The Long Road Home. Day12 & 13. Camped west of Klamath Lake off SR 140.

Note:

I checked my internet hot spot this morning and realized that I had a good strong internet connection so I am publishing this from our camp spot west of Klamath Lake.

A Late Start.

I slept in this morning and after breakfast I finished the blog for Day 11 so it was 11:45 before we left our camp.

Down We Go. . .

Since we were camped at the summit there was no where to go but down into a nice green valley.

We traveled along through the valley and eventually came to a crossroads.
There was an arrow shaped sign point to the left with with Silver City painted on it and another arrow shaped sign pointing to the right with the barely legible letters saying Jordan Valley.

Our present destination is Jordan Valley and highway 95 but we knew that we were very close to Silver City and decided to go check it out.

Silver City.

You enter Silver City on a vary narrow dirt road going up hill.

At the top of the hill is a sign welcoming you to Silver City.

It is a pretty neat town with some cool old buildings.

 

I guess this is a Mason Hall.

We just took a loop through the town enjoying the old buildings.

Apparently the town just completed restoring the old school house.

A Slow Road.

After leaving Silver City we took the road to Jordan Valley.
The first several miles were very rough with the tops of granite boulders protruding from the road bed.

I know it looks nice and smooth in the picture but believe me, it isn’t smooth, anymore than slick rock is slick.
We encountered a few large mud holes from last night’s rain but they weren’t any problem.

De Lamar.

The road took us through another small Ghost Town called De Lamar.

It looks a little more abandoned than Silver City.

Better Road.

The road starts improving once past De Lamar.

We passed through a nice green valley with desert on each side.

US 95 South.

After a few more miles on the dirt road we came to Jordan Valley and US 95. Our intention was to drive south on 95 about 30 miles south of Burns Junction, then take a dirt road south west to Denio Junction where we would catch SR 140 and take it north into Oregon and across Southern Oregon.

A Change of Plan

Two things occurred that changed our plans.
About half way to Burns Junction I realized that I hadn’t topped off the gas tank in Jordan Valley as I had planned. Now the gauge was reading a little more than half full. I won’t go into the desert on an unknown road without as full a gas tank as I can get.
I figured we might get lucky and find gas at Burns Junction.

Burns Junction is Closed for Business.

There is a large parking area at Burns Junction.
The Café, Gas station, RV park and Motel are all closed and look like they have been closed for a very long time and will probably not open anytime in the near future.

What Now?

We pulled over into the parking lot to check the map and decide what to do next.
The next place where there was a reasonable chance to get gas was Mc Dermitt, NV. We reasoned that every town on the Nevada border has a casino and a gas station. Mc Dermitt has a Casino/ Café and a gas station that is up for sale.
We headed for MC Dermitt, NV.

The other thing that made us change our plans was that; as we drove toward Mc Dermitt we looked for the road that would have taken us to Denio Jct. and it wasn’t there or we just missed it.

SR 293.

We got to Mc Dermitt around 2:00 and filled the gas tank and had lunch at the café. After lunch we headed south on 95 looking for SR 293. On our map 293 goes west between 95 and 140. SR 293 started out as a very nice two lane paved road that goes across the desert and into the hills beyond.

After about 30 miles the pavement ends and the road becomes a very nicely maintained gravel road. It drops down into King Valley and becomes King Valley Road. King Valley Road cuts straight west across the valley until it turns right and Nine Mile Road continues west
We got a bit confused at this point and wasted a lot of time wandering around until we asked at a ranch at the end of King Valley Rd. (The King Valley Ranch.)
We were told to go back and take Nine Mile Road; that it was a BLM road and went clear to SR 140.

Once we were back on track and after we had left King Valley behind we started looking for a good camp spot. We knew that we had to find something before we got to the highway. We drove for many miles and found no suitable camp site.
Eventually, we came to an intersection in the road and a sign.
1 mile to the left was SR 140, 3 miles to the right is Bilk Creek Reservoir.
We turned right and headed for Bilk Creek.
Along the way we stopped to talk with a coupe of guys who were coming out.
We asked them if there were any good camp spots at the res. They said that there were plenty of good spots around the lake. They told us that the spot that they left was good and told us how to find it.
Their spot was down below the dam in a nice grassy area and looked good from above. When we got down there however the place was trashed. They had thrown out a pile of food stuff and left a fresh skinned deer hide hanging on a bush. It smelled and there were tons of flies around the whole camp.

We didn’t stay long and went in search of a better spot.
We drove back over the dam and saw a likely looking area on the west side of the lake so we drove over there to check it out. We drove down a small road that went by a nice flat spot above the lake with a nice view.

We pulled onto the flat, turned off the engine, put out the chairs and spent the rest of the day in the shade of the van, watching the activity on the lake below us.
One fisherman and a bunch of ducks.

Here is our view of the lake. You can see the nice lush grassy area on the left and the green point that sticks out into the lake.

The real show was to begin a little after sunset.
We were sitting there watching the lake and suddenly I see a deer come walking out of the brush and start grazing way out on that green point.

Unfortunately the light conditions are real bad and the deer are a ways off but I thought I should show a few pictures on her.

Here is a nice group.

We counted 12 deer in the field at one time.

Sunset.

While we were distracted by the deer we missed most of the sunset.

After Sunset.

We sat out for a while after the sunset.

On the ridge to our right we could see a Jack Rabbit silhouetted against the dim background light.

A little later a parade of deer walked up the ridge from the lake and past our camp.

Okay that was day 12 of the long road home.

The Long Road Home. Day 13.

An Early Start.

We got an early start this morning and were on SR 140 heading north by 9:00.

Just another lonely Nevada road, and it just goes on forever.

Nice Scenery.

Even on a lonely stretch of highway you still have some beautiful scenery.

One More Border.

Eventually we crossed over into Oregon.

Not to far after entering Oregon we went down very steep grade.

It was pretty cool but I’m glad that there was no one behind me.

We crossed this wide valley and went through a narrow canyon where we saw this nice waterfall.

Lakeview.

Eventually we came to Lakeview.
We stopped at the Burger Queen. That’s right “Burger Queen”.
The burgers were good.
After lunch we got gas and headed west.

On to Klamath.

After another couple hours driving and we passed the south end of Klamath Lake and entered a short section of national forest.
We knew that this area would be the last opportunity for camping for a long distance so we were keeping an eye out for side roads. We saw a sign for a campground on our right and turned onto the road. A short distance along this road we crossed a small dirt road. I turned right onto this road and drove a little ways and found a nice spot just off the road.

OK , well I am caught up with the blog and it is about bed time for me.