A “Get Out of the House for a Couple of Hours” Kind of Day
A “Get Out of the House for a Couple of Hours” Kind of Day
Autumn has a sharp grip on north-central Nevada currently. Yesterday an inch of snow fell, part of which is still in my yard. Another storm is on its way in and more snow if forecasted for tonight and tomorrow. I needed to trail test my new GPS mount for my Garmin eTrex, as I had spent some time tinkering with it for the best positioning. The sun was still shining. It was time to toss the camera, GPS, dog and my wife into the Tacoma and get out for some dirt road R&R.
We elected to keep it very local. I was simply going to run up to the summit of nearby Dun Glen Summit, but it had been about four years since going up Sonoma Canyon. Since then, in 2007, severe wildfires had wrought havoc on the land south to Sonoma Canyon. I had assumed that its shady and forested slopes had suffered, but I had heard from friends that it wasn’t so. It was touched in spots, but not destroyed. So I thought I’d combine the two areas for a couple hours of driving pleasure.
An overview of our travels.
The Sonoma Range as viewed along Grass Valley Road, about four miles south of my home.
The turnoff to Sonoma Canyon. The view is south along Grass Valley Road into the distant Mount Tobin Range.
Driving up Sonoma Canyon. Near the end of the road is where fire had touched the southern part of the canyon, leaving the northern end – the direction that the wildfire had come – untouched.
My Tacoma is parked on golden pavement near the end of the road up the canyon. The view is northerly up the canyon. Though invisible in the photo, patches of snow still lay among the sagebrush and the creek was largely frozen over.
Another view, this time southerly.
Exiting Sonoma Canyon, enroute to Dun Glen Summit, which is in the East Range, visible in the background.
The East Range across Grass Valley. The approaching storm is making itself more known.
Heading south on Herschell Road along the eastern foot of the East Range enroute to Dun Glen Summit.
The Mount Tobin Range as seen looking across Grass Valley from Herschell Road.
China Peak, in the Mount Tobin Range as viewed from part way up the road to Dun Glen Summit. More views of this imposing mountain can be seen on my Sonoma Range Circuit trip page.
A view across Grass Valley and the Sonoma Range from Dun Glen Summit. Sonoma Canyon can be seen as the prominent canyon just left of center. The canyon directly below is Badger Canyon, where my friend B.W. and I went hunting for chukar on October 12. The road can be seen in the canyon bottom, where B.W. bagged his chukar in the bottom of the canyon at the extreme right of the photo.
Winnemucca and Winnemucca Mountain from Dun Glen Summit.
The view south along the crest of the East Range.
The view west down Dun Glen Canyon. The ghost town of Dun Glen is down this canyon a few miles.
By the way, the new GPS mount worked fine.
Trip Stats
Left Home: 12:55 PM
Starting Mileage on Truck: 131,794
Trip Mileage (recorded on truck): 49.1 miles
Trip Mileage (recorded on GPS): 49.0.
Trip Time (recorded on GPS): 2 hours, 57 minutes, 20 seconds
Maximum Speed (recorded on GPS): 51.9 miles per hour
Average Speed (recorded on GPS): 16.1 miles per hour
Arrived Home: 3:47 PM
Ending Mileage on Truck: 131,843
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