Back Roads of Nevada

---

Northern Nevada is a good place to start. While living in Gardnerville/Minden for seven years my insurance inspection took me places I never would have gone to or seen on my own.

Interstate 80 is an artery to a vast area of wide open spaces, vistas that stretch for miles. Mention Nevada desert, some people think barrenness and an inhospitable landscape, however this land has a different beauty. It is not just sage brush and cactus. Along Highway 80 what you see are mostly grasslands. Interstate 80 follows along the original route of the transcontinental railroad, the old California Trail, and the flow of the Humboldt River which eventually ends leaching into the ground forming the Humboldt Sink.

My work made it necessary, sometimes to start my trip across Nevada by driving up to Reno, which was about 50 miles from our home in Minden to Interstate 80 at the east side of town. You can't say "Reno is the biggest little city" any more, there's nothing little about it. If I went that way, I would get on the freeway in Sparks where Interstate 80 leaves the city and goes into a rural valley with enough room for the highway, the Truckee River, and the east/west railroad tracks. It seems that everyone is in a hurry now that they are out of town; the speed limit is 75 miles per hour, everyone goes 80 miles an hour. The highway stays close to colorful cliff on the north side of the valley; a large electric power generation plant is located on the river on the other side. Farther out east the Truckee river crosses under the highway to make its way north to empty into Pyramid Lake. Cottonwood trees and grass line the banks of the river here making for a beautiful scene.

to be continued.....

---