Redwoods Road Trip - Day 1 [July 20th, 2011]

The Redwood National Park Epic Adventure

Day 1

July 20th, 2011

Destination:  Reno, NV

We went past artwork in the desert salt flats:

Metaphor: The Tree of Utah, by Karl Momen

We stopped by the Salt Flats.

The salt at the salt flats stick to the bottom of your shoes and it just keeps on building up.  Your shoes become so heavy.  I'm so glad they had a foot wash.

Here's my youngest son washing off his shoes.  My oldest son had the most on his shoes.  I had to wash my flip flops off. 

Unfortunately, we didn't stop off the side of the road and weren't able to get the right timing to take a picture of what this sign said.  It was an exit for Deeth Star Valley.  Which made me think of "Death Star" - Star Wars reference.  I still had to tell you about it.

We went through a tunnel in Nevada.

Just to let all of you know that there is a rest area at Fallon, NV.  DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT go there.  They were the nastiest rest rooms on the entire road trip.

We were ahead of schedule.  Therefore, we saw Pyramid Lake on the map and went towards it.  

 I'm very glad we did.  The picture above is me in front of the Pyramid Lake Museum.  We went inside and learned about long Indians have inhabited this area.

 The Museum and the lake are on tribal lands.  The people are very nice and helpful.  This was one of my favorite stops on the entire journey.  We ended playing around in the water for an hour or two.

My kids took off their shoes and got into the water.

The water was so clear and warm.

There were a bunch of tiny shells that washed up onto the shore.

I'm actually a bit embarrassed by this photo - I took it from inside my vehicle and you can see the bug guts from the windshield.  I was hoping to walk Virginia Street in Reno, NV and get a good picture of this sign, but that didn't happen.

We went over the Truckee River.

My kids pointed out the light posts to me.  I really liked their light posts.  They had these leaves that blew in the wind.

Here's the view of Circus Circus Reno from our hotel room.  Once we got everything in our room we went to find something to eat.  After we ate it was after 10 p.m.  So, instead of walking around Virginia Street we went to bed.

Total Miles:  583

Total Hours: 13

(Photos by Sakura's Creations)