Nowhere

Spent the July 4th holiday volunteering with Renee surveying sites to remove abandoned "range improvements" from wilderness areas in the northwest corner of Nevada: in the North Jackson Mountains Wilderness and other wilderness areas that are part of the High Rock Canyon and Black Rock Conservation areas. It was very hot, but gave me a chance to explore in more depth areas I've always been interested in--especially the High Rock area, which I hadn't been back to since my overnight bike ride out there years ago (see my recent "Peregrinations in the Desert" post). I don't think there are many places in the Lower Forty-eight where you can be so fr out there, even in the truck we saw almost no one but for a few people scouting for their various hunting tags or who work the rangeland. We definitely saw more cows. The sites where we were working weren't too interesting, mainly abandoned water troughs from windmills or springs that were once used to water cattle or sheep. It is hard for me to describe the landscape, the rocky plateaus and wide open horizons seeming to stretch forever, but it sticks with me, and although I could have happily spent my holiday on a beach, there is really no where else I'd rather be.




"No water. No services. You will be on your own."




Black Rock from foot of Jackson Mountains