Stop Over in Fallon, Nevada and a Tour of the Petroglyphs

An interesting stop over.  We stayed at the local Fairgrounds.  The hook ups were water and 30 Amp electric.  The Sewer dump station was on the way In/Out.  The dump station was an automated pay machine with two dump bays.  Upon further inspection one sewer opened without payment, so we just used that one :-)  It seemed like the best deal.

The park was a bit too close to the highway so we didn't get great sleep the two or three nights we stayed.  We did visit the local county museum and the nearby Archaeological Area of petroglyphs and caves.  We also saw a Gun Show advertised but elected to pass this time...

Free Beer, What could go wrong?

At the Archaeological Area, Grimes Point

We walked through the petroglyphs first.

Pepe coming in.

Cool visitor gazebo at the parking area, had cool simulated petroglyphs on the bench seats.

8,000 years old?  Impressive.  Interesting.  Fascinating!   Other information also told us this now desert area was once a huge inland fresh water lake, hundreds of feet deep!

This was a the single modern petroglyph found inside one of the vault toilets enclosures.... or it could just be a diagram of the germs in there!

Off we go from the parking area toward the petroglyph area. We ended up taking a hike to the top of that distant hill.  The boulders just in the foreground of that hill was the petroglyph field.

Approaching the rock field and the petroglyphs...

 Look, there goes one now!  It looks like a snake, or maybe a river..

 Many more glyphs on this large rock.

What were the ancients saying?  Grog, it's a lizard!  Smash it with your club! Just a guess.

Interpretive signs helped our understanding.  I made the stuff about Grog up myself :-)

Our shadows at a collection of glyphs.

This marking was a little different, it was a bit more sculpture like.

Gari is in full petroglyph mode now.

We decided to walk the 2 miles up to the hilltop behind Gari in the picture above.  We kind of lost the trail going up for awhile, but then got back on track.

There was  a nice stone bench at the top.  It was cold and windy up there, but the view was very good.

We also wanted to see the caves used by the ancient people in the same area.  It is thought that the caves were used for food storage mainly.  Steve went in the first cave.

Gari took pictres from a safe and wise distance.

A couple neat little holes in the cave.  The low one contained in the cave the high hole leads to daylight.

Desert lichens.

Lichens.

This cave goes back over 150 feet and is only accessible by tours given once per month.

Gari on the trail.

Heading back to the truck.

 The last stop in the area was the Churchill County Museum.  I told the nice lady at the door that the Smithsonian didn't have anything on their displays, and meant it.  Very well done curation of local American History.  This shot is for Lisa, a quilt of local landmarks below.

Steve liked the grinders and examined them for awhile.

Very old Native American waterfowl decoys.  Fascinating.

Steve loves arrowheads and they had an awesome collection presented in a fantastic display.

There was much more in the museum, but we just share a few more of the larger displays in the vehicle garage building.  Gari by a very early model Polaris Razor ;-)

Steve likes the heavy equipment.

Steve would love to drive this car!

Gari prefers the horse powered variety.

See? there goes Gari by more horse buggys!

Next stop Arizona!

Virginia City, Nevada

Virginia City was only about 22 miles from our RV Park, but because the route and terrain into Virginia City was so mountainous the trip in Pepe took us almost an hour.  Virginia City is another Gold and Silver mining town of old.  Today they sell the historical interest and attraction. We found the remote mountain location and scenery to be magnificient..

This map below gives you an idea where everything lies.  North is off to the left in this map.  We stayed just to the right or south of Carson City.

Below is a collage of VIrginia City from the railroad overpass just south of town.  You can see the train and tracks in the foreground.

A bit of the scenery coming into Virginia City.

 

 

 

We parked at the east end of town, which seemed like the back door, but there was a Chamber of Commerce mining commemorative site complete with public restrooms there.  You can see the large Headframe below.

This is a jolly mine cart complete with thoughts of the day.

Steve pauses at a huge mining auger at the commemoritve area; you can see the Virginia City "V" on the hill in the background.  Many western cities have their "Letter" on a hill at the edge of town.  That's just the way it is in the west.

Comstock is a big name in this area.  They called the ore in this area the Comstock Lode.

This is the sole "Filling Station" out here.  They had some excellent custom painting on the pumps and station windows.  The owner left a hand lettered sign on the door advising he was deer hunting for the week and would be back next week.

The shot below is looking into town from the "Front Door" at the west end of town.  It is the residential side of town.

 On the residential side of town looking down the hill toward the south.

 Now back to where we were, coming into town from the back door industrial side.

A few shots walking thorugh Virginia City, Nevada.  The wooden sidewalks were as uneven as the hills.  It was a challenge to walk like we were sober.

A couple cowboys ride by the Bucket of Blood Saloon

A few commercial establishments.

Gari meets Sugarbear

More historic structures.  Do you see the antique street clock?

There were several old buildings that were saloon-hotels there.  I think this was one of the fancier examples.  How 'bout that balcony railing; it has seen its' day a long time ago.

Apparently Mark Twain actually worked for the local newspaper here for a year or two.  Now they sell that history here.

Another commemorative site of the mining history of the town.  This monument was constructed from ore samples from every Nevada county.  Most of it is silver ore, which was the Comstock Lode.

There is lots of silver mining history all over the west.  We saw similar silver mining examples as far south as Yuma Arizona.  It is a pivotal part of the history out here.

The wild horses roam free out here.  This beautiful old Virginia City house has an infestation of wild horses.

An old Virginia City Pickup Truck

 The local Blacksmith Shop

 And there goes the rail line out of Virginia CIty.  So long VIrginia City!