July 21, 2019

The Loneliest Road in America

July 21, 2019/ David Sparks

In early July I made a trip to California to participate in a party celebrating a friend's retirement from the University of California-Davis. In the process, I was able to explore a region of the U.S. that I had never seen - the area surrounding U.S. Highway 50 between Salina Utah and Fallon Nevada. Highway 50 extends 3,007 miles from Ocean City, Maryland, to Sacramento, CA or -3,007 miles from Sacramento to Ocean City depending on your geographical bias. The section from Salina to Fallon covers 479 miles of high desert and includes numerous mountain passes. Wikipedia has a table with information about 18 mountain passes on Highway 50 in Nevada (link).

From: Wikivoyage "The Nevada portion, which goes through the center of the state, was named The Loneliest Road in America by Life magazine in July 1986. While the name was intended as a pejorative, Nevada officials seized it as a marketing slogan, and U.S. 50 became a challenge for tourists of who could "survive the highway".

Photo of rush hour traffic on Route 50 in Nevada
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera, 12-100mm f/4 lens at 57mm
1/1000 sec at f/8, ISO 200

In an article about Route 50 appearing in the June 17 2015 issue of Newsweek, the author wrote: "The most famous segment of Route 50 is largely useless, running through Nevada about 100 or so miles south of I-80, which is what sane people use today to travel the state (sane people of means simply fly). And yet this 287-mile stretch between Fernley, near the border with California, and Ely, near the border with Utah, has attained legendary status as the "Loneliest Road in America."

Photo of typical heavily populated residential area along Route 50 in Utah
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera, 12-100mm f/4 lens at 31mm
1/1000 sec at f/8, ISO 200

The author of the Newsweek article noted that the 1986 Life magazine article had only one photograph. The caption was “The Loneliest Road.” Beneath the caption was a single paragraph: "It's totally empty," says an AAA counselor. "There are no points of interest. We don't recommend it." The 287 mile-stretch of U.S. 50, running from Ely to Fernley, Nev., passes nine towns, two abandoned mining camps, a few gas pumps and an occasional coyote. "We warn all motorists not to drive there," says the AAA rep, "unless they're confident of their survival skills."

Who could pass up an opportunity to travel such an appealing route? Not me, who often seems to travel on impulse. For this trip, I did do a little more planning than usual for trips within the U.S. I reserved a motel room in Salina UT before I left our condo in Colorado. The 479 miles between Salina and Fallon is not littered with AAA-rated motels (or non-AAA-rated motels).

White-faced Ibis, Swan Lake Nature Study Area near Reno NV
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera, 300mm f/4 lens 1.4x teleconverter
1/2000 sec at f/7.1, ISO 500

Additional aspects of my intensive planning for this trip are described in this paragraph. Before leaving Denver I noted that the retirement party was scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. on Sat. July 6. I also checked the driving time between Reno and the location of the party near Winters, CA - about 3 hours. Finally, I checked ebird for recent birding reports in the vicinity of Reno and stored the links to promising birding locations on my cell phone.

Because of the long summer days (Reno: Sunrise 5:50 a.m., Sunset 8:22 p.m.), I arrived in Reno on Friday early enough to do some late afternoon birding. Thus, upon reaching the city limits, I checked the ebird reports again, used my cell phone to reserve a motel room near the most promising birding site, and drove directly to that site, the Swan Lake Nature Study Area.

More photos from the Swan Lake Nature Study Area (no one was there but me)

White-faced Ibis, Swan Lake Nature Study Area near Reno NV
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera,300mm f/4 lens + 1.4x teleconverter
1/2000 sec at f/7.1, ISO 640

Yellow-headed Blackbird, Swan Lake Nature Study Area near Reno NV
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera,300mm f/4 lens + 1.4x teleconverter
1/2000 sec at f/7.1, ISO 640

Yellow-headed Blackbird, Swan Lake Nature Study Area near Reno NV
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera,300mm f/4 lens + 1.4x teleconverter
1/2000 sec at f/7.1, ISO 640

Yellow-headed Blackbird, Swan Lake Nature Study Area near Reno NV
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera,300mm f/4 lens + 1.4x teleconverter
1/2000 sec at f/7.1, ISO 640

Mountain Chickadee, Donner Pass Picnic Area, California
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera,300mm f/4 lens + 1.4x teleconverter
1/1000 sec at f/5.6, ISO 640

I left Reno Saturday morning and stopped and hiked some of the trails in the Donner Pass Picnic area. I heard and saw a lot of bird activity but not many of the birds I saw were seen through the viewfinder of my camera.

Yellow-billed Magpie somewhere in California
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera,300mm f/4 lens + 1.4x teleconverter
1/1600 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200

I stayed in California with my friends a couple of days after the retirement party and captured several images of Yellow-billed Magpies. The backgrounds in the photos are not pleasing, but I had never seen this species and was delighted to get photos for identification purposes.

Yellow-billed Magpie somewhere in California
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera,300mm f/4 lens + 1.4x teleconverter
1/1600 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200
Note the iridescent blue-green on the wings.

Yellow-billed Magpie somewhere in California
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II camera,300mm f/4 lens + 1.4x teleconverter
1/1600 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200
Note the iridescent green on the tail.