Dang Hot!

When we made the reservation here in Baker, I started thinking about all the weird places we have stayed as a traveling duo.  The Portland airport Ramada certainly comes to mind as the hotel I'm most glad I survived. I slept in my clothes and showered in my shoes. Gross. But just as a weird place in general, there were several in Italy that might fit the bill, namely the room in Venice. It was so small that the door hit the queen sized bed, and you had to crawl across it to get to the other side. That, and I woke up with 27 mosquito bites on my face from the canal! I thought this "End of the Trail-er" would join this dubious list, but is has turned out to be quite delightful. It is a portion of a trailer (other part is storage) situated nearly on the grounds of Great Basin National Park. We awoke to this amazing view this morning. 

Isn't it beautiful? We poured some iced coffee and took our scones outside for breakfast. Where it was already 99 degrees!! Planning for an in-the-car day, we packed our water bottles and headed for the scenic drive in Great Basin. 

The Great Basin is an area of watersheds that covers nearly all of Nevada, and parts of Oregon, Idaho, Utah, California, and Wyoming. It basically covers areas where water in any form (snow melt, precipitation etc.) does not make its way to the Pacific or Gulf of Mexico. It drains to lakes, evaporates, or drains to ground water.  And that's about as best as I can explain it! This area gets 10 inches of rain annually. ANNUALLY!! Isn't that so hard to understand? Living on the coast, in an area that can get up to 100 inches of rain, it is hard to fathom a place with so little water. 

The scenic drive took us through old mining districts, stands of aspen, and up to about 10,000 feet. 

After viewing the park in fits and spurts, we were HOT. Real hot. We packed our cooler, and set out (in the air conditioned vehicle) for the Osceola mining district. It's another back road story, only this time we knew that we were on the right road! Gold mining began here in 1872, and during its heyday, there were around 1,500 people living in Osceola. Mining dried up around 1900, and the town was almost completely lost to fire in 1940.

Our last find, leaving the canyon, was the Osceola cemetery. 

Later, after we returned home and were trying to get our body temperatures back to normal, I did some digging on the group of "Marriott" graves. Most of them were children, but there were three adults. The Marriotts (of the hotel group) are from Utah, and ranched in the mountains in Utah and Nevada. I dug up some family trees, and would love to find a connection between the folks in this cemetery and the Marriott hotel family.  My efforts have been slightly hampered by the popularity of the name John.... ;)

Um, IT'S HOT HERE!!!  We have those awesome cool towels to help with the temperature, and I found relief wearing mine turban style. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

Tomorrow we are up early to beat the heat and hopefully conquer the altitude to see the bristlecone pines. 

💟