we weren’t able to stop. Luckily, the beach parking lot was plowed. When we finished taking pictures at the beach, we drove back to Reno along the Mt. Rose Highway. We hadn’t wanted to drive back in the dark and risk the road getting icy. We slept at a Planet Fitness in south Reno that night. It got down to the 30s that night, which we were worried about. We ran the car and used our heated blanket plugged into the battery to keep warm and we slept fine.
Friday, we did about 8 hours of driving along Highway 50, the loneliest highway in the U.S. We drove all the way from Reno, Nevada to Fillmore, Utah where we stayed the night at a Love’s Travel Stop. The highway was very scenic. Throughout Nevada, we passed through seven different mountain ranges. Spencer and I had both thought that central and eastern Nevada was very flat, but there were actually tons of mountains.
We stopped a few times in the middle of the highway to take pictures. There were no other cars for miles. It was pretty crazy how empty it was. We stopped to eat lunch in a small town in the mountains. It really seemed like an old western mining town.
We stopped again on the highway as we passed Great Basin National Park. We had wanted to go, but most of the trails and things to do there were closed because of all the snow. We decided not to do a cave tour there because it seemed very similar to cave tours we had already done.
We stopped at the Welcome to Utah sign to take a picture. The mountain range ahead in Utah had a distinct reddish color, unlike the mountain range behind us in Nevada. It was weird how different they looked. After driving further into Utah, we pulled off the road to eat dinner. Our last stop of the day was Love’s Travel Stop an hour away. Despite the cold temperature at night, we slept fine in the car.
Saturday, we did another four hours of driving through Utah and into Colorado. Southern Utah doesn’t really have any Planet Fitnesses, so the closest one was in Colorado near the Utah border. I didn’t think the road we took through Utah was as scenic as the one in Nevada, but it was still unique. Utah became more rocky than Nevada and the mountains didn’t seem as high. Our destination was Grand Junction, Colorado. When we got there, we did laundry and then drove to Planet Fitness to relax.
Sunday, we went grocery shopping and then went to Colorado National Monument, which was very close to Grand Junction. The national monument was a large plateau with canyons cutting through it. We drove the Rim Rock Road, a scenic road that followed the edge of the plateau. It was another road that amazed me that people were able to build it.
We went for a short walk from the visitor center along the rim with amazing views of the canyon. It made me think more of Utah than Colorado. We even saw a few small cacti. I never would have guessed that there was desert in Colorado.
After we finished driving the scenic road, we drove down to a picnic area to make lunch. With the wind mostly blocked by the plateau, the temperature was pretty comfortable out. We had bought some charcoal and used one of the grills to cook hamburgers and hot dogs. We made a lot of food, so we could have a lot of leftovers for next week. After lunch, we took the Prius to a car wash and then went back to Planet Fitness to finish up work on the website. Next week, we’re working in Grand Junction before going back into Utah to visit the Big 5 national parks there – Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, and Zion.
Fun Facts from Week 45:
- Blue jeans were invented in Reno, Nevada.
- Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in the U.S. Only the Great Lakes are larger by volume.
