America 2010

Day 19: Caliente Railfanning

Slept very heavily (why is holidaying to exhausting?) and woke up to a cool crisp morning in Caliente, NV. Looking around it had snowed overnight, but there was now very little to show for it in town. An interesting quirk of Caliente is that it is high enough (4500 ft) to catch the winter storms and cool temperatures, but is far enough south that the sun's heat is still extremely strong and will melt most snow within a few days.

I had a nibble and jumped in the car and headed south back down into Rainbow Canyon again. First few spots I tried were all private property with fences everywhere which I wasn't too impressed about. I headed further south towards an open valley near one of the tunnels. Along the way Rainbow Canyon was certainly living up to its name:

 

Nevada really is a geologists dream come true. So many different rock formations, each one at a different angle and a ...

Day 18: Las Vegas to Caliente

Slept really well and woke to an overcast day. For the curious, here is what $45/night buys you in Las Vegas:

Photo hardly does the room justice. The bathroom had a marble counter and the hot water was hot as soon as you turned on the tap. I don't know how they do that (and yes I had a look under the bench to see). The TV was about 50 inches, and came with a wireless keyboard, plus on demand Adult Entertainment; I guess I'd expect nothing less from Vegas.

So I packed up and hit the road. Next stop, Caliente, NV. Along the way I came across some amazing scenery; Nevada never disappoints in the scenery department. In some ways it is very similar to NZ scenery, but then you round a corner and hit something like this:

And then you remember you most certainly aren't in NZ any more!

And you know what I said about how in Nevada the roads r...

Day 17: Baker to Las Vegas

Woke up in "lovely" Baker and all was quiet. Looked outside and everyone had left town by 9am. Well, I guess no one in their right mind would actually want to hang around here. The only reason I was still here was to change over some settings for a PatronBase client, and you heard how prolonged that was.

So as soon as I possibly could I left Baker and hit the freeway. Didn't stop until I'd crossed the Nevada border at a little town called Primm. Primm boasts a roller coaster and several casinos, surprise surprise. Also a large power plant. I guess if you're going to build a coal power station, build it right on the border with California huh, let them get half the emissions!

Spied a couple of trains crossing on the UP LA-SL (Los Angeles to Salt Lake City) line, but lighting was all wrong to get much of a shot. Followed the tracks into Las Vegas, snapping a single unspectacular shot on the way. And then I was driving down Las Vegas Blvd!

...

Day 16: Kingman to Baker

Another lovely morning in Kingman. I tell you, life is pretty rough when in the middle of winter you can go around in short sleeves. That's how far south I am. For the curious, here is what $45+tax/night gets you in Kingman:

$45/night. Note the lovely 50s decor: lamps, bed head, etc. The lamps were attached to the desks too!

So I left Kingman via Rt 66 which took me past the canyon and then out into the open desert. Things are pretty flat out here. I had an idea from the maps that after a while the road would curve and there would be some good bluffs to view things from, but didn't quite work out that way. The highest things for most of the drive were highway overbridges! So I caught a single container train from a highway overpass…

 

Continued on a bit further and took another exit down to a wash. Ended up crossing the wash which was a new driving experience. For the ...

Day 15: Kingman Railfanning

Woke up and had a long Skype chat with a friend, then since the weather had largely cleared up I headed back up the hill towards Walapai to try something a bit different. On the way up I caught a downhill train so snapped off a few quickies.

I then went up the road a bit, parked the car and went exploring. I found a little bridge that was just high enough to walk under, provided you bent over. Came out on the sunny side of the tracks and before long an EB intermodal was making its way past me. A few minutes later a WB intermodal cruised down the hill, and already the headlight of another train could be seen making its way up the hill.

The approaching train turned out to be a massive EB manifest, complete with a mid train helper and a rear pusher. Even before he'd finished passing me (which admittedly did take a while) another down hill train had come around the corner and w...