From Wells to Pioche

When travelling like this, from one place to the next, it happens very quickly that I’m behind in my reporting. Already we are in Las Vegas, far away from Pioche where we spent the night before last. 

We left Wells on Monday morning, continuing on Hwy. 93, the ‘scenic route’, curious what expected us on the next stretch of the way. We weren’t really fixed on one particular town to stay overnight; Ely, closer, had a variety of motels to choose from, while Pioche, which sounded a little more interesting, had at least a few. It would be nice to get as far as Pioche so that we could stop at Cathedral Gorge state park earlier the next day rather than later.

It turned out to be not the greatest day for a drive along a scenic route: low hanging clouds and intermittent drizzle often obscured the view, and it was so windy that we weren’t much inclined to stop anywhere for any length of time. Thus we kept driving, the temperature hovering around +5, passed through Ely early enough that we didn’t consider staying the night. 

The sky got darker and darker, a gloomy end-of-the-world atmosphere had taken hold, and in the middle of the afternoon it felt as if it was close to nightfall. We were still at a rather high elevation and crossed a couple of summits around 2,000 m. Thankfully it wasn’t quite as cold as in Montana and Idaho, or we would surely have run into trouble with slippery roads with the constant drizzle.

It is a long and lonely stretch of road, devoid of houses and people, which, in the sunshine or at least with a bit of light, would have seemed like a wonderful thing. In vain did we look for Major’s Place, indicated by a small dot on the map; maybe it was the one house we passed shortly before the road branched and we had to turn right again to stay on Hwy. 93. A sign informed us that there would be no gas for 81 miles, which would have made more sense if there had been a fuel station to fill up before embarking on that stretch of road.

If possible it got darker yet, and, to add to the discomfort, it got foggy, though not for too long. The green mileage signs were counting down: 69, 49, 29 miles to Pioche. Nine miles. Almost there. But then the fog returned, and this time it didn’t disappear but got ever denser. At the last moment we saw the sign ‘Pioche, Business Route’ and ‘Pioche, Truck Route’, but by the time we had processed the information I had crawled by, no chance to turn around. Blue and red blinking lights appeared ahead: a police car, with a big truck right after, trying to back up off the road. It was that bad! Once the trucker had completed the manoeuver the policeman waved us on, and I asked him where the turnoff into town was. ‘About a quarter mile’, was the answer – yet I missed it again, although I watched for it carefully. 

Very slowly we finally drove up the hill through the small town, street lamps barely able to light the sidewalks, hardly anyone around. Johann inquired at a couple of places about a room: there seemed to be plenty. We settled for the ‘Motherlode Motel’, the cheapest of the three, very clean, with a big room. If the chef hadn’t been away for the week we even would have had the option of ordering supper or breakfast. We were just really, really glad that we didn’t have to go any further; it would have been a scary thing to do under these conditions. 

 

Herbert Hoover is reported to have stayed here at one time

Not much is left of the former glory

Pioche, a mining town, once considered one of the worst in the west where, according to one report, 72 people died a violent death before one died of natural causes, had sounded like an interesting place to visit. What we found in the morning, however, was a place mostly deserted, obviously not much used to winter visitors, and the cold wind tugging at our clothes when we went in search for a place to have breakfast didn't help. The only place in town to have breakfast was closed on Tuesdays, so we walked back to our motel and packed up, ready for some hiking in Cathedral Gorge, longing for a bit more warmth which we hoped to find there, since the elevation is a fair bit lower already.