Until this afternoon I thought that I had already seen essentially all of the world’s great museums. Like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the Louvre in Paris, and the British Museum in London.

That’s why after spending hours in these museum giants I seldom visit museums any more. I am sure glad that I made an exception this afternoon by visiting the Harrah collection at the National Automobile Museum in Reno.

All the famous nameplates of yesterday and today are here — and a lot more. I saw dozens of makes that I never heard of before.

Like this 1892 Philion manufactured in Akron, Ohio. This was the only vehicle that company produced.

One of the First Horseless Carriages -- 1892

The museum has another vehicles made in 1892: [Read more →]

Driving across the desert of northern Nevada from West Wendover on the Utah state line to Reno at the foothills of the Sierras is 500 miles by way of Interstate 80. Of course, with my propensity for taking all the interesting detours I find, I drove at least 100 more miles. I now have 1,527 miles on my trip odometer from Boulder, but without detours Google Maps says that the distance is just over 1,000 miles.

The trip across the Nevada desert isn’t as challenging as it was for the 150,000 “forty-niners” who came this way. Many of them perished on the trail. But it is still hot and dry with temperatures in the shade of about 100 degrees almost all the way. And only rarely did I find shade.

But Interstate 80 is fast and easy. With a speed limit of 75 mph almost all the way and traffic light enough so that I could set the cruise control for 80 mph, I could rest my legs.

Searching all of my guide books and maps for something more interesting than the highway, I found two places.

Last night I stayed in Elko at the Motel 6. At sunset I drove 30 miles southeast to Lamoille Canyon high in the Ruby Mountains, which top out at 11,387 feet. At dusk I got this shot looking up the canyon:

Lamoille Canyon in the Ruby Mountains

Between Elko and Reno the biggest attraction is the “Forty Mile Desert.” The name originates from the Truckee and Carson routes of the California trail across the Lahontan valley. For 40 miles the emigrants had to do without any water across the alkaline flats, hiking mostly at night to avoid the scorching heat of the day. A sign at the eastern edge of the Forty Mile Desert says that people later counted 1,000 graves there. [Read more →]

Who would have imagined that sedate old David Mendosa would some day race at the Bonneville Speedway! Well, he did, and that day was today.

He didn’t challenge the Bonneville Salt Flats record of 630.389 miles per hour that Gary Gabelich set in October 1970. But he did achieve a personal best of 101 miles per hour in his unmodified 2003 Toyota Highlander SUV “Susie.” Actually, Susie could have gone even faster. But David chickened out, remembering when at age 16 he got his first car, a 1941 Buick. The first time he ever raced it he blew a rod.

This newly minted speed demon would have never even considered racing on the speedway at the Bonneville Salt Flats if he hadn’t encountered a family from Glenwood Springs, Colorado, at the Bonneville Salt Flats rest stop off Interstate 80. The young father told him that at the very next highway exit he could drive right out onto the speedway.

Toddler Twins and Father from Glenwood Springs, Colorado

“It’s a lot of fun,” the father of the twins told David, “but I got turned around on the way back.” David thought that with his good sense of direction that couldn’t happen to him.

But it did. [Read more →]

After 860 miles on the road from Boulder, I’m spending the second of two nights in Salt Lake City, Utah. Google says that it’s 540 miles from Boulder, but that’s by boring Interstate 80 through Wyoming and doesn’t count the detours that I love to make.

While Salt Lake City is directly on any route between Boulder and Northern California, the main attraction for me here is Antelope Island. I’ve wanted to go to the island ever since March, when I met a fellow photographer at a Canyonlands National Park arch in Southern Utah.

Antelope is the largest of 10 islands in the Great Salt Lake, which is the largest lake west of the Mississippi. After the Dead Sea, it’s second saltiest lake in the world.

Antelope Island and the Great Salt Lake

Named by John C. Fremont, when he travelled with Kit Carson through Utah in 1845, because he found some antelopes here, today the island has many more bison. In fact, the largest herd of bison, some 600, on public land is here in Antelope Island State Park. [Read more →]

The Dinosaur National Monument doesn’t have a single dinosaur. It’s not a misnomer.

It does have a split personality. It’s divided between northwest Colorado and northeast Utah. Colorado has the most beautiful scenery, the best camping, and the finest hiking trails. Utah has some old bones.

This Dinosaur Leg Bone (Not a Replica) is Much Taller than My Whole Body

The visitor center on the Utah side has mostly replicas of dinosaur bones that paleontologists have found there starting with Earl Douglass’s discovery in 1909. Since that time, other paleontologists have found more dinosaur fossils here than at any other site on Earth. The fossils include Allosaurus and several long-neck, long-tail sauropods. [Read more →]

When I wrote my friend Barry from Steamboat Springs on Saturday night, he wrote right back.

“Steamboat is beautiful,” he replied. “Are you going to Strawberry Park Hot Springs? Clothing optional at night! That’s my favorite outdoor hot springs.”

I told him that I had intended to go that night, but I was too tired after hosting our diabetes support group that morning and driving 270 miles from Boulder that afternoon.

But I woke up refreshed in a nice Steamboat Springs suite and decided to soak my bones at the hot springs a few miles from that classy resort town on Sunday morning. Even though I prefer soaking without a bathing suit, I’m glad that I waited for daylight, because it let me photograph this lovely natural setting:

Four of the Pools at Strawberry Park Hot Springs

I counted at least six pools. The pool temperature ranges from about 50 degrees to 104 degrees. Most people soaked in the two hottest pools, which is where I stayed most of the time. But the coolest pool is great for cooling off.

Strawberry Hot Springs is the best combination of natural and developed I’ve ever seen, and I pride myself on being something of a connoisseur of hot springs. With constantly fresh flowing water and no chlorine, I didn’t need a shower afterwards. The bottoms of the pools are clean sand, and steps with railings got me in and out safely.

The Hottest Pools are Closer

Soaking in these hot springs was one of the main reasons why I took this route through northwest Colorado rather than the faster but boring route through Wyoming that I had intended to drive until a couple of days before I left. I am en route to California where I plan on a two-week hike through the high Sierras with a small Sierra Club group. Aside from the location, a big attraction of that hike is that we will have mules to carry our loads except what we will need on the trail each day.

Rollins Pass

Near the start of my hike the trail came to the southern point of the Indian Peaks Wilderness at the abandoned Corona site. This foundation is all that remains:

Entering the Wilderness

Last summer I was able to drive a different section of the Rollins Pass Road up to 11,000 feet from the east side of the Rockies and hike down to the Forest Lakes. Originally vehicles could drive the entire route, but a tunnel cave-in a few years ago closed about five miles of the road. [Read more →]

In the past seven days I’ve hiked four times at altitudes above 10,000 feet. Today, my hike started at 11,500 feet and never dropped below 11,000 feet for the five or six miles that I followed the Ute Trail in Rocky Mountain National Park. I am determined to enjoy the high country during its short summer before I leave Colorado on four trips I’m planning before the end of September.

The Ute Trail starts on Trail Ridge Road about five or 10 miles east of the Old Ute Trail that Mark and I hiked Saturday. The similarity of the names confused me for years.

But the trails are nevertheless quite different in one way. Practically every step of the trail that I took today was so rocky that I appreciated having my trekking poles. The trail that Mark and I took Saturday is one of the least rocky trails in the Rocky Mountains.

Nevertheless, the two similarly named trails are much alike in other ways. Each wanders through the high Alpine tundra, seemingly a million miles from civilization. In fact, while the temperature in Boulder reached the 90s each day, it was so cool above 11,000 feet that I needed to wear my jacket most of the way on Saturday and all the way today. A park ranger once told me that good rule of thumb is that for every thousand feet of elevation gain the temperature drops at least three degrees.

Overlooking Forest Canyon from Near the Trailhead

[Read more →]

Whenever I see beauty like I saw today in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, I give thanks. But until yesterday evening I didn’t realize that I was praying.

My Vipassana (Insight) meditation leader, David Chernikoff, introduced his most recent dharma talk with a quotation by the 14th Century Christian mystic Meister Eckhart:

“If the only prayer you ever say is, ‘Thank You,’ that is enough.”

When I reached my destination today and saw Lake Isabelle in front of some of the Indian Peaks, I was sure to offer thanks. I hope that you will too:

Lake Isabelle and Indian Peaks

Today I was also thankful that I had a lot more energy than on my Monday hike. I realized then that I wasn’t getting enough fat in my diet. I had cut back too much in my quest to keep my body mass index at 19.0.

Since we use either carbohydrates or fat for energy and I continue to stay strictly on my very low-carb diet, I needed to eat more fats. So since Monday afternoon I have been eating more almonds, avocados, and wild salmon — and it did the trick today, although it was at the cost of gaining a few pounds.

I am thankful that I can afford them.

This year I waited patiently to return to the tundra at the top of Rocky Mountain National Park. Yesterday my friend Mark and I drove up the winding, one way, dirt Old Fall River Road to the Alpine Visitor Center, where we left his Jeep.

But not far from the entrance to the park we spotted a herd of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep. Mark used his professional grade full frame Canon 5D SLR and a 400mm telephoto lens to capture this remarkable shot:

Bighorn Sheep (Photo by Mark Bobb: Used by Permission)

Near the top end of the old road we came to this tranquil Alpine pond: [Read more →]