You see a freeway exit from Interstate 15 between Logandale and Mesquite Nevada saying that the road leads to Carp and Elgin, Nevada. If you look at the road, it goes through flat land for at least 50 miles with nothing in sight but the Mojave Desert signature plant, creosote bush. The road turns to dirt shortly after you leave the freeway. That exit has always piqued my interest. If you look at a state map or atlas, it shows Elgin and Carp about 75 and 100 miles from anywhere (in truth, Elgin is at the end of a paved road leading from Caliente to Elgin, but all other approaches are by dirt.) This being said, we took a long weekend over Halloween to explore the area around Carp and Elgin. We stayed in a motel room with Caliente Hot Springs (the motel name, strangely enough) water piped into our room's hot tub. We explored ghost towns, towns of living history and State Parks on this trip.
There is a stretch of US93 that is very straight. The first time we drove it, we noticed the straightness and belatedly started measuring it. It was 78 miles from our point of noticing to the first curve in the road. Beyond the curve is another anomaly. Groundwater comes to the surface in many areas there. A natural seepage basin (abetted somewhat by man) leads to two water filled basins in the middle of the desert. They are the Pharanagat Lakes, an important stop on one branch of the Pacific Flyway. Water in the desert attracts all forms of birds. That and fishing are the two main activities at the Pharanagat National Preserve.
Delamar is (was) a gold mining town at the turn of the century. Established in 1894, its effective life was over by 1935. The gold was gone, so the people left. As with most desert ghost towns, everything wooden was taken to the next mining camp, so only stone buildings remain. And not much of them remains. Delamar lies on a dirt road at the edge of a canyon. You get there by following a tangle of dirt roads across the valley. The town was pleasant to explore. The residential buildings seem to have fared better than the commercial buildings.
Saturday was our whirlwind tour day. We spent several hours visiting Cathedral Gorge State Park and then Pioche before going to Echo Valley and Spring Valley State Parks.
Cathedral Gorge is a small by spectacular park. The central feature are the eroded "hoodoos." Being in Cathedral Gorge is like being in Bryce Canyon but looking up at everything. At Bryce, most people look down on the hoodoos. We took a hike through the formations, where it was easy to see the sculpting done by the water and wind. Finally, to make the experience more Bryce like, we reached the overlook (Miller's Point). The park is a very worthwhile spot for camping (if it is not too hot), hiking and photography.
Pioche is a mining town that survived. While mining is not the main occupation in Pioche, it still exists. Pioche has become something of a tourist town. The Lincoln County Museum is an interesting if somewhat eclectic and cluttered place. There are exhibits relating to the miners, the Indians, the later Mormon settlement and the geology of the county. Pioche was one of the prototypical western towns where almost 80 people died before one person died of natural causes. Then there is the $1,000,000 courthouse. While the original cost was to be in the neighborhood of $10,000 or so in the 1870's, construction goofs, corruption, financing delays caused the cost to surpass the million dollar figure before it was completed 20 or 30 years later. The building sits empty and may end up as a museum. You can tour it on occasion.
From Pioche's foothill perch, we crossed the valley and headed to the state parks. Both Echo Canyon and Spring Valley contain lakes created by dams. The water was impounded to promote agriculture. Hay and alfalfa are the two biggest southern Nevada crops; this is where most of the water goes. Both sites contain campgrounds and are used primarily for fishing. Hiking trails do exist: we hiked at Echo Canyon. The trail took us through eroded granitic formations. The high point on the trail gave us a good view of the lake. Echo Canyon is more picturesque than Spring Valley because it is deeper in the mountains. We drove along farmlands and swampy meadows for a few miles behind Echo Reservoir. The bugs might be a problem if you are camping. This is a rarity for Nevada.
Kershaw-Ryan State Park
We headed home by way of Rainbow Canyon, heading towards Elgin and Carp. The first stop was Kershaw-Ryan state park. The focus of this park is a small canyon that you can hike into. The canyon narrows very quickly and the trails either follow the narrow canyon or the ridge. There were a few colorful aspens and some other fall color, but most desert flora does not waste its time on such displays. The park used to have camping, but flash floods scour the canyon clean quite regularly. The Nevada State Park Service gave up on the campground in the late '80's but restored the trails, particularly those that travel the ridge.
The first thing thing we saw along the road down the canyon was a red tailed hawk. It sat and posed for us for a while, but would not let us get too close. The canyon narrowed, then widened a number of times, each variation leading to a new picturesque view. We stopped at a site where petroglyphs had been pecked into the rock. Finally, the paved road ended at Elgin. All that really remains of Elgin is a well preserved, freshly painted one room school house. A few foundations of deceased buildings can be seen. Elgin was a railroad watering stop. A post office was opened there in 1913 and later closed. Elgin hung on for a while longer. Now the only inhabited site is a ranch that advertises u-pick apples in the fall. We did not take the dirt road exit from Rainbow Canyon that leads to the ranch and then to US93. Instead, we followed 4wd roads that follow the UP railroad tracks (sometimes VERY closely) down Meadow Valley to Moapa. The road is not really bad, except in a couple of places. One was where we had to replace a blown tire. But this was well past Carp. What remains in Carp is a railroad siding and loading platform lined by a few cottonwoods. Carp was also a railroad watering stop. Other stops (e. g. Rox) have nothing reamining except a railroad siding and a sign. We did not follow the road leading to the freeway exit mentioned above. That can be another adventure later.
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Created on 5/4/00