So, how did the "May Tour" get started? 

Meet the characters and their mission

The two of us have been friends since we met years ago, living in Santa Cruz, CA, when we were both working at SCO. Being the techno-brainier of the two of us, Calyxa was working as a sys admin, and I was working swing shift, doing light-industrial assembly, i.e. putting software and books in boxes.

Suffice to say, a strange friendship got kindled. That was the early 90s, and it's still going, stronger than ever. We're sisters from different mothers. There is a Penn-and-Teller-like quality to our interactions, although there is only a 5" difference in our heights. Calyxa does talk, really, but it's also possible to miss those bits in my veritable verbal wake. I use weeks and much Virgoness to formulate the trips, and then Calyxa does all the driving. I mean ALL the driving. Calyxa leaves a cat and a husband at home when she travels, I leave a moss farm.

Scenic Nevada Photo Gallery 

take at look at what was "Battle Born"

The phrase "Battle Born" is Nevada's official state motto. It refers to the fact that Nevada became a state during the Civil War. It's known now primarily as a state which permits some areas of legalized gambling and prostitution. Areas which are Indian reservations have gambling and fireworks. A lot of the rest of the state is government military bases and test sites.

Some lake in Nevada along NV266 ......

The Nevada State Capitol in Carson City.

Nevada Moss, Washoe Valley

Beatty, Nevada

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

Taking a road trip with my pop in his big rig.

part of my road trip through nevada

Grimes Point, near Fallon, Nevada

Rusty Railyard, Ely, Nevada

Rhyolite is a former gold rush town located just west of Beatty, Nevada, close t...

Weiser Ridge and the Bowl,

Cathedral Gorge State Park

Virginia City, Nevada

Pyramid Lake, Nevada

The 2005 Nevada Experience 

We made a giganctic reverse C in 2005. I was living in the Bay Area, just north of my intrepid driver Calyxa. I went down to her house the night before we were to depart with all my gear. We packed the car in the AM, made one final round of visits to the loo and we were off.

We started out heading south in CA, and then made a big curve up and around Nevada. Our route was a big backwards letter C. We started off through Joshua Tree and Mohave, then went up to the Valley of Fire, then back through Las Vegas to Cactus Springs. Then we crossed over to Rachel, then up to Ely, and over to Ruth, Austin, Gabbs, Fallon and Reno. We stopped at Rachel and Ruth, just 'cuz those are our names.

We went to the Mitchell Caverns in Mohave and the Lehman Caves up near Ely. Flat-top Tom at Big O in Yucca Valley totally save our road trip with a used tire on day one, and Ranger Tom at Mohave's Hole-in-the-Wall totally got our fire going and his dog Max was great entertainment.

The Vegas Vortex are the folks we hang with in the Vegas vicinity. I've been doing alchemy with this gang for a few years now.

We saw the Amboy Crater (in CA), saw lots of train track, cows and cow grates. As you approach Lehman is this great stretch of road with fencepost art. We got hailed and snowed on, despite the fact it was May. We stayed one night at a Goddess temple.

And when we got to Reno at the end, we saw "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" movie (OF COURSE we had our towels with us!), and the kickass show of Maxfield Parrish that was in town at the time. Then after all that, we told all our crazy adventures to my driver's friends, who put us up for the night in Reno at their house and let us soak our road-weary bods in their hot tub.

Their parting words were.... "gee, if you do this again, you should borrow our Jeep...."

2005 Points of Interest 

2005 Roadtrip Notes 

web sites used for the May 2005 trip

Joshua Tree National Park (National Park Service)

We had an awesome campsite here with no neighbors and the rangers had done maintenance on the land so there were piles of firewood provided. And we found a rock formation that is definitely an elephant.

Mojave National Preserve (National Park Service)

We stayed at the Hole-in-the-Wall site here, named for the various rock features in that area. There are very cool barrel cactus all over, which the Indians used to use as cooking pots.

Amboy Crater - BLM California

A unique natural feature out in the middle of nowhere. Lots of cool rocks, and lizards. Bring water and start early to do the crater as a day hike.

Vegas Vortex - MayFire

We spent four days camping in the Valley of Fire State Park with some rocking alchemists, enjoying all night sacred fires and intentional community.

Sekhmet Temple in Nevada

The Temple of Goddess Spirituality Dedicated to Sekhmet and a project for the study of the "gift economy." A very unique and sacred place to visit.

Rachel, Nevada

Rachel, aka Area 51, is home to lots of clover fields, about 100 residents and the most UFO sightings of anywhere in the US. A good place for gas, lunch and t-shirts.

Lehman Caves, Great Basin National Park

A fantastic national park area, with a great cave tour. I hope you get the guy who does the interactive bit where everyone on the tour gets to be a different interactive character, that rocked!

Austin Nevada

One of the only spots of civilzation along Highway 50. Cute, charming, good eats and reasonable hotels for when the campground is too rained out.

Lahontan State Recreation Area

Our most spectactular campsite of the trip, just below the dam. Tons of sage growing everywhere, uncrowded and peaceful.

NMA Exhibitions - Maxfield Parrish Master of Make-Believe

Maxfield Parrish: Master of Make-Believe, April 30, 2005 - June 26, 2005 at the Nevada Museum of Art

lens of the day honors 

This lens tied for runner-up in the
Squidoo Travel Challenge!

It was co-featured as
Lens of the Day
on August 26-27, 2006.

Lehman Caves 

One of the best things we did on the 2005 trip was our visit to Lehman Caves. Neither of us ladies is all that into really hot temps so the chance to go underground was welcome.

Lehman Caves is part of the Great Basin National Park, and it's located east of Ely, NV. We were going to camp near Lehman, but a freak spring snow storm changed all that.

Our park ranger had a great little schtick for the tour. He had little bits of paper with historical facts on it and each one was a "character." He took volunteers, passed out the bits and everyone got to read their pertinent historical tidbit when that moment came up on the tour. Calyxa got "the geologist" and I got "the wizard."

See, it turns out, back in the 1960s, a low-budget sci-fi movie was filmed in the cavern's. What you see here, "the Wizard's Grotto" was used to show the surface of Mars. The ranger station had a picture of astronauts sitting in a raft in the middle of the grotto in it. We thought that was pretty funny.

Looking at it, I kept expecting Gollum from THE LORD OF THE RINGS to appear, muttering about his precious and trying to catch a fish.

HOT Nevada Stuff 

high-bid auctions, get 'em while you can!

Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by

The 2006 Experience 

Highlights of the Infinity Tour

This year's road trip made the shape of a figure eight that was tipping over, and thus the Infinity Tour was nicknamed! We started in Reno this year, totally holding our friends to their offer of their jeep. We had 4-wheel drive, a moon roof and a GPS unit plus higher clearance and better car tools. We also had up-to-date road maps. We were definitely upgraded car and tech-wise this year.

This picture is from our first night officially on the road, or really, at the end of the road. We were going to camp in Wells, NV, way up in the NE corner of the state, but the road up to the campground was closed. Whether it was from there still being snow, or washed out due to rain, we don't know exactly but our night in the motel was a good call. We both woke up very early and heard pounding rain.

We were trying to find a site for rockhounding near Ely, but to no avail. The Ward Charcoal Ovens were fantastic anyway. Highway 6 brought us sights of the Wall, the Lunar Crater, a gathering pow-wow, a guy who was camped out in the middle of nowhere to watch US military secret flights at night, and the Clown Motel.

Our leg down to the Sekmet Temple to work on the goddess labyrinth took us past art cars and the best homemade jerkey in Beatty. We only got gas and groceries as we passed through Las Vegas this time, and an abortive hunt for neck coolers.

After our gathering, we actually saw the petroglyphs at the Valley of Fire this year. We took a very weird backroad north from there and had the best 10 miles on a nearly washed out and closed-to-locals-only highway on our way up to Cathedral Gorge. Once there, we stayed at the snazziest state park campground we've come across yet. Our swing back up through Ely let us stumble across the rockhounding site we'd missed the week before, so we quickly pulled over and hunted garnets. That was amazing.

We took one look at the Jerusalem crickets swarming all over the campsite near Austin and went into town and got the same room as last year at the Pony Canyon Motel. We also learned there's a guy who has visited that motel annually for over 50 years. We visited the historic Stoke's Castle and the graveyard on our way out of town this year.

2006 Points of Interest 

2006 Roadtrip Notes 

The Infinity Tour

Elko, Nevada, U.S.A.

A woman I'd known for several years from being an editor at Bellaonline lives very near here, and I decided after being friends with someone for three years, it was time to meet.

Wells Nevada

The road to the campground was closed so we wound up in town in the motel here. Good thing too, as it rained liked all heck that night. The town appears to have three brothels, a historic downtown block that is nearly abandoned and little else.

Ely, Nevada - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ely is pretty big for what you will find in NE Nevada. You can gas up, restock, eat out, send mail or catch nearby historic sites.

Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Park

Fantastic state park and campground! The charcoal ovens are leftovers from the silver mining days and were built by Swiss-Italian workers in the late 1870s. Very scenic and quiet.

Lunar Crater National Natural Landmark

The Lunar Crater National Natural Landmark is geologically termed a 'maar', the name given to a shallow, broad crater formed by explosive eruptions close to ground level, usually caused by heating of subterranean water. It's huge and beautiful and a bit off the road so be ready for some 4WD action to get there.

Saulsbury Wash Campground

Saulsbury Wash is a Rest Area that has overnight facilities. Totally in the middle of nowhere, but a cheap place (free) to stay. We ran into a pseudo-UFO nut out there the night we stayed.

Clown Motel

This has to be seen to be believed. 521 N. Main St., Tonopah, NV. Also, there's a great Mexican place in town to eat, the only one, so it's kinda easy to find.

Sekhmet Temple in Nevada

This year we visited ahead of our Vortex visit, and got to help work on the goddess labyrinth that was being built.

Vegas Vortex

We had such a great time last year, we came back to do it again. Temps were very hot but we did see the petroglyphs in the Valley of Fire, very cool!

Cathedral Gorge State Park

Best campsite of 2006! Real showers/bathrooms, firewood on site, very friendly camp host, canyons to explore and more. We're sorry we didn't have time to do the 4 mile walking loop around the grounds.

Garnet Hill - A Rockhound's Delight

Passing back through Ely, we found a site were you can rockhound your own garnets. These are amandine garnets, which range from blood red to brown due to their high iron content.

Hickison Petroglyph Campground

We did not camp here due to the veritable plague of Jerusalm crickets swarming the campground. Spent the night in Austin like last year, had as good or better a time than last year.

City of Reno

Reno, where you can finally find a car wash to try and get some of the dust off your 4WD.

Nevada Travel Guides 

You can tell by the travel guides that we like to get off the beaten path a little bit. And doing historical and/or geeky stuff on the road is always good too.

I'm the one in charge of compiling any and all travel details. We always have alternate plans in case of inclement weather, or sudden flights of fancy.

Nevada Atlas & Gazetteer

Benchmark Nevada Road & R...

Rockhounding Nevada

50 Classic Hikes In Nevad...

Sierra Nevada Byways: 50...

The Clown Motel 

A pure road trip moment

Ok, I'll confess right up front, we've never stayed at the Clown Motel in Tonopah. However, it's become the #1 entry on what's slowly forming as the "Grand NV Tour" where we purposely do a bunch of our fave stuff just 'cuz.

In 2005, we drove thru Tonopah, saw the sign and photographed it. Calyxa was the one who said this year, hey, let's go photograph that wacky place again. It was way more spiffed up looking then last year, and then Calyxa said, no really, let's go in the office and see if they have a card or something.

She must have been having a funny sixth sense or something because this office was THE CLOWN MOTHERLODE. I figure it's what it's like on the inside of those crammed little cars you see at the circus.

There are several sets of shelves that are wall to wall clowns. I could hear the sound of small children crying off in the distance as they all leered at me. It's fantastic, and thank the Goddess, they don't have that evil Pennywise, ala Tim Currey from IT. That clown I just can't take...

The woman at the desk was named Pearl, and when Calyxa said "Hi, we've just come to admire your motel" she cackled back "Ha..too late!" Pearl was a total treasure. She told us the story of how a couple came to stay once. The husband had made the reservation, and the wife had a fear of clowns. She asked if they could take down the clown art on the walls of the room. Turns out all the clown art has been made permanent to the walls so it can't be stolen. Pearl was all "I mean, it's the CLOWN MOTEL.... what did she expect?!"

We totally have to go back there someday and just stay. Your clowniest room, please!

The 2007 Experience 

The Alchemists' Circle

In 2007, a combination of things (mostly lack of money) reduced our adventures to just our usual fire circle gathering. No, it's not Burning Man. That takes place over Labor Day weekend and it's held in the northwest corner of the state. Plus our gathering has a distinct lack of drugs and drinking, pretty much the opposite of BM.

It was freezing this year, with windy temps in the 40s and 50s, a big change from days of 105 which was what we got last year. I think I learned everything and anything you might learn about having sand in your tent. This is our campsite in the Valley of Fire. Since sleep schedules can get wacky and the car often is moved to a remote parking area once unloaded, we both bring tents to ensure better rest and sanity.

The Guest Register 

It was a pleasure having you travel with us! If you enjoyed our adventures, please let us know by signing the guest register below, thanks!

CherylK What a fun read! Three of my friends and I meet once a year out in Bodega Bay, CA. We shop, visit wineries, shop, visit wineries, shop...such a blast. We live in different states so this is our one time of the year to just chill... Posted March 28, 2008

relache This year will almost be like the "favorites" tour with us going a bunch of places we've been and a few we've not done as fully. Plus we'll swing through Death Valley at the end, with some cool sights there. Posted March 27, 2008

riff999 Sounds like you had an awesome trip. Hat are you planning for this year? ~Jane Posted March 27, 2008