Don't forget EUREKA!

petroglyphs
reservation


Eureka Nevada is about the cutest Frontiers town nestled right against a Sierra mountain side. There was an old saloon, several cafes, and ice cream bar, a 1920's opera house, and this really weird rock formation with holes and openings in it. Inside these openings, there were hundred year-old glass bottles, old windows stacked on top of each other, and other artifacts of a time gone by. Why were these things lying around in holes and caves in the rock? Jocelyn's hypothesis: this is how they kept beverages cold back then- it's essentially a root cellar.I think it's a good one- those shadowy parts of the rock are very cool even in the desert heat. We ate delicious strawberry rhubarb pie at the casino. Unfortunately the waitress just did not like us (even though we tried to be extra nice). Apparently we didn't really fit into that scene (possibly due to chamois, reflective vest, clip clop biker shoes, WATER BOTTLES everywhere...).

We slept in the town park. This time we knew to avoid the sprinkler system. We had learned that lesson from our night in Ely. There we had slept at a Morgue, behind a clump of pine trees. In the middle of the night drunk kids hit the streets playing loud music, speeding around on their motorcycles, yelling things. As if that weren't enough, around midnight several lights inside the morgue suddenly turned on, illuminating our tent. Terrifying. Then to top it off, the feisty sprinkler system sprang to life at 4 in the morning, attacking us in our tent with a jet stream of water. Soaking wet, exhausted, and ready to get out of town, we decided we would never fall for a nice green patch of grass in the desert without inspecting the ground for lurking sprinkler valves. So the morning in Eureka was pleasant.

We set off for Austin with a terrible thermal head wind.