Pioche | Nevada

 

 

Pioche is a very small town, no stop lights, no grocery store and very little traffic.  But, they appreciate RV people so much that they have set aside a free campground for them, even though there are quite a few regular campgrounds.  This city campground has water hookups as well as sewer and you can stay here for a full week.  There is a little box near the list of rules requesting donations.  In back of our little campground, we see deer during the evening. 

 

 

Of course, there are multiple old abandoned buildings, such as this old hotel from the mid 1980s.   

 

Right next door is the "Million Dollar Courthouse". It didn't take a million dollars to build it back in those days, but the money sure adds up when you have all sorts of problems with financing and other things that soak up money.

 

In back of the courthouse is the jail, which looks very inviting.

 

 

The Overland Hotel and Saloon is building which is still in business and is left over from the mining days.

 

 

The Nevada Club is still operating also.

 

 

There was a section off the main road with these old buildings and equipment.

 

I love this little slanted house with the upside down roof peak.

 

More interesting buildings are scattered around, some now house businesses and some are just abandoned and locked up.

 

I don't know for sure, but I can probably figure out what this building was used for back in the mining days. 

Miner's shacks looked like this.

 

There was some culture in town, since they had an opera house as well as a movie theater.

 

Amid all the closed, abandoned buildings, there is a park with a gazebo and little waterfall and some old mining equipment up on a trestle.

 

 

One evening while I was out watching the deer, we had  pretty nice sunset.  They are not as plentiful as in some areas I've been.

 

 

 

Sugarite Canyon State Park | New Mexico

Sugarite Canyon State Park is outside the town of Raton in northeast New Mexico.  It's really not that far out, but worlds away from the interstate and the town.  It's a canyon, which means on each side of the road, there are mountains that tower over the campsites on both sides of the road.  It's a small park, but I was able to get a site in the overflow parking. This means no hookups, which is fine with me because that means it's free with the yearly park permit, instead of having to pay $4 for the utilities!  Either way, it's a bargain!

Campsites are not on the lake, but the overflow parking area has a wonderful little stream running in back of the sites, so you can hear it when you're outside. 

It's bear country, but I didn't get to see one - probably just as well, since I was thinking on some of my hikes that I really didn't want to see one face to face!  I did see a few deer and a little faun, usually while driving, so I didn't get a good photo.  

A little chipmunk was sitting on a rock by the lake, just staring out at it and chirping every few seconds.  He really didn't worry about me sitting there taking photos of him.

The lakes were beautiful, the smaller one was actually in Colorado, but it wasn't a long hike.....

I liked the larger lake, on the New Mexico side, it seemed more picturesque.....

The hike to the coal mines was interesting, once I was able to find one of the mines.  Of course, they are blocked off now.   

 

This little building was where all the explosives were stored.

 

One of the impressive objects were the hoists that hauled the coal down the steep side of the canyon and then winched the empty cars back up.  I have not seen these at other mines, but possibly they didn't have the steep terrain.

The view from the top where the mines are was great.

From high above the valley, you could see what's left of the foundations of some of the houses.  There was a whole town of homes and other buildings for the miners.

One miner built this oven for his wife so that she could bake bread, which she sold to other families.

An interesting note - the symbol for the mines was the swastika.  Of course, this was before WW II.  Back in the early 1900s, it was a sign of good luck, and I even noticed them on a building in town, trimming the 6 story structure.

Another hike took me to a huge mesa, the views were great!

And then the storms started moving in - this is monsoon season......

 

In the small visitor center of the park, I found this little item.....

And heading into the park, I found this wonderful old barn - I just love these old abandoned buildings.

Camping near Yankee Meadows Campground | Dixie National Forest | Parowan, Utah

 

We were on the way to the Yankee Meadows Campground in the Dixie National Forest off Route 143 in Utah, just outside of Parowan. The road was steep with lots of twists and turns, as well as amazing bright red rock formations on each side of the road. The road turns to a dirt road for a short way. Along that part of the road, about a mile before reaching the actual campground, there are two camping areas that have designated camping on each side of the road. 

The camping areas had large sites that provided enough space from your neighbor so you didn't feel crowded. There are no facilities in these camping areas, so there is no fee. We did check out Yankee Meadows Campground and found that they had a restroom, water spigots in a few places, picnic tables and steel fire rings. For these features, you'd be paying a small fee.

My traveling friend and I decided we liked free better, so we chose one of the camping areas we had first checked out. The roads in were fine and the scenery is terrific, with a little stream at the far side of the campground, complete with a little bridge so you can walk over the stream to explore the area.

Down the road past the actual Yankee Meadow Campground there is a beautiful lake with a mountain view - snow still on the peaks in June.

I was able to catch a shot of a deer at dusk way over in a grove of aspens.

More scenery in the surrounding area.....

 

 



Deer Week

 

For the past week I've been at a campground belonging to the U S Army Corp of Engineers.  These parks are always attached to a body of water, in this case, Canyon Lake, northwest of San Antonio, Texas.

These parks have hookups for water and sewer and paved RV sites, each with it's own large picnic table under a roof.  There are nice bath houses including toilets and large showers.  The sites are nicely spaced, with generous undeveloped areas between the sites and the lake and different camping areas. 

Early this morning, I opened my door to see 6 deer in the field next to my RV.   There wasn't a day that I didn't see multiple deer, and a few fawns, wandering through the area. 

  

This past weekend, there was an influx of locals coming in with their boats, jetskis and other water toys.  The area was full of happy campers, but it did not feel too crowded.  After a day or so, most of them cleared out and my nearest neighbor was  4 or 5 sites away. 

After a week of relaxing, it was time to move on for more sightseeing.  I'm sure I'll be looking for more campgrounds run by the COE - in fact, I have one picked out for the week after next.