Southwest 2025-13: The Finale—Utah: Mountain Meadows. Nevada: Area 51, Upper Paharanget Lake, Tonopah. California: Eastern Sierra, Bridgeport, Bodie, Yosemite, Home.

May 26-29, 2025

    This is the final post for our Spring 2025 Southwest trip--getting it out just in time for our next foray.

    After 6-plus weeks meandering about the Southwest, it was time to think about heading home for a while. So we began our trek west from Kanab, Utah. 

We pulled out of Kanab, Utah  for the last time on this trip & headed northwest to Mountain Meadows Massacre National Historic Landmark.

    Doug first learned of the Mountain Meadows Massacre decades ago when he read Mark Twain's 1872 book Roughin' It. He'd read about it in subsequent books and expressed a desire to visit the site. 

The 1st memorial to the 1857 tragedy was placed in 1990. The site became a National Historic Landmark in 2011.   

Mountain Meadows.

 

The Memorial consists of 2 sites: the Men's Memorial Site & the Women's & Children's Memorial Site. Nearby red Indian Paintbrush seemed appropriate..

Both sites are simple, stark, inviting thought.

 

Women's & Children's site.

Then we were back in Nevada, once again experiencing its wonderful basins & ranges, this time on Hwy 93/375. We were headed to the infamous Area 51. 

At the start of our trip, we drove across Nevada further north, on Highway 50, "Loneliest Highway in America." We don't find it so at all, always awed by the continuous basins & ranges & vast skies.

After a few false starts & too many miles for the end of the day, we discovered Upper Pahranagat Lake Park, truly an unexpected oasis. 

The lake is within the Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge.

It was rather primitive, but quiet, peaceful, & lovely.

Hiko, NV. Yes, you can drive through Area 51 on the Extraterrestrial Highway, but it is still a highly classified military operation within the Nevada Test and Training Range.

Military installations are in the distance somewhere off the main road. You definitely cannot drive there.

There doesn't appear to be much out there...

...maybe an alien or 2....

Remember Nevada's basins & ranges? As we came over the top of a rise, an Air Force F-15 jet buzzed us, crossing about 100 feet over our head.  Doug said the Wingman would be coming, which it soon did, probably a bit lower, thrilling him, but making Marilyn fill like her brains were permanently scrambled.

Nevada's Tikaboo Valley, at the northern end of the Mojave Desert, grows both Eastern & Western Joshua Trees. Better known Joshua Tree National Park is populated by the Western variety.

The road seems to go on forever…. 

    Rachel NV, founded in 1973 as Tempiute Village was renamed in 1978 for the first child born there. It's known by some as the UFO Capital of the World. The surrounding Sand Springs Valley is rich in human & natural history.

Rachel NV Area 51 fun: Area 51 School District bus & an Alien. There's a lot of commercialization around Area 51.

Original ET Hwy sign. Nevada dubbed SR 395 the Extraterrestrial Hwy in 1996.

A new sign replaced the old one in 2019.

The Extraterrestrial Hwy leading where?

 

Pretty sparse pickings for cattle.

Mining for tungsten ore, as well as silver, mercury, & lead, came & went in Sand Springs Valley from 1916 to 1987. 

Buildings, mounds of tailings, & tailings ponds remain in the area. Environmental clean-up is ongoing. 

Westward bound.

Warm Springs has hopefully seen better days.

 

US Department of Energy Sandia National Laboratories Tonapah Test Range. 

 

Bunkers abound in Tonopah, NV

    The Tonopah Test Range was established in 1957. Many Sandia employees live in Las Vegas, spending 3 days each week at the test range. 

Tonopah NV.

    We stopped in Tonopah to stretch our legs. The Tonopah Aviation Mural, by Lee Bowerman, depicts aircraft that were based at Tonopah Army Air Field or tested at Tonopah Test Range, inculding a Lockheed F-117A Stealth Fighter, Bell P-39 Airacobra Fighter, Modified P-51 "Red Baron" Mustang Fighter, B-24 Liberator Bomber, and GB-4 Radio-Television Controlled Glide Bomb.

Tonopah Aviation Mural, by Lee Bowerman.

 

The Naval Sea Systems Command in Hawthorne NV is used for storage & maintenance of undersea mines.

Bunkers at NAVSEA.

& on westward...

California's Sierra Nevada Mountains come into view making us realize our journey will soon end. 

State Line.

Back in the Golden State.

The open road.

Mono Lake.

Heading north on Hwy 395, a spectacular drive up the East Side of the Sierra Nevadas from just north of Indian Wells in the south to Topaz Lake in the north.

We camped at Bridgeport Reservoir & soon found ourselves sharing the campsite with so many mosquitoes. 🦟  Fortunately, the van has window & door bug screens.

Nicknamed the "California Alps," the Sierra Nevada Sawtooth Range  includes Matterhorn Peak.

Marilyn of course had to go for a swim in the reservoir. It was quite comfortable until the wind came up.

Great site on the banks of the reservoir.

Bridgeport Reservoir.

Bodie

In the morning we took Bodie Rd 13 miles through the foothills to the former mining town. 

Along Bodie Rd.

Near entrance to Bodie. Bodie's boom lasted from 1875 to 1881, but mining continued until 1942.

Main St: County Barn, DeChambeau Hotel & Post Office, IOOF Hall.

Corner of Main & Green: Front of Wheaton & Luhrs Store looking toward Firehouse.

Johl House, Sam Leon House. 

Main St:  County Barn, DeChambeau Hotel & Post Office (brick), IOOF Hall, Miners Union Hall (Museum), Morgue. 

Looking down Green St.

Park St: J.S.Cain House, Sawmill, Donnelly House, Seller House.

    Bodie: "The Mines Are Looking Well..." The History of the Bodie Mining District, Mono County, California, by Michael H Piatt, is described by former director of the California State Library's Special Collections Gary Kurutz as "the first book to tell the complete story of Bodie." We are fortunate to have a signed copy as Michael is married to a good friend of Marilyn's.

Yosemite
    A dirt road purported by a Bodie docent to be quite good and mostly paved turned out to be quite bad (even by our standards) and mostly dirt, but we survived to the main road. It was a short hop on Hwy 395 to Tioga Road/Hwy 120, the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park. Closed in winter, the road had been open just 3 days. Shoulders were piled high with plowed snow. 

Ellery Lake, elevation 9,500 feet, Tioga Pass Rd through Yosemite National Park.

Tioga Lake, elevation 9,700 feet, was still partially frozen.

 

Marilyn immediately recognized Cathedral Peak, elevation 10,900 feet. It overlooks Lower (9,290 feet) & Upper (9,600 feet) Cathedral Lakes. Marilyn has backpacked to & camped at Upper Cathedral a couple of times. It's not a long hike, 8 miles roundtrip, but it begins at 8,500 feet.

We both have fun memories of Tenaya Lake, elevation 8,150 feet. 

    From Yosemite Valley, we took Highway 140, a meandering drive along the Merced River, peaceful in summer, a roaring torrent through Yosemite Valley in winter. When the northern Hwy 120 and southern Hwy 41 routes are closed due to snow, 140 tends to be open. But it is prone to rockslides, 3 major ones in the past 20 years. It had reopened just a couple of weeks after a March 2025 rockslide, but with one-way traffic in some areas.

Waiting to cross one-way bridge over Merced River. Buckeye tree in full bloom. California Buckeyes leaf out & bloom in spring & go dormant in summer. 

Merced River.

Merced River.

    We departed Hwy 140 in Mariposa and worked our way along back roads to Hwy 99 and home. Time to unpack, clean up, check on the house and yard, rest a bit...and think about our next roadtrip.

Last days of our Southwest Meander

Kanab, Utah—Home: 4 days/835 mi

National Parks/Monuments: 1) Grand Canyon. 2) Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. 3) Mojave National Preserve. 4) Death Valley National Park. 5) Sequoia National Park. 6) Kings Canyon Nationanl Park. 7) Yosemite National Park. 8) Desert National Wildlife Refuge. 

Southwest 2025 trip: 6.5 weeks/6,274 mi.Southwest 2025: 6-1/2 weeks. 6,273.5 miles. (1) Visalia CA-Green River UT. (2) Green River-Ship Rock NM. (3) Ship Rock-Aldo Leopold Wilderness. (4) Leopold-Carrizozo. (5) Carrizozo-Taos. (6) Taos-Grand Villa CO. (7) Grand Villa-Green River UT. (8) Green River-Kanab. (9) Kanab-Kanab. (10) Kanab-Bridgeport CA. (11) Bridgeport-Visalia. 

   

     Thanks for joining us on our journey.