Traveling Northern Nevada 5 days 1200 miles 700 dirt

Last year myself and an old high school buddy who came to down decided we needed to hit the open road from Reno NV and got see the riches of Northern NV. My friend Jess had never been east of Reno. Myself ive been all around Nevada from wild land fire fighting hunting trips to excursions for hot springs but nothing as dedicated to getting as remote as what we were about to get into. The goal for day one was to head east on 80 past Winnemucca and get off on the dirt roads to Midas which is a small watering hole out in the middle of the desert where we would stop for a cold beer. From there we would continue on past Willow Creek Resivoir and head to Tuscorora NV which is pretty much an old deserted mining town.

Headed out of Reno
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Finally off of the Interstate and getting ready to head out into the great unknown.
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We made it through some beautiful country to the Midas Saloon where their were some great friendly folks
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Meeting with the locals who we ended up knowing mutual friends. Small world indeed.
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After saying our good byes we hit the road for a few more hours and ended up at the Taylor Canyon Club where we met some more nice locals and had another frosty beverage.
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From here it was time to hop on a small county road for 20 miles to our next dirt road which would take us through Maggie Gulch and onto Owyhee. This was a drastic change from the barren desert to high lush mtns with sage brush and aspen trees full of wild horses, elk and deer.

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We made time really fast and by then we were like might as well head into Jarbidge which was the only real destination we had for this trip was to go see Jarbidge. Well we made it in one day and had 4 to go!

Our camp for the first night.
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The next day we headed out to Jarbidge and wow it is as beautiful as I could have hoped it to be. We were both enjoying the views and taking it in.

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Getting close to town
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We made it! But now things got interesting we had planned to get here in a day or two but were moving way to quickly.
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Well we are in town on the second day and now it was time to make some decisions as we had four days still left plenty of gas food and adult beverages. Do we hang out do the camping thing do day excursions orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr do we maybe go see the rest of Nevada! Well that was a pretty easy choice when we got out the old map book started to look at the Oniell basin and how remote that was plus getting to see the back side of the Jarbidge mountain range it was time hit some dirt! Plus I told him if we went this way we could hit up a hot spring Ive never been to.

Headed out of Jarbidge along the river was beautiful.
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Made it over into Idaho the 2nd time getting ready to head back into the Oneill Basin.
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My uncle had elk hunted this area and mentioned to go to Biroth Ridge so why not go take in the sites glad we did was very pretty up there and you got to see into the wilderness.
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From the wilderness it was time to head out into some of the most remote land I have ever been in. Hours away from the nearest town which was still hours away from any sort of Hospital. We were super excited to head out into here.

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There were many lush canyons with spring run off headed out into the dry basin. Amazing how much water is in the desert!
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But soon the vegetation changed the water was less and we were in the basin!
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It was getting late in the afternoon and we new we wanted to camp somewhere in the shade with water so we took some roads across the basin back towards Jarbidge and found an amazing spot lush with water and shade and trees.
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This was home for night # 2. We totally scored. Lots of big outfitters in here with horses packing in for Elk hunts.
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We got the spotting scopes out hoping to see something ourselves nothing but beautiful scenery.
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Its been a year since this trip i will try to get it finished up soon. Have 3 more days to go with hot springs big mtns and more beautiful places to come. Thanks for looking.
 
Day 3 we woke up early and were ready towards Wells Nevada and onto the Ruby Mountains. But we had a few spots we wanted to check out along the way.

Bouncing down a bumpy dirt road.
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Nevada traffic jam
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Finally made it to 12 mile hot spring. This one had been on my list for quite sometime! Large pool and nice and warm.
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Met a nice couple in a Jeep here who suggested we check out Angel Lake near Wells NV.
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From 12 mile we headed on into Wells NV and got some much needed fuel as I had blown through my two reserve tanks and we were getting low. From there we decided to check out Angel Lake. It looked very beautiful but the ranger was a jerk and wanted to charge us $15 to park and take a photo of the lake. So we snapped a photo of what we could get and kept on trucking
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From Wells we headed on the Interstate to Deeth NV as my mother was born out here and I wanted to see the area. Well Deeth is pretty much gone no remaining structures but an old ranch so we found some back roads to get us to the east side of the Rubys.
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Finally back on the dirt
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Now I have been to Lamoille Canyon on the West side and it is one of the most beautiful places in the West Coast so I was excited to see the east side of the Rubys. Well they certainly didn't disappoint the area was lush and beautiful.

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We followed them down south for quite a ways but there wasn't much for boon docking camping so we decided to head over Harrison Pass and back to the West side of the Rubys that offered much more camping opportunities. West side of the Rubys down south is wild country no development and wide open spaces.
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We were excited to get back off the beaten path and didnt really have an end point just find some place to camp for the night.
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The ol trusty steed!
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We knew we needed to get to the base of the mountains if we were to find a chance of water and good camping and bam there she was popped out of ground full on running creek.
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We slept great here with a nice small fire and fresh air and beautiful views every which way.
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Day 4 started out with a bit of a wild goose chase trying to find the old pony express trail. Def got more than what we bargained for as we went over Telegraph path in my super loaded truck and it was 4lo most of the way to the top. Great suggestion from one of my buddys haha.

Top of Telegraph Pass where we came from
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Going down wasnt much better as my truck got some serious Nevada Pin Striping
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Now off the pas we continue to follow the Pony Express trail near the town of Eureka. We were low on supplies again mainly beer and gas so had to get to Eureka :) Making good time now.
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After a quick stop in Eureka and short jaunt down HWY 50 it was time to hit some more hot springs! Unfortunately it was in the 90s and the water was about 105.

Wild horses watching us come up to the hot spring
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Another bucket list hot spring I finally found. Thats about as far as I got in it was hot.
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From here it was time to head to the georgraphical center point of Nevada
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From there we did a loop around to spencers hot springs for another soak.
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Guess we didnt get as many pics as we should of after this which is unfortunate as we head to Kingston Canyon which is an incredible drive over a scenic mountain pass. We stayed the night there and received a lil bit of rain which was welcomed.
 
Day 5 and the final leg of our day we wanted to head down the Reese River Valley and go Berlin which is an old mine.
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From here we finished the last bit of dirt to Jigs and headed home. Apprecaite you all following along.
 
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