Saturday, 17 March 2018

September snow in Austin, Nevada

As we left Fallon the next day heading out along Highway 50 to Austin, Nevada, a semi ghost town, it was cold, grey and overcast.   The forecast said Austin was under a winter weather watch, I decided it was time to put my jeans on, DB decided to stay in his shorts.   A decision he’d later regret, big time!  It started to rain and Highway 50 really did seem like the ‘Loneliest Road’.

At Cold Springs we decided to stop and finish our coffee, the rain had stopped but it was bitterly cold.   The peaks of the Desatoya Mountains were dusted with snow; through the sage, and because we now knew where to look, we could just make out the rock walls of the Pony Express Station.   On such a cold, grey day it really emphasized what a desolate, lonely place it was.   I was glad we were in a nice warm jeep with hot coffee!

From Cold Springs Highway 50 follows the Pony Express route as it climbs up into the New Pass Mountains.   Our next stop was the Overland Stage Station at the start of New Pass.   Once again this station was surrounded by a fence to keep vandals and souvenir hunters out.   So sad that people seem to feel the need deface or remove historical artefacts from such places.  
New Pass Station.

Although there’s a natural spring at New Pass there wasn’t enough water for horses and humans, so a support ranch a mile to the west kept them supplied with water.   Originally part of the Butterfield Trail the station was sold to Wells Fargo in 1866 before operations were suspended after completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869.

Leaving New Pass Stage Station and crossing the summit snow lay on each side of the road and the mountains ahead of us were covered in snow.   We began to wonder what we’d do if one of the many signs saying ‘snow tyres or chains required beyond this point when lights flashing’ actually did start to flash!   Luckily they didn’t.

As we drove further on the sky looked full of snow and when we arrived in Austin, they’d obviously had quite a snow storm, melting snow was dripping everywhere and the surrounding mountains were covered in snow.   Our first stop was the Lander County Courthouse where I got our ‘Loneliest Road Passport’ stamped.

Austin is a quirky little town at about a 6,000ft elevation and came into existence on 2 May 1862 after William Talcott discovered silver.   The town became the Lander County seat in 1863 and before the mines started failing in the 1880’s Austin was a pretty big city with several thousand people.   These days there’s probably not above 200 people, if that, living in the town.

Highway 50 is the main street through town, it’s also part of the old Lincoln Highway, in fact Highway 50, as well as being 'The Loneliest Road', is the Old Lincoln Highway for a good way across Nevada.
Apart from some homes, a couple of cafés, motels, gas stations, gift shops and an RV site there doesn’t appear to be much else in Austin.   Most of the other buildings seem to be abandoned.   The nearest grocery store is at least 70 miles in either direction.

We had planned on taking the walking tour around town, but it was way too cold, so we decided to drive instead.   Austin is home to the oldest Catholic Church and oldest bank building in Nevada.   We also stopped at the Old City Hall, Post Office, Methodist Church and found the no longer operating Gridley Store, the oldest store in town.

After that we drove out to the old Cemetery, on this particular day it seemed to be a very cold, lonely place, there were quite a few Irish names on the gravestones.

From the parking area beside the cemetery we had a great view of Stokes Castle, built in 1897 by Anson Phelps Stokes, a prominent mine developer, railroad magnate and banker.  Apparently it was modelled on a Roman tower he’d seen in Italy.   The castle wasn’t occupied for long and over the years fell into disrepair; in 2003 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Today the privately owned castle is closed to the public, although you can drive the dirt road and look at it from the outside, but as the road was washed out we could only admire it from afar.

By this time, despite being in a nice warm jeep, we, especially DB, were absolutely frozen, so went to see if we could check into our Motel.

The Cozy Mountain Motel is just like the motel’s you see in the old movies, even though our room was small it was spotlessly clean and had everything we needed including the most comfortable bed we’ve ever had in a hotel and the most amazing heater.   I can tell you we really appreciated that heater.

The owner is lovely and once we’d check in she advised us to eat at the Toiyabe café but to get there before 4.00 p.m. when it closed, as the only other restaurant in town didn’t always open.

When we got to the Toiyabe Café, the waitress sent me out to the jeep to get my jacket as she said it was so cold inside, it’s the first time that’s ever happened!   She was right; it really was much colder inside than out!   Not even hot chocolate warmed me up.

Apparently once the heating is switched on it stays on all winter but because it was only the middle of September and this was only a passing cold spell it hadn’t been switched on.   We certainly wished it had been!   Once we’d eaten, we headed back to our nice, warm, motel room.

The forecast was for more snow and later in the evening when we looked outside it was snowing like mad, in fact the next morning when we got up there was about 6” of snow on top of the jeep.


Have fun, we are!

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