6am. I opened up the curtains to find the parking lot blanketed with three inches of snow. Grrr. Well, we’re not letting a little snow storm ruin our trip to the Lehman Caves. A quick stop to the store for a banana muffin, and we were off.
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From Nevada Travels, posted by Bridget Weaver Walden on 5/30/2011 (Showing 9 of 29 items)
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Lehman Caves
We drove higher in elevation (~7000 ft) to reach the Great Basin National park and Lehman cave entrance. On the way, we also saw two cow elks near the side of the highway. Great Basin National park is also home to the Bristlecone Pines, the oldest living creature on earth. (With the snow, we figured we would have to skip this.)
We settled for a 60 minute tour of the cave (the 90 minute tours were booked until the afternoon), and Bridget and I decontaminated our shoes. White Nose Fungus has decimated the global bat population, and Nevada is taking extra measure to avoid the spread within its caves. Since we wore the same shoes to Diana’s Mine, we were asked to soak our shoe soles in bleach.
Lehman Caves, with its Fraggle Rock-esque interior, was well worth the additional miles of travel through the snowy highway. Inside the cave showed thousands of stalagmites and stalactites, tall and small, paving the ceiling and sometimes, the floor. The cave looked as if it was from a distant planet. In fact, the 60’s movie, the Wizard of Mars was filmed in the cave. Also, secret societies initiated new members between these walls in the past. With its interesting history and amazing atmosphere, Lehman Caves now hold the top spot for a cave experience for me. They’re a must-see for any native Nevadan.
Eureka
Described as the “Friendliest town on the Loneliest Highway”, Eureka is a small mining town that mines for lead, rather than gold/silver. Here, we found the coolest piece of art, an artistic deer monument, formed out of horseshoes. However, the snow continued to fall, so we grabbed a quick lunch at DJs, got our passport stamped, and continued on to retrace our steps back to Reno.
Austin Bar Crawl
After a few hours of driving, we finally made it back to Austin. We figured that we would stay overnight to help break up the long drive.
We started at 3:30pm with a whiskey and coke at the International House. The owner was a bit off-center: uncombed hair, dirty pants with an open fly, but friendly enough. After finding out where we were from, he said he bought this bar after a few drinks one night. He then made a random point how DUI’s lead to police unemployment. Instead of arguing at length over how ludicrous of a statement this was, we played a few games of pool in the backend of the bar, near the fire.
Our next stop, was back to the Silver State Bar from the previous night. Another couple seemed to have the same idea that we did, visiting each bar. We found the wife was from Turkey, so it was interesting to hear her stories. It makes me want to bump Turkey up on our list of places to visit.
Well, we were on a mission, so after a drink, we moved to Austin’s Owl Club. Shadows and rustic items fill the bar, but the atmosphere is lit up by the owner’s personality, Mary. We met the bar-hopping couple at this bar and continued our conversation. Mary then told us a bit of the history of the Owl Club, from morgue to theater, and now the bar. Suddenly, she asks if we would like to share some brandy with her. We salute to good company, and take our shot (a very good brandy indeed). A few other locals come in as well, including one man who was the self-proclaimed runner-up to the village idiot.
Unfortunately, our next stop, the bar next door, was closed, so we grabbed some dinner. With all the bars on Main Street visited, we went back to Silver State. We talked with the owner for a bit about the travels of his son and one patron bought the entire bar a round of drinks (When has that ever really happened? Only on the loneliest/friendliest highway.).