Kate, I and the dogs ventured on a fall trip to Utah in early October, 2019. It was a two week trip and resulted in so many photos that I thought it best to break it up into five parts. We took the jeep which gave us a lot of freedom to explore. Total mileage was about 1600 miles in 13 days. Generally we stayed at least two nights in all but two stops.
The first part is Nevada since that’s where we camped going out and coming home. First night we camped in the Bob Scott Campground just outside of Auburn Nevada. We arrived near late in the day and there wasn’t any great sites available so we camped in the group site for just the one night. In pulling into the site I had to make a tight turn, basically a U turn, and proceeded to bash my right rear bumper of the RV with the right front bumper of the jeep. I didn’t know that was even a risk. So a bit of a negative start to the trip. Turns out that part of the bumper costs $975 so I have to figure out a cheaper alternative.
The next night we made it to a BLM campground at Sacramento pass, just outside of Great Basin national park about 15 minutes. This was a real joy. Free, nice bathrooms, no one else there in our loop (at first), clean, hiking and jeep trails nearby. Plus very interesting rock formations right behind our campsite. No water available however, which was not a problem. We stayed here two nights so we could spend a day exploring Great Basin. Also our site had a nice view of Wheeler Peak, which is a 13,000 ft elevation in the National park. Coming back to our site after hiking in Great Basin we saw a rattlesnake in the campground road which put us on extra cautious for the dogs.
Great Basin was beautiful and next time we hope to spend more time. We did take the Alpine Lakes Loop, about three miles to a point under Wheeler Peak where we could see the glacier. Leaves were starting to change to yellow and orange on the Aspen trees which gave us a nice taste of the beginning of Autumn. There was a big astronomy event at the visitor center. Apparently the sky there is the darkest and best for viewing the night sky in the USA.
We were able to dump and fill our water tank at Great Basin. On our way home we also stayed one night at Sacramento Pass CG however we decided not to go to Bob Scott again.
Instead we found a great boon docking site at Hidden Burnt Caves six miles east of Fallon on route 50. The loneliest highway, 50, is what we traveled going and coming to cross Nevada. Anyway, this site was on a salt flat next to the caves which were part of the Grimes archeological site. Very interesting and a great place to do our final camp before going home.
Next part of this trip is Bryce.
