A Country Cottage

Our next stop was a town called Caliente. Keith and Betsy have bought a "weekender" in this lovely town which is about 3 hours north of Las Vegas. The cottage is what is called a "fixer" up. Keith I gather would demolish it but Betsy, like most women, is a bit more sentimental and wants to fix it up. The house is over a hundred years old and needs some real work - luckily Keith is a tradesman and jack of all trades so can do most of the work himself.

We headed to Caliente on Thursday and the workers, Keith and Betsy, came up Friday afternoon. We booked a site in what is commonly called a " mom and pop" RV park - one that is family owned and operated. As luck would have it there was a practice run for an ATV off road event happening that same weekend and the majority of the bigger sites had been booked. The site we were allocated was pretty tight but with our 6 months towing and backing experience we manoeuvred the trailer in.

We squeezed in, just!


Caliente's Railway Station


Caliente sits close to an area commonly called "Area 51" which is a USA top secret military base - well the base is not a secret but what goes on there is. The air space above and near Area 51 is a total no fly zone to anyone other than the military. We did see some very high flying jets doing very daring manoeuvres one day. The military base itself is protected by ground sensors and cameras - locals confirmed that if you venture near the boundaries of the base you will be handcuffed and detained. There will be no venturing off the main roadways for us!

Keith and Betsy head up to Caliente every few weeks to do a little more maintenance on their weekender so unaccustomed as we are to physical work these days we pitched in and helped with a bit of painting.

Ron the handyman


Work done for the day it was time for a "Cooks" tour of the area. Betsy has spent many years camping and ATV ing in the area so knows it well - we visited many of her old stomping grounds including an old silver mining town called Pioche. The surrounding area is dotted with old mine shafts and the buckets used to carry the ore out of the mines still sit above the town 50 years later.

The mine seems to have just stopped!


Pioche


No trip to a small town would be complete without a stop at the local bar or saloon.

Just one - well maybe two at the Overlander Saloon


Our last stop heading back to Caliente was the Cathedral Gorge State Park. Driving along the highway it would be very easy to miss this amazing place.

The Cathedrals were a great sight


Just huge!



In addition to a couple of restored vintage cars Keith and Betsy also own a Polaris which is a four wheel drive off road vehicle. At the end of their street there is a huge area of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land which offers countless miles of well defined trails for this type of four wheel drive vehicle.

Seatbelt on, helmet on, lip gloss on - we are go!



It is easy to see why the Americans love and own their "toys". Unlike in Australia, horses, quad bikes and pets are allowed in most National and State Parks and in all BLM areas.

Keith and Betsy headed back to Vegas Sunday afternoon however there was more for us to explore so extended our stay another day. The highlight of the day was a visit to the Kershaw Ryan State Park. We are constantly amazed at the unexpected beauty of this country. The park which is at the base of a gorge has had to be rebuilt many times due to flash flooding.

A real oasis


Time to just sit and enjoy



Well our time in Caliente has come to an end it's time to move on to our next destination. Our intention was to head to Zion National Park however, as no doubt we will encounter more often now that winter is over, it was fully booked until August. Back to the drawing board, or rather to the map!

Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Caliente Nevarda