Last night, around 7:00 or so, a line of big thunderstorms passed just south of Wells headed east. We didn't get any rain to speak of in Wells, and when I checked the Weather Channel last night and again this morning, there was no mention of rain either last night or in the forecast. So, on the bike I went over to Wendover and the Flats.
When I got to Wendover, which is in a valley, you could see that it had rained, but I didn't know how much. The Flats are about 4 miles further east, and when I got off the highway, I could see a lot of standing water. A little ways down the causeway to the salt flats themselves is an area where the BLM allows camping, and it had been full of RV's, Trailers, tents, and tepees. Well, when I got to the camping area, they were pulling RV's out of the muck with a bulldozer. That didn't look so good, but I headed on out to the Flats themselves, and there was water everywhere. Because the salt itself is so solid, water doesn't percolate down into the ground as you would normally expect. In order for the water to disappear, it has to evaporate.
Anyway, I took a look at the salt brine that was literally everywhere and decided it was time to call it a day. (If I remember from chemistry class, Na Cl + H2O = Hydrochloric acid or something equally bad. And, there are a lot of places on the underside of the bike for a corrosive liquid to do some damage.) Well, anyway, I chickened out and headed on back to Wells.
After washing the bike and washing my accumulation of dirty laundry, I decided to take a short trip down US93 south of Wells just to see what was there. Answer...not much.
I did take some pictures, though, and like much of the West, it is pretty vacant.
These first two pictures were just a few miles south of Wells. The mountains are the East Humboldt Range, which is south and west of Wells:
This picture was looking back North with the East Humboldts in view:
I thought this was an interesting shot about 50 miles south of Wells:
Coming back North, this is the south entrance to Wells itself from US93:
And this is "Fourth Street", the main drag through town:
Fourth Street was once part of the old US40, one of the transcontinental routes prior to the building of the Interstates in the 1950's and 1960's. That explains why there are a number of old-style motels on Fourth Street, some still open and most not. Wells has obviously seen better times, but you wouldn't have otherwise have expected to see this:
On February 21, 2008 there was a magnitude 6.0 earthquake centered 5 miles ENE of Wells that did considerable damage to the town, including "Front Street", which was where many of the oldest buildings in town stood. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the town has recovered very rapidly from this event.
Anyway, there's more than you ever wanted to know about Wells, Nevada,
I'll be leaving in the morning for Idaho Falls, Idaho, and from there on Wednesday I'll be passing through Yellowstone Park on my way to Greybull, Wyoming. Never been to Greybull?? I'll give you a detailed report.
By the way, Speed Week at the Bonneville Salt Flats was about as cool and it gets if you like cars, racing, hot rods, and hanging around talking to people about their pride and joy. The event is sponsored by the Southern California Timing Association and their web site is http://www.scta-bni.org/ Check it out if you're interested in this sort of thing. I know I'm coming again.
Miles today: 246. Total: 4,453.
