Travelogue

Sand Mountain Recreation AreaAfter leaving our amazing sunrise experience in Bryce, it was time to head home. Our goal today would be to get at least half of the 14 hour drive behind us, so we could be back home tomorrow night.

Our route would take us back pretty much the way we came here - across the entire width of Nevada on Highway 50, appropriately dubbed the “Loneliest Road in America.”

On our drive through in the beginning of the trip we had spotted a sign for the Sand Mountain Recreation Area and vowed to stop there on our way back.

Sand Mountain Recreation AreaIt was very cool - a 2-mile long, 600-foot-high sand dune that is an OHV area, meaning it allows dune buggies to drive all over it. Fortunately, there were no dune buggies there today and we could have it for ourselves.

I think Herb was a bit trip fatigued, because he just wanted to move on to find a place to stay for the night. I, however, wanted to climb it, so before he could stop me, I ran off and did - if even for just a little bit.

Depot Casino RestaurantThis dune is one of a rare group of “singing sand dunes.” There are only about 40 of them in the entire world, and we have been to two of them - Kelso Dunes in the Mojave Preserve and Eureka Dunes in Death Valley.

Basically, when you run down the steep part of a dune, the sand avalanches in rivulets and begins to “sing.” The singing is caused by the friction of the sand grains sliding against each other. It sounds a bit like the bass note of a pipe organ or the distant drone of an airplane.
I didn’t get up high enough to make it sing.

Oh My!We stopped for the night in Fallon, a relatively large town for Nevada with 7,000 residents and plenty of shopping malls and food chains. Fallon is home to the U.S. Navy-Fighter Weapons School and is where the film Top Gun: Maverick was filmed.

After checking into a Quality Inn on the main drag, we decided to look for a place to have dinner in walking distance, as we had been in the car long enough already today.

Herb chose the Depot Casino Restaurant right nearby. It served breakfast all day, as people in casinos don't usually know what time of day it is.

Stone Cabin Coffee ShopSo Herb ordered the scrambled eggs with hash browns and sausage, which came with I side of pancakes (???) and I ordered an omelette with potatoes O’Brian, which came with a side of biscuits and gravy. It was obscene. Even the waitress had to laugh when she (in multiple trips) delivered our ridiculously large entrees.

I will never let Herb select a restaurant again.

The next morning we stopped at the highly recommended Stone Cabin Coffee Shop and drove the remaining 6 hours home.
Awesome trip, but it was definitely good to be back home, where I plan to stay putt for a while..