The eastern edge of Nevada is the last fringe of the Great Basin. From there, slabs of tortured sandstone, half the size of a State, start to dominate the geology. From Round Mountain to Cedar City is a tour from one planet to another.

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While we were camped in the Smoky Valley, we took one day to tour around the eastern mountains, called the Toquima Range. We headed out Toquima Range Road, a smooth but dusty graded road, and worked our way up into the range. We were headed for the lower portion, where the snow might not be an issue.

Climbing into the foothills, the more-impressive Toiyabe Range stood out behind us. Howie is hidden in there somewhere, smaller than a pixel on the screen in this view.

We hadn’t gotten very far into the hills, winding through the steep canyon pass, when we saw a whole bunch of motion up ahead, white rumps dotting the hillside. Looked at first like whitetail deer, but we were 2000 miles too far west for them. Then we saw the big curved horns of Bighorn Sheep.

They were on a fierce run up the hillside, and before we got in real camera range, we figured we’d seen the last of them. But when they got about 150 yards away, they must have felt safe, and they simply stopped and started watching us. I shot a few pix out of the window, and then I got brave and got out of the truck to get a better vantage point. They were still curious – – so far, so good.

This guy showed up on the opposite side of the road, and it occurred to us the herd might be waiting for him. He ambled on across to join them, also not too concerned about us, but still keeping 100 yards or so between us.

By then, I had my long lens out and was clambering around the edge of the road for a good angle. The herd must have felt at ease — they actually started browsing!

I shot a few more pix at different angles and zooms.

As we were about to leave, Karin made a little whistle. Every single one of them snapped their huge horns around to look straight at us. What a hoot.

Enthralled by the bighorn encounter, we wandered slowly along. The road wound through some colorful countryside, lots of different formations and outcroppings….

….and eventually dropped down into the lonely, desolate Monitor Valley. I’ll tell you, I’ve been to a lot of big empty places in my travels, but this one is way up there. And there’s a small ranch, just to the right of the road in the picture. Hardy souls.

Here’s a view in the opposite direction. We were stopped in the middle of state highway 425, at the intersection of Moose Creek Road. There is not another structure of any kind for 25 miles in either direction.

We decided to make a “loop” rather than out-and-back, drove a few miles north and took the NF023 road back west. Right away, we stumbled on some odd old structures and piles of gravel. It looked like a gigantic Department of Transportation maintenance depot, but we couldn’t figure out what it might really have been . Later, we asked some locals and they weren’t too sure either.

So we worked our way westward again, climbing pretty high into the range, and passing the defunct Northumberland Mine. It was still posted and gated, so we didn’t go in.

Not a whole lot further, about halfway across the range, we got up to around 8,500 feet — the same elevation where we got blocked by snow on the Toiyabe side. And guess what….  gigantic snow drift, right across the road, and steep slopes both sides. No way around, and likely more of the same to come further up the road (and higher elevations). At 4PM, the possibility of shoveling hundreds of cubic yards of snow out of the way was quickly dismissed. With only three hours of daylight remaining, we had absolutely no option but to go all the way back the way we came.

Well, things always look a little different in the opposite direction, and we knew the road was good. In addition, we were to receive a “consolation prize”, when a young Pronghorn Antelope buck strolled alongside the road and posed for a few pictures.

These were taken with my short lens — he was pretty unafraid and only about 50 yards away.

Too bad, on our return route we did not get an evening glimpse of the bighorn herd. But we got back to Smoky Valley, and camp, pretty uneventfully. It’s always nice to see the white dot that is Howie, “home” in the far distance as we approach camp.

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Leaving Smoky Valley took us down almost to Tonopah, but we headed east instead of west and bypassed the old town. Turning off of US6 onto NV375 put us right along the edge of the world-famous “Area 51”.

Area 51 is, in fact, a real place, and it is a top-secret government/military installation devoted to research, development, and testing of defense, weapons, aeronautics, and such. You can look at (unclassified) maps and see nomenclature like “nuclear test site”, long criss-crossed scratches in the dirt, and so on. Satellite imagery (a la Google Earth) can also be fascinating.

Given the public’s enthusiasm and imagination, it took no time at all for the conspiracy theory to be developed that the government was “hiding” stuff from “us” there (which of course they were). And only one more step was required to imagine that the “stuff” was of alien origin — up to and including imprisoned aliens themselves, held captive and in secret. You can find virtually any theory conceivable (and some less so) about Area 51 and its contents and purpose, so I won’t belabor it here. I present all of this only to provide the background for why we were so amused to be traveling along the Extraterrestrial Highway. I’m not kidding, you can look it up.

We lingered for an overnight in Caliente, and took a short run out Beaver Dam Road in Ralph to check out the territory. Everywhere we walked, the nascent wildflower bloom was sneaking in….

A little snow squall passed by, lending a more ominous, but still beautiful, tone to the landscape…

Good or bad weather, it was a pleasant enough place, and there were a few spots where we could have camped with Howie — but we were eager to get into Utah, so we pressed on toward Cedar City.

As it turned out, we were not to be allowed easy access to Utah. The intermittent rain and cold fronts that had dotted our week got right in our path on our way along NV319/UT56, and our state line crossing was accentuated with a white squall of snow pellets. It wasn’t quite hail, but it was rapping on Howie’s windshield bad enough at one point that I slowed down to about 25mph just to be sure the glass wasn’t going to break.

It all cleared up after 15 minutes or so, just some slush sticking to the windshield….

… and we rolled into Cedar City.

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The town is spacious, clean, pleasant, and somewhat unremarkable. There are no grand vistas or striking statuary. It’s just a really nice town at the edge of some spectacular geography, so it ends up being a marshalling hub for the area.

We stayed at a really good RV park (I seldom rate them very high) called Cedar Breaks RV Park. It even had good wifi, almost unheard of. New management is in place, and they are apparently taking it seriously. I wrote them a good review.

While we were looking for a camp (before selecting the RV park), we walked back to Howie one of many times and found a “dangling thingy” underneath…. not good.

A really big bolt (3/4″) had gotten loose and fallen out of the track bar. I had noticed the handling being a little more squirrely, and this explained it. Combined with a dead GPS problem in Ralph, it was obviously time to stop for some catching-up. Finding the nice RV park made it more of a reward than a penalty. A great BBQ restaurant (SonnyBoy’s) topped off an eventful day.

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I found a perfect replacement bolt (grade-8 even!) at Ace Hardware, and a new GPS antenna at a local car audio shop. After making repairs, filling ourselves with pork ribs and wings, and sleeping blissfully through another chilly night (28F), we took some time to explore the outskirts of town. Cities generally don’t hold a lot of interest for us, but we saw some high hills and gleaming windows way to the southeast, so we took Ralph up to investigate.

It turned into a truly surprising experience. There’s this rasty dirty road — Cedar Highlands Drive — with all kinds of advisory signage, and it climbs over 1000 feet above Cedar City over lumps, bumps, loose gravel and dirt, and 15% grades.

After a long and dusty climb, what pops up but an amazing neighborhood full of gorgeous custom homes. Scattered throughout a random array of short dirt access roads, the homes posed an apparent conundrum. The views from the upscale homes are fabulous without question. But the quick trip to the grocery store? Hmmmm. And what about snow and rain? Such roads are usually impassable when wet.

Some of the architecture is even on the ostentatious side – – –

We pondered for quite a while how all these expensive custom homes could be justified with having access by a road that was little more than a wide Jeep trail, and likely closed in bad weather. After some map-sleuthing, we discovered that the neighborhood could be reached the LONG way round by Right Hand Canyon Road off of UT14. From town center to Cedar HIghlands center is 5 miles by the dirt path, and 12 miles by pavement. That kinda made it all make sense.

Repairs done, bellies full, curiosity satisfied — we were ready for more Utah.

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