Reno

While in Reno we did make a quick stop at a park I used to go to as a child. They have done a lot of work in making it such a pretty place. Of course I had to stop at the rose garden. It was still in bloom and beautiful. The park runs along the river, which is almost totally dried up because of the horrible drought. It was a fun stop to make on a lovely October morning.

Road Trip - From Texas to Nevada - Day 2 Continued

 

As we got closer to Nevada, the wind and rain really picked up hard. It was a bit hairy there for awhile and even had some pretty intense lightening. But watching the stormy weather over those desert mountains was pretty cool.

I did want to stop at Hoover Dam. It was on our path, and it's always a cool place to stop. It is sad to see what a horrible drought they are in, and hopefully lots of rain is coming their way. But in the meantime it is a pretty cool stop to make.

  

We then got back on the road and got a good view of the Las Vegas skyline.

From there it was a pretty bring drive across the desert. That stretch from Vegas to Reno is very long and quite tedious. But we did make a pit stop at Area 51. The store had some fun memorabilia and cool t-shirts, but it was pricey. Needless to say we did not get anything. Also, there were signs everywhere stating to not drink or ingest or wash your hands with the water. Not a place I wanted to try the food at.

From there we moved on until we got closer to Reno. The sunset was pretty amazing.

Road Trip - From Texas to Nevada - Day 2

 

A few weeks ago I made the trek, by car, from Austin Texas to Reno Nevada. It was a very long road trip, consisting of about 30 driving hours each way. This is with only stops to get gas and use the bathroom. It's a very long drive. We broke up the trip into two days - two days to drive there, and two days to drive back.

The overall purpose of the trip was to get married at Lake Tahoe! Which went off swimmingly. In the meantime, we did see some fun things along our very long trip there and back. Of course with that much time in the car we had a lot of audio books and music to listen to. 

On the trek to Reno, we listened to some classic Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. You never have to convince me to listen to some Sherlock.

Day one on the road didn't get us leaving town until about 8am. As such, we decided to stop in Albuquerque for the night so we could get a good nights rest and hit the road early the next day. I didn't really take any pictures of Texas. There really wasn't much to see other than the usual fields and farms. Our drive took us up to Lubbock, and then over through New Mexico and Arizona to Vegas. Then from Vegas straight up to Reno.

We left Albuquerque by about 4am. The hotel we stayed in had the most uncomfortable beds ever, so we were ready to get up and moving early. That sunrise as we headed out of New Mexico was quite lovely. We did have mostly cloudy weather all day, until we hit Arizona.

 Once in Arizona it proceeded to rain the entire drive across the state. I don't mind the rain. It was nice to not have the sun beating down on you the whole time. And we even came across a bright rainbow. For the first time in my life I saw a rainbow that was the full bow, not just part of it.

 Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture of the entire thing as we were too close to it. I checked, and there was no gold on either side.

The Other Scenes of the Smoky Mountains

 I came to this part of the country because I wanted to get away an experience mountains. Most of the week there was spent driving up the mountain, hiking around, and seeing all the view points we could. One of my favorite things was getting up early to watch the sun rise over these misty mountains. I never get sick of watching the sun rise.

I didn't keep track of what trails we did, what roads we took, or what lookouts we stopped at. All I know is we drove through the area many times, never disappointed by what we saw. So here are a few more of my favorite picks from this gorgeous part of the world. I can't wait to go back. And from Austin Texas it's only a 16 hour drive there. Very doable considering how big Texas is.

The Waterfalls of the Smoky Mountains

 I love waterfalls. Any hike that ends in a waterfall, or has waterfalls along the way, is a hike I want to do. Through in some mountain streams, rivers, anything with moving water and I am in. I love it. I love the sound of the water, the things that surround the water, everything. I'm obsessed. Not much else I can say, but enjoy all the waterfall pictures I could take. 

The Animals of the Smoky Mountains

 Part of the fun of being in the mountains is seeing all the animals you don't really get to see in every day life. Of course we saw plenty of squirrels and birds. Actually, while horseback riding, Justin had just finished telling me about how squirrels will through things at you on occasion. Not long after, he got hit in the head with an acorn that a squirrel threw at him. I laughed pretty hard. He suffered a small bump on the head. What are the odds?

Apart from the standard wildlife, we hadn't really seen much of anything else. We did see a wolf run across the road in the early morning, saw a few wild pigs, and of course there are lots of birds and wild turkeys. But we wanted to see elk and black bears. Those are pretty standard things to see in this part of the world.

All week long we hadn't run across any of these animals we wanted to see. The last day of the trip we were hoping to see animals. We drove up to the New Found Gap - this is a great lookout point for a stunning view of the mountains. It's also on the Tennessee - North Carolina state line, and has bathrooms. We drove up in the morning to enjoy the view, and then decided to take advantage of the bathrooms.

 You walk a few hundred yards along a trail to get to the bathrooms. I noticed a man standing on the trail looking into the trees. He pointed out there was a small black bear, about 10 feet away from us. I was shocked. 

They were completely silent, eating breakfast without a sound. I used my great zoom lens camera to take as many pictures as I dared, before moving along and putting some distance between myself and the bear. He was not concerned by the three of us on-lookers, but was engrossed with getting some breakfast. I would not want to tangle with one in the wild, but they are sure beautiful. Especially in the foggy mysterious morning time. That was exciting.

We then took a drive on a separate road that led into North Carolina. There was this beautiful meadow, and in the meadow were herds of elk. It was so pretty. We took a lot of pictures, and then were able to pull into a parking lot of a visitor center right on the edge of this meadow and really get some close up pictures of these amazing animals. They are so beautiful at the base of a mountain.

In the same field were a few butterflies posing on some lovely wildflowers. I have a really good zoom lens camera and has some more fun taking butterfly pictures. It was a great last day to get in all the wildlife.