Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park Nevada – February 2014

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Robin, the Nevada State Park Ranger, found us around the alcove of the machine shop building in the ghost town of Berlin.

We were up against the warm dark wooden walls and enjoying our lunches. “You guys sure know how to get out of the wind,” he said and then continued, “I don’t have to be back with the film crew at the fossil building until two and I’ve got the keys to everything.” He held up his key ring and smiled. “What do you want to see?” he asked. Beside Robin and the three person film crew, we were the only people in the State Park.

Robin’s smile and question just about sums up our remarkable adventure over the long President’s Weekend.

I started in the middle of the story again. Now back to the beginning. How did this trip start? With Plan B.

We had just spent a quick weekend in Nevada. The temperatures then were typical for the area, quite cold. As I watched the weather forecasts for trip planning, temperatures were predicted to be almost 30° warmer. Really? Wind was predicted, though, with gusts up to 50 to 60 mph. A warm front was quickly passing through with high snow levels back at home.

The Barking Spiders were along. They had been itching to visit Nevada’s Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park. We left early Saturday morning with the required breakfast stop at the Roadrunner in Dayton. Then I suggested a roundabout route that could, maybe, based on wet road conditions, enable a remote hot spring soak – Plan B.

After fueling up in Fallon we encountered only a few vehicles on highway 50. The Lady could keep track of the number on her left hand. After turning off 50 we were it, in over 70 miles of additional driving, we were it. This was our kind of holiday weekend traffic.

The remote hot springs were inaccessible for vehicles. Great! Even in the best of conditions I’d hardly think of it as accessible. But we evolved with legs for a reason. We walked. It does us all good, both physically and spiritually. Our Sherpas handled our packs and supplies.

Barking and I were scouting the area. The women folk were anxious to get to deliciously hot spring water, grabbed our gear, and started out. The Sherpa stuff was totally inadvertent - really. With packs more evenly distributed, we continued around wetlands and reached the series of hot springs.

A huge note of caution. This can be a dangerous area. The source pools are very hot.  Ours was 145°. Some are as high as 170°. We carry a thermometer, always. This is a place to take your time, relax after you fill your tank, let it cool, enjoy a wonderful lunch, and savor being so far from anyone else.

When we returned to the vehicles, the wind was kicking up dust on the playa.

We had a route planned to reach Berlin. Would it go?

With only one mid course correction, we reached Berlin late afternoon. We set up in the well kept campground and Robin, the Park Ranger, came through and checked us out. He explained he had a film crew showing up at 9:30 am Sunday morning but could fit us in for a tour of the ichthyosaur fossil dig site at 10:00 am.

We enjoyed the evening’s sunset with the heavy cloud deck of the passing front.

It is a short walk from the campground to the fossil building. The center piece of the parking area is a large concrete wall with a life size rendition of an adult ichthyosaur.

The film crew was readying Robin for the first segment of filming.

Robin explained they were with Destination America, filming for television. We don’t have much interest in television and with experience working on television projects – including prime time reality TV complete with signed mandatory confidentially agreements – my interest level remains low. On the NBC prime time job I got to come up with my own title, Technical Advisor and Safety Officer, and I enjoyed the pay scale. I also greatly enjoyed the hard working very professional crew, absolutely wonderful people. It was the story that ………………….oops, can’t say anything about that!

Robin was holding his own with the director and camera and audio crew.

We enjoyed the art work in the CXT outhouse as we quietly waited.

Soon it was time to enter the building covering the fossil dig.

We learned there were all different kinds of ichthyosaurs, so we needed to get oriented.

These are big ones here in this dig site, up to 57 feet. The species is named for the surrounding Shoshone Mountains. Robin mentioned  ichthyosaurs recently discovered elsewhere that approach the length of blue whales.

We were going to be looking at bones so we needed to acquaint ourselves with skeletal structure.

Robin has been working at Berlin Ichthyosaur for 14 years. He is self taught on the subject and very knowledgeable. It is obvious he loves his job and sharing his knowledge. He was recently recognized by Nevada for his work at Berlin.

What, at first, only looked like rocks now came to life as vertebrae………………………..

……………………and rib cages.

The film crew was ever present. You’ll have to let us know if we survive the cutting room floor.

Dr. Camp was responsible for the exploration of the site after its earlier discovery

His grandchildren donated one of his textbooks to the State Park.

We visited his cabin on our walk down to Berlin.

His failure to cut any trees at his cabin site confirmed, for us at least, that he was indeed from Berkeley.

Berlin, Nevada had its beginning in 1897 with a gold strike. Below the fossil site, in lower Union Canyon are the remains (sparse) of Union, a silver town born in 1863. The ruins of Union were taken over during the later Berlin boom.

The wind – happily not close to the predicted speeds – was in our faces as we walked to Berlin.

“In a state of arrested decay,” we liked the terminology and figured it could also describe us.

We found our spot out of the wind and we heard Robin’s truck door and then Robin found us. We are back to the beginning, or middle, of the story.

Our first stop with Robin was the interior of the huge Berlin Mill.

We went inside the Assay Office.

Our next stop was Mrs. Steven’s House.

Next stop was a visit to Mrs. Phillips House.

Across the way was the Bachelor’s Quarters, appropriately appointed.

A wonderful old combination gas and wood stove was outside the Watson House.

We reminded Robin of the time and his appointment as we finished up in the Mine Superintendent’s House.

Alone again in the ghost town, we stopped at the Stage Station and looked for plates with our birth years. Barking discovered his “medicare” plate.

This had been a remarkable trip in many ways. One was the warm weather. Robin said the coldest he had experienced was -19° and it had reached -9° four times this winter. To have a couple of days with a high of 60° and lows around 32° was indeed remarkable. We had the campground and Park to ourselves our last night. We ate outside and watched the rising moon.

We had first visited Berlin in May 2010.  The website for the State Park is here.

And about that film crew and the program subject…………………..we were not asked to sign a confidentially agreement, but we will not spoil your fun and the surprise by spilling the beans.

Nevada Close to Home – February 2014

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Plan A or Plan B was the question we pondered; it was back and forth. We were getting away for just an overnight, to be outside, do some close by exploring. Friday night in bed at home we checked the weather forecasts. Plan A was highs in the thirties with an overnight low of 16°. Plan B was colder, high of 30° and a low of 5°. Plan B was a further drive but the vistas spectacular and we could camp right at our own private hot spring – don’t start taking notes, we have never even hinted at this location in the past – and darn near guaranteed no one else around for miles. Plan A was closer and an opportunity to take a look at things we have just driven by on previous trips.

A storm cleared out on Friday both at home and in western Nevada. We were at the Roadrunner Café in Dayton at 7 am, opening time. Three regulars were already at the counter. The same cook was busy in the kitchen and the waitress was working today. The banter was familiar and friendly, “Bob if you’re not reading the paper, Frank wants it.” The waitress’ beau came in with a buddy. Every spare moment of hers was then spent cuddled up next to him at his table. He was boasting a crisp white Seattle Seahawks Conference Champions t-shirt. He was going to have a good weekend.

We were going with Plan A. First stop was Virginia City. East out of Dayton is the back way up Six Mile Canyon. The mountains were dusted with a new thin layer of white starting right at the valley. Just a little after eight am found us driving down lonely Main Street. There was three inches of new snow here at 6200 feet. Yeah Virginia City is a tourist trap but a lot of history was made here. This is where Sam Clemens started as a reporter for The Territorial Enterprise and became Mark Twain. The Mark Twain Museum was on the left in the Territorial Enterprise building. We passed the Bucket of Blood Saloon. A large sign advertised the Suicide Table. “Well, I’ve seen enough,” the Lady stated.

“Don’t want to stop?” I asked.

She just looked at me.

We drove down the grade through Gold Hill and Silver City. Deciding we didn’t want to drop all the way down to highway 50 outside of Carson City, we looped back to Virginia City on the truck route. We drove a back street that paralleled Main. I asked the Lady, “Still seen enough? Anything you want to stop and check out?” She just looked at me.

The skies were clearing of clouds. The air was crisp, cold, and clean. It was a pretty morning and at a little before 9 am, half of Plan A was already completed. “This is such a pretty day,” I said. “Let’s go with Plan B, gas up in Fallon, and continue east. Cold air and hot springs is sounding really really good.”

South of Fallon, traveling through Eightmile Flats – Salt Wells Basin we were surprised at the amount of water. This stayed in our minds as we dropped down from Sand Springs Pass into Dixie Valley. The south end of Dixie was a large shallow lake.

“If it is this wet here,” I said, “The roads we need to take are gumbo and impassable. We ought to just turn around here.”

“Back to Plan A,” the Lady said with a smile. “No need to get stuck and not have any fun!”

“Pull out ‘Traveling America’s Loneliest Road’. Let’s stop at Grimes Point and Soda Lake on the way back,” I suggested.

Grimes Point is a developed archeological site on BLM administered land. Long gone beach front property on Lake Lahontan for the ancient ones, the heavily desert varnished volcanic boulders are covered with petroglyphs created over a long span of time.

Our next stop was Nevada’s newest volcano, a basalt maar that erupted less than 7000 years ago. The maar, filled with ground water, is called Soda Lake.

Soda Lake is said to be the most exciting place for birding in the Lahontan Valley with a list of unusual birds including Pacific loon, oldsquaw, surf scoter, white-winged scoter, curlew sandpiper, golden plover, and Sabine’s gull. A sign announces that it is managed as a Churchill County Recreation Area but it appears over run with dirt bikes and maggots, indiscriminate shooting, and partying. The lake was rimmed with ice. It was cold and the area was quiet. Many water birds were visible on the lake but hard to identify because of the distance.

The center piece for Plan A was Fort Churchill, a Nevada State Park. The stark adobe ruins of civil war era Fort Churchill sit on a plain above the Carson River. The fort was constructed in 1860 at a cost of $180,000 in response to ill conceived battles between the whites and the Paiutes.

All the bodies of military personnel were removed in 1885. A local ranching family, the Buckland’s, bought the decommissioned fort in 1870 at auction for $750. Sam and Eliza and several children who died early in childhood are buried here.

After setting up in the campground – we were completely alone – we explored the ruins in the late afternoon
.

We returned to camp, buried deep in the cottonwoods along the Carson River.

We took a long sunset walk.

As expected, the air temperature dropped with the sun. We enjoyed our outdoor showers, had dinner, and played a game of scrabble. The final score was 235 to 335, but an enjoyable game because of the interesting play of words. The victor is trying hard not to boast too much.

We walked back to the ruins in the dark of the night. I wanted to try some night photos. Coyotes sang in the distance as we again visited the cemetery with the Milky Way above.

The eerie yellow light painting the fence and arch came from the Visitors Center.

This was our coldest night thus far in our new camper. The morning’s low was 18°. We do not run heat at night. We enjoy the cold and our warm toasty bedding and warm bodies. All Terrain Campers uses a 16000 BTU furnace and it is placed at floor level. Every one of those BTUs was appreciated this morning and warm happy feet are an essential start to a wonderful new day.

We were surprised by the cloud deck this morning. The sun still managed to work its dawn magic.

After a leisurely breakfast outside, in the campground that was ours alone, we dropped the top and headed out. Our first stop was the nearby Buckland Station, also part of the Fort Churchill State Park.

We highly recommend stopping here. The downstairs is open most weekends. This includes a well crafted ten minute video of the history. The ranch house was built in 1870 using materials removed from the abandoned fort. After Sam and Eliza’s passing, the ranch had several different owners and slowly fell deeper and deeper into decay. It was acquired by the Nevada Parks Division in 1995 and its restoration continues, a nice success story.

The clouds had thickened and light snow flurries greeted us as we left Buckland Station. We took the dirt Fort Churchill Road back to Dayton. We have no need to repeat that drive. All the hills and mountains were shrouded in clouds as we continued, once again, up Six Mile Canyon Road to Virginia City. “Three chances in two days to see the sights in Virginia City, want to stop?” I asked the Lady. She just looked at me. We did not stop.

Our next objective was a quick stop at Washoe Lake State Park. The Teds and the Barking Spiders have used this as a quick getaway so we checked it out.

It had been a cold and delightful weekend. Winter in Nevada is a special time. Our camper makes it possible and comfortable to visit places during off seasons and the bite of cold air still makes us feel alive. And, we always have Plan B.