Old Cowboy House

Across the highway from where I live, there is an old cowboy house made out of mud (adobe?)! After looking at for a month or so, Dave and I decided to check it out. I wouldn't have gone over by myself.....but it ended up being pretty interesting.

We parked on the road and walked across the field to get to the house. I was surprised there are no fences around it but there are so many of these in the area people pretty much leave them alone.

We guessed that it's been here since the 1800s, since that's when this area was developed. My guess was 1850s or 1860s but I'd have to do more reading about Yerington to know for sure.

We didn't go inside, but Dave stuck his head in a window to get this picture. I'm too much of a chicken to even stick my head in. It does look like it was used "recently" like in the 1940s (again just a guess, I'll do more research) because it was retro-fitted with electricity. From the looks of things though we were smart not to go inside...hantavirus is an issue here and it looks like mice and packrats have been using the place for their own homes.

Another interior view...

Lake Tahoe

Last year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Dave and I came to Nevada to visit his parents and his cousins. I also got to see Lake Tahoe for the first time! It's got crystal clear water and it's high in the mountains, 7,000 feet o so, and the mountains above it go up to around 10,000 feet. The lake itself is about 1,600 feet deep! It's even got its own monster, Tahoe Tessie (haven't seen her yet).

The lake covered in fog...

I love the beach! Lots of flat sand, with a few huge ponderosa trees growing out of nowhere!

I like taking pictures of pinecones....

I've got more pictures from this year, but they are still on the camera (of course!). We went there in September, before I started work. I think we spent more time in California that first week here that we did in Nevada! I'm excited to go up in the summer and do some hiking. We even got a book on trails in the area. I can't wait to try it out!

Pink Clouds

I took this out the car window yesterday coming home from a L O N G car ride to Nevada and back.

The full moon along the road and pink clouds!

 We started Wednesday and made it to Elko. I liked driving across Nevada--it looks a lot like Utah. I realized that Las Vegas (where I was born) is what I think of when I think of Nevada, when it's actually the opposite! Nevada is full of small towns and cities, and a LOT of farms!

The Great Basin is massive! Lots of mountain ranges and long, green valleys. We actually got a little lost, thinking we were on the Great Basin Highway when actually we were headed for a campground and hiking trail--Angel Lake.

Doesn't it look like Heaven? We thought so!! I didn't want to leave but we had to because we still had about 8 hours left to drive home.

The water was cold and clear and we could see fish swimming around down there.

The trip was fun and I will hopefully be able to post more on that soon. We did come home to a much hotter day than what we had there. Today at the park it's over 90 and I've been outside most of the day. Normally I don't complain about the heat but I'm really noticing it today! I have made sure to drink plenty of water! I have a full moon hike tonight and I'm looking forward to the sun going down!

An additional story about the drive home can be found here.