On the Road - Destination Maritime Canada

We’re happy to report Blanche is home from the hospital and we’re off on this year’s road trip. Destination? Maritime Canada. We will head north through northern Nevada, Idaho and Montana crossing into British Columbia at Roosville. We will, by the way, have completed US-93 from south to north, another blue highway… Wickenburg, Arizona to Roosville, Montana. From B.C., we head across the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and then head northeast to Labrador, take a ferry to Newfoundland, another ferry to Nova Scotia, then on to Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and back through Quebec. Whew!

We picked up Blanche late afternoon last Tuesday, did scads of errands, and then began packing her for five months on the road. We worked till late, but she was packed and ready to go by the time we hit the sack. Wednesday was sunny and bright… a perfect day for an early morning departure. Willie was all queued up and a rousing rendition of ‘On the Road Again’ had us heading north on US-93 and on our way.

As you know, we are slow travelers. Our first day plan was 265 miles to the Elk Flats Campground at Nevada’s Cave Lake State Park near Ely (EEL-lee for non-Nevadans). US-93 travels north along the eastern side of the state in the Great Basin passing through historic little rail and mining towns like Caliente, Panaca and Pioche. Forests of Joshua trees line the 2-lane highway and wildflowers  were blooming, orange globemallow, white prickly poppy and scarlet desert paintbrush.

Joshua Trees

Prickly Poppy

Globemallow

We stopped at the lovely Kershaw-Ryan State Park for a leg stretch. We took a self-guided 1/2 mile walk on the Overlook Trail. An associated pamphlet with numbered trail markers provides commentary on local history, geology and flora. Interesting and a good way to get in some steps. Bright pink plains prickly pear was just starting to bloom as were desert sunflowers. Nevada’s state flower, big sagebrush, is pretty dull comparative to the bright bloomers.

Kershaw-Ryan Overlook Trail

Prickly pear was beautiful.

Nevada’s state flower Big Sagebrush not too impressive, but it is native.

Another couple hours and we arrived at Cave Lake State Park. We found a campsite easily and staked our claim. With our Nevada State Parks Senior Annual Pass, both admission and camping are free. Quite the bargain for a $30/year investment, plus it supports our state parks.

We’ve stayed here at the Elk Flats Campground before. It’s hilly, but the sites are level and well-maintained as are the bathrooms with showers and flush toilets. At 7600’ altitude, we were a bit out of breath climbing back and forth up the hill… flatlander lungs in the high desert. There’s snow on the mountaintops and there was a nip in the air as soon as the sun started to fade. We’d grilled chicken in advance and made a potato salad so dinner was all ready when we were.

The night was cold and clear with a low of 31F. We were warm and snug in Blanche although our first foray out in the morning around 7 am was a chilly 39F. Although it was sunny, the day hadn’t warmed up much more by the time we headed out for a look-around and a hike at 9 am.

We figured out why there were so many empty campsites. Cave Lake had recently been drained in order to rebuild the dam. All lake activities were closed off. According to a ranger, the work was scheduled to be completed by the end of August 2024, but the lake would not be refilled till Spring 2025 and then, only if there was good winter snow melt.

No lake at Cave Lake State Park

We chose an easy 1.6 mile out and back hike on the Steptoe Creek Trail. Named after Colonel Edwin Steptoe who explored this valley, the Steptoe Valley, in 1854, the trail primarily wandered along the gurgling creek and occasionally climbed above it. Because of the altitude, wildflowers were just coming into bloom. Desert paintbrush, larkspur, penstemmon, evening primrose lined the trail with juniper, sage and pinyon pine dominating the larger growth.

The Steptoe Creek Trail was a perfect walk along and above the creekbed.

We were back to Blanche in time for a late lunch and frittered away the afternoon chatting and just hanging out. Tomorrow we head further north into Idaho.