Jerri and I decided to do a shakedown cruise in our new toy – a Polaris Ranger. Our first adventure was to be on Sunrise Pass over the Pine Nuts Mountains just to the east of us. I need to warn you that the sun was very bright and my phone doesn’t have the best camera, but I hope you’ll get an idea of the terrain even though the photos aren’t of the best quality.
The Johnson Lane area where we live is rural enough that we can just hop into our vehicle and zoom up to the mountains. Our Ranger is not street legal but if we’re not on busy Johnson Lane, we’re fine. Lawn mowers aren’t street legal either, but many folks drive their lawn mowers to the General Store on Johnson Lane for gas. That’s how rural we are.
Getting into the higher country. Don’t forget to click on the image for a larger view.Desert Peach. It’s so pretty in the spring, but be careful around it. Its thorns are a couple inches long!Some type of butterfly/moth makes a web in the Desert Peach and its babies are hatching here.Scenery getting up into the higher country.Lupine at the side of the roadA large patch of LupineI think is the Pale Agorseris, a dandelion-like flowerThe trail up to an abandoned mine. There are hundreds of side trails leading to many mines, cabins and places of which I’m not aware. Yes, we were careful and paid attention to where we were going.The Ranger at the mine. It was just an open pit, no tunnel. We would not have gone into an abandoned mine tunnel anyway. Too dangerous!Monkey Flowers are VERY tiny. Those twigs beside them were also very small.Looking toward Dayton from the mine…at least we think we were looking toward Dayton.Looking west toward Job’s Peak, the high peak on the left.Still learning how to take good selfies 🙂Spreading Phlox in the middle of the mine trailA large Pinon Pine. They are very numerous in this area and aren’t normally this full. I think another tree is in the front. The Washoe Indians would spend the fall months in this area to gather the pinyon nuts, which are very nutritious and would provide them with sustenance during the cold winters. Gathering the nuts and preparing them for storage is very labor intensive, but people still go to these mountains to repeat the ancient gathering ritual.Scotch Broom in the foregroundCows on the east side of the Pine Nuts. They seemed very contented.Artesia Lake, which is dry, is in the central part of the photo. We could have continued on the trail and reached civilization just over the ridge behind the lake. If we had gone far enough, we would have been able to get into Smith and Mason Valleys and the town of Yerington.
This is a poor picture, but those green things are aspens. We were surprised to see this grove in an obviously dry areaThe road home. Job’s Peak and Job’s Sister are the two tall peaks in the background. Those mountains are the Sierra Nevada.Jerri and I really had a lot of fun on our inaugural adventure. But, at much as I enjoy these jaunts, I just as much don’t enjoy the clean up factor. It IS a dusty good time!
buzzardnotes 