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Ely and White Pine County, Nevada

Ely, Nevada is in the middle of White Pine County and 120 miles south of Wendover. This area is universally known as The Middle of Nowhere. On that 120 mile stretch there isn’t a single gas station, or a diner, or even a lived-in trailer park (abandoned ones, yes, but no active ones).

(Leaving the Salt Flats, heading south on US 93)

Ely itself is a booming metropolis of about 4,500 people (no, that is not a comma mistake) and more shuttered businesses than open ones. So it may surprise you that my weekend spent there was full of interesting things and gorgeous vistas, right? Well, it surprised me.

First up was the East Ely historic train station, which still operates several daily steam trains for tourists and is home to the Nevada Northern Railway Museum.

The train yard is small, but they have several different cars, engines, and a couple of overall-clad workers manning the trains. We timed it dead-wrong to take a ride, but wandered around the yard, across the tracks, and peeked in the windows of the various cars.

I immediately fell in-love with the yellow caboose, it reminded me of my dearly departed Daisy Mae. (To those of you new here, Daisy was my beloved VW bug who died to save me. True story. A sad, true story.) You can spend the night in the caboose for a small fee (ok, it’s kind of expensive), but the idea of paying that much money to sleep on an uncomfortable bed without an adjacent bathroom in the Middle of Nowhere, Nevada–especially when I had a perfectly comfortable bed to sleep in–preempted any train-sleeping for me. But hey, it’s an option, and now you know.

Either the museum was closed, or it consisted of some very lovely black-and-white photographs, a train table for little kids, and a bunch of T-shirts and conductor-stripe hats for sale. Either way, the train yard was fun to wander around, with or without a bonafide museum.

I don’t think I’ve been this close to a legit train since I was a kid and rode the Heber Creeper. You know, before it was given a makeover to be Thomas the Train or the Polar Express. I’m talking cowboys on horseback jump on the train and rob you of all your money, THAT was a good time. (Do they still do this? Goodness, I hope so. It’d be worth checking out, methinks.)

After we had sufficiently wandered around the train yard and museum, J-Mo and I headed out towards the mountains with a quick stop at the Ruth Mine to watch all the Tonka Trucks. Er, I mean, the mine trucks.

Now, I don’t know if you can see the teensy little stop sign that comes perhaps half-way up the tire for that mining truck…but, um, those trucks are enormous. And even fully laden they can move pretty darn quick. If all hauling vehicles were super heroes, this truck would be The Hulk; only, yellow instead of green. Obviously.

That boy of mine sure does love his trucks. (Detail: J-Mo is a civil engineer, so his interest in mining and dirt and big, giant trucks is central to his occupation. Although even if he were an accountant and was still obsessed with oversized Tonka’s I’d still think it was adorable.)

Instead of heading back to town, J-Mo and I headed out on the Success Loop to see what we could see.

First stop, Cave Lake State Park. This lake was lovely, small, quiet, and surrounded by fishermen. I wish we had packed a picnic or a canoe.

As it was, we’d just filled up on a delicious lunch and homemade pie at Big Apple in Ely (the Philly and the peach cobbler are recommended!) and I’d left my canoe in my other purse. So, after exploring the small beach we were on our way again.

The Success Loop was a surprisingly beautiful drive. The mountains surrounding Ely are covered in trees and gorgeously green right now. And the wildflowers! Oh my goodness, people, they have millions of wildflowers! Perhaps I go to the wrong parts of Utah canyons, or perhaps at the wrong time, but I have never in my life seen as many wildflowers as I saw on this loop!

These wild, yellow daisies were in clumps all over the sage-covered hills. And I audibly squealed when we came around a corner and saw fields of them. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it, they were everywhere!

Of course I requested a quick stop so I could tramp through the daisies. Do you remember that scene from the beginning of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland where Alice is laying in a giant field of daisies and she’s making daisy crowns for the cat? I have always loved that scene, and this little photo-romp through a couple of acres of wild yellow daisies was as close as I’ve ever been to re-enacting it. Too bad I didn’t have my Alice costume with me (it’s in my other bag…with the canoe). Next time, next time.

As we reached the summit the sun was starting to sink behind the mountains. The elk came out. I kept taking pics of wildflowers because, well, I just couldn’t stop myself. At first I thought this was a columbine, but when I climbed out of the truck to get a closer look I think it’s actually a wild, mountain iris. I was chatting with an Ely woman the next day and she told me that there was a field on the Success Loop that is full of mountain iris in a dozen different colors. It was dark by the time we hit that part of the road, but I would have loved to see that. Iris and daisies are two of my favorite flowers (you can see, now, why this particular drive was so squee-inducing for me, right?)

Also–little known fact–the mountains of White Pine County are home to thousands of Sego Lily’s. Now, even though it is the state flower of Utah, up until a few months ago I had never seen a Sego Lily. Native American’s taught the Mormon Pioneers who settled the Salt Lake valley that Sego Lily bulbs, which they considered a delicacy, could be eaten if there was a great enough need for food. Unfortunately, in those first few years the pioneers had a lot of rough winters and their crops were thin. (Oh, and what came up was eaten by millions of crickets, who were then devoured by flocks of seagulls. The crops survived, the pioneers didn’t starve, and the seagull earned the honor of state bird.) So, the pioneers ate a lot of bulbs, survived the winter, and deemed the lily as the state flower. (Does anyone else see a pattern here?) At this point Sego Lily’s are endangered in Utah and almost impossible to find.

So, imagine my surprise to discover that those small, white flowers dotting the roadside were, in fact, the elusive Sego Lily. I almost wanted to write a poem on the spot in the style of The Scarlet Pimpernell, but I’m not very good at on-the-spot rhyming and the syllable structures were throwing me off, so I took pictures instead. And you know what they say, a picture is worth a thousa… anyway. Moving on. The point is Humboldt National Forest in White Pine County has thousands and thousands of beautifully delicate Sego Lily’s, and I was thisclose to digging a few up to bring home with me. (I didn’t, but I seriously thought about it.) It is comforting to know that even though my state is practically void of their state flower, just a few hundred miles west they have them in droves.

As dusk rolled through the purpley mountains, Nature pulled out all the stops and painted up one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. The colors were so intense! Bright orange, and molten-lava yellow, and deep, dusty purples.

Seriously, this is exactly what the sky looked like. Photoshop not required.

Overall, this was a surprisingly beautiful and busy weekend spent in the Middle of Nowhere White Pine County, Nevada.  See full Flickr set here.

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