Dry As A Bone – Washoe Lake, NV
Our caravan buddies and us have spent the last few days relaxing & stocking up for our drive south. Our biggest physical shift has been the humidity and re-adapting ourselves to the desert. This place is dry, and the dryness seeps into everything around. Your skins wrinkles, your mouth parches and you can almost feel the earth thirsting & crying out for moisture.
It’s not just our imaginations either. Nevada & California have been through one of their worst drought summer seasons in many years. Washoe Lake, which has been full & doggy swimmable in all the years we’ve been coming here (even this spring!) has shriveled down to a frightening brown, arid bed with just a pinprick of blue in one corner. Perhaps even more revealing, the call of coyotes that has always echoed here is completely silent. Even they are gone. A local that we met on the trail told us this is the worst he’s seen it since 1990, and down at the local post office I heard several folks heatedly discussing the water crisis and options to drill deeper wells. There’s alot of worry and discontent about the situation and sadly, not all of it is nature’s fault.
For us transients the crisis is a mere observation, miserable as it is. Doggie is abound with joy at the bouncy rabbits in the brush (she does a rather cute kangaroo-type hop that she’s learned from the critters) and the cats looooove the free space and sun. We’ve gorged ourselves on local food (Pho, Breweries, Mexican) & have even met-up with a few RVers including Mike&Patsi who are parked next door, and none other than What’s Newell who are in the area working for Amazon Camperforce (if you want to find out what THAT is like, just read their daily blog).
We move on south today to new and unseen adventures, but I’ve no doubt the next spot will be just as dry as this. Here’s hoping for a big, winter snowpack….
Where, in that next of the woods, are you finding Pho?
We love to eat healthy and that is one of our favorites.
Pho Country just 5 miles away in Carson City….and it IS AMAZING! We go there at least once or twice everytime we pass through town.
Nina
If you come down near Tucson, or anywhere up through the center of Arizona. You’ll be pleasantly surprised. I’ve never seen it so green and lush(for Arizona). I’ve never seen bugs before either, but they are here this year.
I am SO looking forward to some Arizona green. It’s going to be a nice change to our desert travels.
Nina
Supposedly Arizona and New Mexico are in for a wetter than average winter this year. Not the case for California and Nevada, unfortunately.
Yup, looks like good quality snow & rain in both those areas, but CA & NV are not going to be so lucky. Well, we can hope for a big snow pack in the Sierra’s. That won’t completely solve the problem, but it’ll sure help.
Nina
if you’re not too far south I found a great spot just outside Loughlin only about 5 miles. telephone cove on lake mohave
Our buddy Ivan & his cat have stayed there a few times & also enjoyed it. I have it on my “list”.
Nina
I’ll see if I can send some of this PNW rain down that way. I’m all about a little sharing, assuming this means we’ll get some sunshine in return. 🙂
Seriously, it’s sad to see the damages that such a drought causes.
Yeah, I’ve been following the PNW weather and there’s been no end of rain up there (or so it seems). It’s the winter season for all.
Nina
We visited Manzanar as well as The Cowboy Film Museum in Lone Pine last week. Both are worthy stops. Manzanar is a sobering look at a part of American History that isn’t much discussed. It should be as it could easily happen again.
The Film Museum is pop culture at its best. Oh to see Roy on Trigger again… We followed this up by attending the 49er Encampment in Death Valley. The evening Cowboy concerts were absolutely outstanding. And when the wagon train pulled in, the crowd went wild….
It’s all good….
We’ve seen both of those places in our past drives down 395 and absolutely agree that they are well worth visiting. Have not been to the 49er encampment in Death Valley though…that’s one to add to the “list”.
Nina
Hi Nina,
I read your two blogs about seeing the dentist in Mexico and I wanted to ask you a question if I could. I am a 74 year old gentleman who needs to get 12 teeth pulled and a complete set of dentures. Do you know if the lady you went to in Mexico does extractions and dentures? I have 6 teeth left on top and 6 teeth left on the bottom; 5 of the 6 on top have broken off, so I would need someone that knows how to pull those teeth. If you could give me any help with this I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanking you in advance for any help you can give.
Jon
What a reversal of weather from Oregon’s coast. I must shake out dry skin “dandruff” from green sheets daily; it looks like a dust bowl in there!
Box Canyon Mark
There’s always something, isn’t there. Just a few weeks ago I was battling mould in the windowsills, now I’m battling dust. It’s the small sacrifice we make to be in nature’s beauty.
Nina
Very sad to see Washoe Lake with virtually no water. I too am hoping for a very rainy winter in So. Cal.
Me too.. I could not believe the entire lake was gone! I’ve never seen it like this. Really hope they get alot of snow this winter.
Nina
You know it’s dry when there’ no more “spit” in your eyes! That, and all the static electricity – used to drive the cats nuts 🙂 Still, we love the desert and all its quirks…. The lack of coyote song would make me very sad indeed 🙁 Safe travels south. We have some fog this morning so at least that’s a “little” moisture.
Yeah, the static does drive the pets nuts. I used to joke that if I could just harness it I’d have enough electricity to power several rigs. Still, like you we love the desert. Just gotta get our “desert legs” back.
Nina
If this is any indicator, we in North West South Dakota just got hit with 6 inches of very heavy wet snow last night, today they expect another 1 to 3 inches with a strong NW wind to pile it up against any pebble that is yet uncovered by the white crap!
Brrrr…I’ve been reading about the big storms hitting the Midwest too. Stay warm and safe!
Nina
we are in Kansas where today is just beautiful…but cold is coming so we are trying to beat it and get south as fast and as safely as we can on Tuesday…all from the cold front …sorry to hear about the dessert…I am hearing that Benson is green as ever…looking forward to getting back there…
We’re in Port Townsend and enjoying the beautiful area. I can sure see why you stayed down at the marina instead of the state park. Winter rate is $45 a night versus $30 there. Couldn’t hardly believe there rate. It’s nice, but not that nice. Headed for La Push once we leave here. Thanks for your blog. Keep it coming
Holy moly…$45! I had no idea it was so pricey at the State Park. The marina is definitely a better deal, and they discount quite heavily there in winter. Well, enjoy the area. Hope you get some sunny days.
Nina
Appears we have missed you guys. We were busy anyway. It is dry around here, both the air and the lakes and streams. Hopefully we get a good winter but this is how it works in the Great Basin. The boom/bust water cycle is normal. They dry winter air is too and we don’t ever get a break from that. 😉