Day 3: Ely, NV to Glendale, UT

Summary:
    Miles:   283
    Average: 53
    Maximum: 81

Roads:
        50, 6, 487, 21, 14, 89

Monday, and time for some sight-seeing. I left Ely headed for the Great Basin National Park. Merrily and I had tried to get there last October, but the night we stayed in Ely we had a 4" snowfall and the road up the mountain was closed, so we didn't go to the park. Today, however, was simply lovely - another sunny day, with temperatures in the mid-80s. There is a brand new visitor's center at the turn onto the road that leads up the mountain. They have some interesting exhibits and a nice film on the caverns.

The road up the mountain is very nice - it has enough curves to keep it interesting, with views of the surrounding country and of the peaks at the top of the mountain. There aren't enough pull-outs for taking pictures, though! The road climbs to about 10,200' which kept the temperatures down. After returning down the mountain I headed for Utah and highway 21. This road could easily challenge highway 50 for the 'loneliest road' title. I saw only 3 vehicles in the first 30 miles! There wasn't much traffic after that, either. Highway 21 is much like 50 - it traverses the high desert valleys between mountain ranges. The road is arrow straight (and boring) while crossing the valleys, but gets twisty (and more interesting) as it climbs and descends each mountain range.

I stopped for lunch in Milford, UT. After lunch I headed for Cedar City and then started up into the mountains towards the Cedar Breaks park. The traffic coming down the mountain on highway 14 was incredible - bumper-to-bumper for miles! Everyone was leaving to get home. There was no traffic headed up into the mountains. Highway 14 is a lovely road, running through canyons initially, then opening up to meadows and lots of pine trees. It turns out that all of the west bound traffic came from an area called 'Duck Creek' where they have built a huge number of resort homes. Apparently there are nearly 50,000 (!) people there on major holiday weekends. I find that hard to believe but I was told that by folks that live in the area.

I turned south on highway 89 - only a few miles to go until the next KOA. Unfortunately, just few miles short of the KOA I rounded a corner and saw cars pulled off to the side of the road surrounding a  motorcycle - with two folks stretched out on the ground. I stopped and got off the bike, pulling out my first aid kit, just in case. The bike on the ground was a big Harley. The woman on the ground was making lots of noise, complaining of pain 'everywhere'. The man on the ground was very quiet - he was coherent, knew his name, where he was from and what day it was, but really didn't look very good. He had head injuries - if he had been wearing a helmet it must have been a 'shorty'. I didn't see any helmets on the ground. Both of the injured were dressed in tank tops and shorts. Sigh.

Fortunately, about one minute after I got there an EMT pulled up. Two minutes later another EMT arrived - both part of the vacation traffic! I left for the KOA at that point.

Another night camping above 6,000' - cool (actually very cool!) and welcome relief from the daytime heat.