US-50 West 2022:
Day 5 - Great Basin National Park

	Wednesday, October 5, 2022: Look at that sunrise in the perfectly clear sky. There had been no rain in the forecast, but we used the rainfly overnight to see if that helped to retain more heat in the tent. Our thermometer that we keep in the tent indicated that it was about eight or ten degrees warmer in the tent than outside, so it appeared to work.
	We were packed up and leaving the campground before 8 AM, checking out the other campers and tents on the way out. We realized that we had been seeing more of the small trailers this trip, and wondered if that was due to where we were staying, or if it was the time of year.
	The canyon below the rim was still deep in shadow as we made our way down to the valley floor, ...
	... past the sculpture of the dude on a horse, ...
	... and onto the combined US-50/I-70 headed westward, ...
	... out of Colorado, ...
	... and into Utah.
	As we neared Green River, Utah, ...
	... which advertises itself as the "Waypoint to the Wild," ...
	... we made a slight detour to the John Wesley Powell River History Museum. We had been here last year, but there was an exhibit outside that we wanted to revisit.
	It was this exhibit about US-50 running from Ocean City, Maryland, to Sacramento, California, that originally planted the seed in our mind to do numbered-highway specific road trips. This sign was directly responsible for us taking this very trip.
	The Green River runs right next to the museum.
	There are statues of watermelons throughout the town.
	For some reason, the Robbers Roost Motel has a reclining woman figure on its sign. Busting stereotypes about robbers being men or catering to a specific audience? Hmmm.
	As we rejoined US-50/I-70, we entered the area of the San Rafael Swell, a ridge of rock that runs from northwest to southeast. It looks like the scales of an enormous creature, ...
	... and we weren't the only ones to think that. This feature was called Black Dragon, so someone obviously thought like we did.
	We pulled into an scenic overlook and were able to see Ghost Rock, which is on the right side of this photo.
	An Escape campervan passed us, and we didn't get a good picture of it. Eventually, we were able to catch up to it and pass it just so that we could photograph it. Debbie must photograph every single one of these. Every. Single. One.
	US-50 split off from I-70 near Salina, Utah, where these silos painted as giant soda cans were on display.
	We stopped at Carl's Jr. for lunch, ...
	... where they offered us Halloween candy as we went through the drive-thru. We were polite and only took one candy bar each. We were back in the land of Fry Sauce, so we asked for some with our meals, so they gave us lots of it with our fries. Best Carl's Jr. ever!
	Another quick detour took us eight miles south, ...
	... to Sigurd, Utah. Sigurd was the name of Debbie's grandfather, and Debbie's brother, Doug, had sent us a picture of the town's name on an exit sign when he drove through this area in 2020 on his way back to Seattle from Phoenix. It was only a matter of time before one of our many trips through Utah brought us close enough to make the trip here ourselves.
	We were trying to get pictures of anything with the name Sigurd on it, like the Sigurd Town Hall building, ...
	... or the Sigurd, Utah, Post Office, zip code 84657, ...
	... or this sign for United States Gypsum in Sigurd.
	There really isn't much to the town, and with our mission accomplished, ...
	... we headed right back to US-50 where we had left off.
	Check out this lake. You can see the mountains reflected in it, and there are cows standing knee deep in the water on both shores.
	US-50 merged very briefly with I-15 as we turned south to avoid the very large mountains in the background.
	It's hard to get GPS navigation to follow a specific highway, so you sometimes have to set waypoints to keep it following the route you want, rather than the fastest or the shortest route it can find. We used Delta, Utah, as one of those waypoints to keep us on track.
	Our map showed that there should be a huge lake here, but instead it was just a flat salty valley.
	Every now and then, the large flat valleys would give way to a winding mountain pass, ...
	... before returning to a straight, flat road running off to the horizon.
	Just after 2 PM, we left Utah behind and crossed into Nevada.
	US-50 through Nevada is touted as "America's Loneliest Road," and we would have to agree with that. There were many, many times where we didn't see any cars in front of us or behind us, even though we could see for miles and miles in both directions.
	There's something about the cow on this sign that makes it seem like it is dancing. Do you see it, or is it just us?
	Near the town of Baker, Nevada, we detoured south to Great Basin Visitor Center, ...
	... where we made a quick bathroom stop and checked out their wares, ...
	... before proceeding into Great Basin National Park itself.
	The park gets its name from big U-shaped bowl formed by the mountains here.
	We climbed steadily upward, through 8,500 feet and then 9,000 feet ...
	... before reaching Mather Overlook.
	There was a fantastic overlook deck, which looked very newly built, ...
	... with incredible views of the mountains surrounding the park.
	There was an interesting bracked mounted to the top of the rail, designed to hold a mobile phone facing a very particular part of the mountain slope. Below it was an instruction card asking visitors to use place their phones in the holder, take a photo of the landscape, and email it to them so that they can keep track of the changes to the park. What a cool idea.
	Tom followed the instructions, ...
	... and took this picture of the landscape, which he uploaded when we got home.
	This is why we were here at this particular overlook. With the name Mather Overlook, you should probably have guessed that we were looking for ...
	... a Mather plaque. This plaque has an amazing story. It has been stolen twice and recovered both times. The first time it was stolen was in 1994, when it was ripped off its mounting and later found by the side of the road where it had been discarded. The second time it was stolen was only a year later, in 1995. It was found in a junk shop in Reno in 1996 when it was recognized and returned to the park service. Its mounting is now described as "bomb proof" and is certainly the most massive installation we have yet seen.
	Nearby was a huge bronze casting, ...
	... showing the shape of Wheeler Peak Cirque, an area that was filled with glacial ice for much of the last two million years.
	The views from the overlook were lovely, from the green-covered slopes of the national park to the desert of the valley floor below and the mountains in the far distance.
	The road down the mountain and out of the park was part of the Nevada Scenic Byway system.
	We retraced our route from Great Basin National Park to where we left US-50 and resumed our trek westward.
	Wow. That's a lot of antlers.
	There's a lot of open land out west, which makes for perfect place to put a wind farm.
	You can see why they call it the Loneliest Road.
	We entered Humboldt National Forest, ...
	... and saw our first elk crossing sign with the elk looking to the right. This was reversed from every other elk crossing sign we had ever seen so we had to photograph it. We saw several more like it in Nevada, along with signs like we were used to, with the elk looking to the left.
	Debbie originally wanted to visit the Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Site, but changed her mind when she saw that you had to drive dirt roads for seven miles to see them.
	US--50 was still lonely, ...
	... but the scenery was still interesting. Check out the cool green swirlies of vegetation at base of these mountains.
	Around 4:30 PM, we arrived in Ely, Nevada, ...
	... and stopped at the Bristlecone Motel, our destination for this day. We had originally been looking at campgrounds in the area, but the forecast was for low temperatures in the high 20s or low 30s, and that is far too cold for us.
	We checked in and were assigned to a lovely room at the end of the building on the first floor, which suited us just fine.
	As the sun went down, the motel's sign turned on, including the "No Vacancy" indicator. Good thing we had booked early.
	We showered, got into our jammies, and set up our laptops across from each other on the table. We took advantage of the motel's Wi-Fi to download software for Debbie's new laptop, and do some other IT-ish tasks, before heading off to sleep. Day 6 >