Hwy 50, the lonely one, Nevada

[Roy_Lynne]

We are heading south this winter and mostly plan to boondock/dry camp. The last leg of the trip will be going east to west on Hwy 50 through Nevada, eventually hooking up with 395 in California, but not finding a lot along Hwy 50. Its advertised as lonely but that shouldn't mean empty. Anyone have a secret places we could camp for a day or two.

[Roy_Lynne]

ppine wrote:
The charcoal ovens are really interesting for about an hour. It is a quiet place out in the rangeland. Not a bad place to camp. Cave Lake puts you next the Schell Creek Range which has northern goshawks, and a lot of deer and elk. Some of the range has aspen and spruce stands which is not common in Nevada.

Stillwater is a great place to visit. The camp sites are basic but you can wake up next to 100 species of birds.

Darn ppine. now I have to redo my plans Okay couple days at Cave Lake cause Id love to add a goshawk to my life list and one day at the charcoal ovens.

[ppine]

The charcoal ovens are really interesting for about an hour. It is a quiet place out in the rangeland. Not a bad place to camp. Cave Lake puts you next the Schell Creek Range which has northern goshawks, and a lot of deer and elk. Some of the range has aspen and spruce stands which is not common in Nevada.

Stillwater is a great place to visit. The camp sites are basic but you can wake up next to 100 species of birds.

[ppine]

delete

[Roy_Lynne]

So this is what we have decided We are coming in from Utah, going to boondock at Capital Reef National Park for a couple of days and then pick up Hwy 50 from there. I see that Lower Lehman Campground is open year round so if the sun is out, we will probably go there for a couple days. Then I'm thinking about stopping at Ward Charcoal Ovens SP instead of Cave Lake, just because I've seen a lake but never saw a Charcoal oven.
Our whole trip will be visiting a lot of petroglyph sites so we might pass up on Hickison, but I'd like to visit Austin, so we'll probably stay at Bob Scott Campground.
Pinchols suggested that we take the shortcut to Fallon on Route 722 and after reading about it, that is what we plan to do. About half way, there is suppose to be a little picnic area/campground near the summit so if its what its cracked up to be we might overnight there.
We are retired military and Fallon has a FAMCamp but the reviews are horrible so we might just go out to Stillwater Wildlife place as they have a primitive campground and I hopefully catch some spring migrations.
Thank you all for your suggestions and hints.

[pnichols]

Ozlander wrote:

pnichols wrote:
All of this is well and good ... but what scares me most is a failed in-tank electric fuel pump out in the middle of nowhere. I WISH Ford offered a double fuel pump option for their E450 chassis used under motorhomes.

If I was worried about the in tank fuel pump, I would cut a hole in the floor over the fuel tank, make a removable cover and carry a spare pump.
Other people have done that.

Yeah .... I've read about doing that!

But first I've got to redesign the under-bed access method that Winnebago goofed on with regards to the huge volume under our rear corner bed ... which happens to be about directly over the Ford chassis 55 gallon gas tank.

A simple piano hinge along one edge of the under-bed support platform would have made perfect sense at RV construction time. Now I've got to install one :M in order to way-easier get at:

1. The fresh water tank.
2. The hot water tank.
3. The water pump.
4. And a whole bunch of freshwater plumbing in which some of the PEX fittings have begun to fail ... not the PEX tubing itself ... but the fittings for it. The failing PEX fittings are a white color plastic of some kind and after years they're developing micro-cracks. I don't think that Teflon material does that ... at least I hope not because the new replacement fittings I'm having to painfully install look to maybe be Teflon ... at least hopefully some type of different/better material than the original white plastic PEX fittings that Winnebago used.

Ford designing in double in-tank fuel pumps (with each one on independent circuits) would have been a real sweet - and at a relatively cheap cost adder - way to insure reliability in the field. Hopefully $$$$ expedition-type vehicles have bases like this covered.

[PUCampin]

If you are into dinosaurs and fossils, Berlin-Ichthyosaur state park is off 50 (though some distance) and was interesting the many years ago I visited.

[Ozlander]

pnichols wrote:
All of this is well and good ... but what scares me most is a failed in-tank electric fuel pump out in the middle of nowhere. I WISH Ford offered a double fuel pump option for their E450 chassis used under motorhomes.

If I was worried about the in tank fuel pump, I would cut a hole in the floor over the fuel tank, make a removable cover and carry a spare pump.
Other people have done that.

[ppine]

A trip to Jarbidge with an RV, is not for the faint of heart.
It is remote by any standard with few facilities at all. Almost none except for the village of Jarbidge. There are some basic USFS campgrounds around. It is worthwhile to hike into the wilderness area. Some major fires have taken place in the last 10 years. A lot of the shrub communities have been converted back to grasslands which has benefited the local elk herd. The overstory of tree canopy has not recovered very well yet. I have seen a wolf there and heard first hand stories of mountain lion incidents. Hunting season in Sept and Oct have the most visitors.

[pnichols]

ppine,

Thanks for the info above ... much appreciated!

[ppine]

There are a few places in Nevada where conventionally planned RV trips will work. Cave Lake State Park is out on the end of Route 50 before Great Basin NP. The other trip would be over by Elko, Pioneer Museum, NE Nevada Museum, Folk Life Center, South Fork Reservoir and then camping out in Lamoille Cyn on USFS. In order to experience the Rubies you have to walk. There is one road that crosses the southern part of the Range at Harrison Pass with no facilities. When there is water like now, Ruby Marshes is a great place to visit to watch bird, fish and paddle a small boat. It is just east of the Mountains.

[BizmarksMom]

There are plenty of dry camp options around Jarbidge, both forest service and dispersed.

[pnichols]

Since these are RV forums, what remote means to us is where we can still get to with our RV. Our days living out of backpacks in the High Sierras over 10K feet are in the past ... although I could probably still do it if I had a reason too using the gear stored in the basement. In Colorado we have had our RV over 11K feet and it still runs fine up there, but we don't RV camp at those altitudes due to density of air reasons. Do propane RV appliances still work above 10K feet?

We don't care about designated places to camp, only legal places to camp - where we can still get level with not too much tire hole shovel work or tire blocks not higher than around 7 inches - and where the hermit/etc. types don't come out to meet us with shotguns or worse. I like the long views one gets out in the deserts as opposed to being closed in by trees. The DW likes wherever the rocks are, with preferrably minimum rattlesnakes among those rocks.

The information on Jarbidge does indicate a hundred or so folks full-time living there, along with a place too to stay and eat if a visitor or two needs it. They also appear to have a few limited "Jarbidge social" events. The residents must be able to maintain and repair their vehicles way out there, too.

We don't mind long gravel road RV runs. We take it slow and easy so as to keep the rig together, but the roads must be wide enough or have hard pack pull offs for faster moving vehicles to get around us.

[ppine]

I have hunted all over Jarbidge. It takes some doing to get there, but you can camp where ever you want. We had a an elk camp at 8,600 feet in the sub-alpine fir and sagebrush. I saw a wolf there. Plenty of deer, elk and antelope. The roads are gravel for about 75 miles. You are on your own.

I was backpacking in the Rubies 2 years ago. Liberty Pass is 10,500 feet. The roads get you to Lamoille but after that you have to walk. We set up camp at 9,600 feet and had steak and lobster. Some friends brought dry ice. and we backpacked in. We made ice for drinks. by putting water in a plastic bag on the dry ice. We made ice cream for dessert. We saw no one for 5 days.

I have visited nearly every gold mine in the state as a part of my job. To travel in Nevada, you need to recalibrate what is remote. Some mine sites are literally more than 100 miles off the pavement. If you still think you need a designated place to camp, you talking about the wrong state.

[pnichols]

profdant139 wrote:
Nevada is under-rated, in my opinion. Someday, the Ruby Mountains. Maybe even Jarbidge, if I can persuade poor DW to sit through hours of bad gravel roads to get there.

Dan ... I agree 100%.

The Ruby Mountains have always fascinated me, and recently I've been studying the area around Jarbidge. Now ... if we can only find a rockhounding excuse to check them out in the RV.

Our longest RV trek to date on washboarded gravel roads has been only around 26 miles each way in the OR Outback.

P.S. As I understand it there's a campground in, or close, to Jarbidge. I wonder if there's any drycamping on public lands in the area?