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Moab to Ely 16 October 2014


885 : 1238

Still on river time, we awoke early with two long days of driving ahead ... across Utah and Nevada. We started at the Moab Diner, with its disconcertingly backward clock, then a quick stop for some of that spectacular Moab coffee, and then out across what many think of as the vast wasteland, but what we know to be a fascinating territory.


886 : 1237

Still on river time, we awoke early with two long days of driving ahead ... across Utah and Nevada. We started at the Moab Diner, with its disconcertingly backward clock, and then out across what many think of as the vast wasteland, but what we know to be a fascinating territory.


887 : 1232
<p>Back north to the Interstate,...

Back north to the Interstate, and then back across the Green at the aptly named Green River – a little river-irrigated oasis in the desert.

888 : 1224
<p>The Interstate then covers some...

The Interstate then covers some of the most amazingly difficult country imaginable. How are you going to get a 4 lane superhighway through this reef? Lotsa dynamite, that's how!

889 : 1220

Coming down into the Delta Valley, we were reminded just how late in the year it was outside Stillwater Canyon – the turning Aspen dotted every high slope ... and this is high country.

The highway through here is two-lane, difficult, and heavily traveled. Sienna was driving this section – magnificently, I might add – and giving me a chance to enjoy the scenery.

By this time, we were making good time, and were on a mission. We knew we were going to regain an hour crossing the Nevada state line back into Pacific time, and we hoped to get to Lehman Cave in Great Basin National Park in time for the last complete tour of the day. Zooom!

890 : 1214

Lehman Caves, Great Basin National Park

And we made it with time to spare, only to find the tour sold out. I sweet-talked the ranger, wangled myself the job of caboose (and a hefty National Park Service flashlight) and we were On The Tour. Hurray!

Caving with a group is fascinating: you have the cave, and you have an amazing (and amusing) cross-section of people interested in touring a cave a hundred miles from nowhere. Lots of children – why weren't they in school? But this was so much more educational! Lots of people taking pictures with their cellphones in every imaginable direction. And then there's the cave!


891 : 1208

892 : 1206

Sienna drove the final 50 mile stretch on the World's Loneliest Highway (not to be confused with its neighbor to the south, the Extraterrestrial Highway) across the bumpy Eastern Nevada terrain to our resting point in Ely, where we had magnificent margaritas and great Mexican food at Margarita's, widely acclaimed as Ely's best dinner.

893 : 1204

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