Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
That was what the sign on the highway outside of Reno said, at any rate. I kept waiting for the corresponding sign saying
Ice May Be Foggy
But I haven’t seen it yet. We escaped from the Nugget Hotel, which was a good thing. They have a “Gilleys” bar there, complete with a Bikini Bullriding Competition. I tried to talk the gorgeous ex-fiancee into entering … she said I didn’t look all that good in a bikini even with a following wind, and I couldn’t argue on that score, so we rolled out to visit our friends in Imlay, Nevada.
The first curious sight was a house a few miles outside Reno. It was a white house, with a lovely green front lawn. It had a small tree in the yard, and a 
car in the garage, and a white picket fence around the whole thing.
And on all sides of that … nothing but high desert. Sagebrush and scrub and sand. It looked like the tornado from the Wizard of Oz had picked the house up from Illinois with every homey appurtenance, lawn, picket fence and all, and set it down in raw desert in Nevada …
(We’re in Idaho Falls now, staying by the Snake River. I just heard the train whistle and I can feel the rumble … I do love that sound.)
Mostly what we did in Imlay was play music. One of my friends is a drummer, and one plays the guitar/fiddle/harmonica, so with Ellie we had an entire band. The music and the stories rolled on and on. They live up in the hills above the valley floor, the land there looks like this …
I’d describe it as “medium bleak”. Then this morning we rolled out, stopping on the way at the strangest Indian memorial I’ve ever seen.
There was a curious man, half American Indian and half Dutch, who was known as “Chief Thunder”. He decided to use “white man’s junk” to make a memorial … and what a memorial he made. He called it “excrescence art”, and the building looks like this …
Here’s a closeup of one small section:
The main construction materials appear to be glass bottles, wood, sweat, cement, mud, plaster, chewing gum, and I’m reluctant to ask what else. It is so bizarre I can’t begin to describe it, other than to say that the amount of work and the passion it represents are astounding. People never cease to amaze me.
From there, we went across an endless hot desert landscape. Temperatures were over 100°F (38°C). The most amazing thing was the repeated appearance of the forgotten stepchild of the emergent phenomena that regulate our planet’s surface temperature … the lowly dust devil. We saw big ones, and small ones. We saw ones that lasted only seconds, and a few that lasted many minutes.
Dust devils are one of the many emergent phenomena that appear when the surface is hot compared to the atmosphere. They move an unknown amount of energy from the surface up into the troposphere. As far as I know, there are very few studies of them. We don’t know how many there are, or how much energy they move.
But if you are looking across the desert landscape and you want to know where it is the hottest … that would be where the dust devils are busily at work, cooling the desert surface.
We passed by the valley of the Death Star, and went by a string of no less than 41 giant wind turbines on towers … surprisingly, nine of them were actually turning …
After spending about six weeks going through the desert this afternoon, we finally made it to the Snake River Valley around Twin Falls. The Snake is one of my favorite rivers, in part because some of the time it runs down at the bottom of an outrageous canyon.
Tonight we’re back in wetter country, in a log cabin in Idaho Falls …
It’s a lovely little cabin, built the old-school way, not a kit. Another train is going by. The gorgeous ex-fiancee and I sat out on the picnic table and played guitar as the sun was going down. Life is good.
Tomorrow it’s off to Yellowstone, and then roll we north. The beat goes on … my thanks for the emails and suggestions, I fear I can’t answer them all, but do know that they are much appreciated. I’m tired, it’s 11PM, I’m off to shower and then to sleep.
All the best to all of you,
w.
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Reportedly, Firehole Lake Road is closed in Yellowstone.
http://www.nbcmontana.com/news/yellowstone-road-closed-after-road-surface-melts/26884582
Personally, I think it is mostly due to a bad laying of the tack prior to paving, but you never know. If you can get a ground temperature there it would be handy. I’ve been told that CSS1H tack melts from 170°F to 190°F (anecdotal) but that impurities in the tank can mess with it’s characteristics. CSS1H tack is usually specified by many State and Federal contracts.
It’s nothing highly important, just if you get a chance to take a surface temp it would be interesting to know what it it.
Thanks for the tag-along, Willis. Your travelogues are among the best.
We passed by the valley of the Death Star, and went by a string of no less than 41 giant wind turbines on towers … surprisingly, nine of them were actually turning …
Could be a maintenance issue forcing the operators to push some juice through and spin them every now and then.
With iron that heavy, if you leave rotating parts unrotated for too long, can the film of lubricant get squeezed out and the prolonged metal-to-metal contact will then result in pressure welding of the forced-together surfaces?
Sounds like a nice trip.
By the way, that’s not bleak, just stark. Welcome to Basin and Range country.
If you want something more stark, try the Rabbit Hiils north of the Warner Rim in Lake County, Oregon. Or, just stick along Highway 395 from Lakeview to Riley.
For bleak, drive through the Carson Sink on Highway 95 north of Fallon, NV, to I-80. Better in January than in July.
There’s nothing better than a road trip through the Great American West!
Fog May Be Icy
I’ve read here before about these arid regions how, between evaporative cooling and the lack of sufficient greenhouse effect for heat retention at night due to the scarcity of that most-important greenhouse gas known as water vapor, you can make ice by leaving a pan of water on your roof at night.
But the concept of the effect being so severe that water droplets in fog could cause a film of moisture on a car that would freeze up, that’s a new one for me.
I spent the winter of ’64/’65 in Idaho Falls studying nuke power at the A1W prototype in the desert. My favorite was watching the jackrabbits in the bus headlights during the ride across the desert on the way to the reactor. By March of ’65 I was on station in the South China Sea. Getting combat pay for hanging with the Enterprise. And then there were the visits to Subic. All that is gone. Ships in the bone yard and Subic no longer a Navy port of call.
Willis, be careful in Yellowstone: jus saw a picture in the news that some of the roads were melting, due to local (“global”?) warming… Anyway, have a nice trip and enjoy the impressive natural beauty of your country…
Ice fog is not common here in the East, but it does occur. If you have to drive, and your car has been enveloped in ice fog, you will have a layer of frost that can be thick enough that scraping is slow and difficult. All that is needed to form the frost is a dew point at the ambient but sub-freezing temperature (i.e., saturated air) along with calm conditions. Driving can be troublesome if you have to go through the ice fog for some distance; ice can keep forming on your windows, so you have to keep the interior of the car quite warm to maintain visibility. Roads can be treacherous also.
Willis,
For future travel planning, this (second half of July) is the best time to visit Glacier Park in northern Montana. The roads will have been plowed open and there will still (except in the driest of years) be water flowing along rock walls and over waterfalls. Best of all, there probably won’t be much smoke in the air, as large fires in the surrounding forests generally don’t get going until August.
For those who don’t have children in school, the best time to visit Yellowstone Park is in early September, right after Labor Day. There are almost no tourists, both because school has started and because most people don’t think of September as vacation time. Most of the attractions in the park remain open for a week or two after Labor Day.
Because it’s getting cold in the mountains, the animals have begun to move down to the valleys. Bison and other large animals that were scarce during the summer become plentiful in September, but be wary — they’re powerful, on the prod because the rut is nearing, have poor eyesight, and possess very small brains. They’ll trample you without warning if you’re too close (their definition, not yours).
The weather is generally good (65-70 degrees in the daytime), but September nights at 7000 feet altitude are quite cold (below freezing). Tuck an ice scraper into the pocket of your jacket and take both of them with you when you park your car and go into your hotel or cabin for the night.
If you have the time, check out Teton National Park, just south of Yellowstone Park. It’s an entirely different experience (more like Glacier Park), with a rank of 13,000 foot mountains brooding over the valley. If you go down as far as Jackson Hole, you can ride the chairlift to the top of the ski slope. The view is reputed to be out of this world.
I lived in Montana for most of the first 30 years of my life and have visited Glacier, Teton, and Yellowstone Parks many times. Montana’s a wonderful place with dazzling beauty, marvelous people, and a shortage of good-paying jobs. It still tugs at my heartstrings.
Just shows you a missing simple punctuation mark can alter the meaning of a sentence!
Fog may be icy
Fog, may be icy
Fog may be! Icy
Fog May, be icy
Willis. As a child in the 1940s, I remember my father treasured a volume of books called Pictorial Knowledge Illustrating wonderful pictures from all over the World, and which captured my imagination every time I opened the pages.. One of the few pictures I remember marvelling at was of a huge tree – I presume it was a giant redwood – with a girth so large that they had cut a road through it leaving a large part of the trunk on either side. A model T Ford was emerging from the trunk. The caption said it was in Yellowstone Park. USA. I have often wondered whether the tree is still alive, and although it is doubtful that you will traverse that particular road, it might be worth enquiring of the locals whether the tree is still standing,
I wondered why the sign says “Deeth Starr” and not “Death Star”, so I looked it up. Surprisingly, what looks to be a “funny sign” is actually accurate.
http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/deeth.htm
“There are several stories about how the settlement was named Deeth. One is that it was named after an early settler named Deeth. The other that the area was called Death for travelers without enough water would surely meet their death in the desert. In any event, the word death eventually became Deeth and that became the name of the town formed in 1869 when the Central Pacific Railroad was completed in the area. A post office opened in 1875 as did the first business—a saloon. Deeth’s population increased to thirty-one by 1880 with the addition of a railroad section crew, a warehouse, and a water tower. Deeth soon became the supply center and shipping point for the Starr and Ruby Valleys. (…)”
George Lawson says:
July 14, 2014 at 3:15 am
Willis. As a child in the 1940s, I remember my father treasured a volume of books called Pictorial Knowledge Illustrating wonderful pictures from all over the World, and which captured my imagination every time I opened the pages.. One of the few pictures I remember marvelling at was of a huge tree – I presume it was a giant redwood – with a girth so large that they had cut a road through it leaving a large part of the trunk on either side. A model T Ford was emerging from the trunk. The caption said it was in Yellowstone Park. USA. I have often wondered whether the tree is still alive, and although it is doubtful that you will traverse that particular road, it might be worth enquiring of the locals whether the tree is still standing,
If you mean a picture like these:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Nuta_CQvImI/TPN43JyMBJI/AAAAAAAAEho/dSNJ3ZDc3h0/s1600/Wawona-Tunnel-Tree-pic3-Mariposa-Grove%252C-Yosemite-Valley.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Wawona_tree1.jpg
That’s in Yosemite, not Yellowstone. The Wawona tree collapsed in 1969. I don’t remember seeing redwoods in Yellowstone. Lots of burnt conifer stumps from a massive fire a year or two before my visit, but not redwoods. The geysers and hot springs were gorgeous.
Colonial@ur momisugly
July 13, 2011, Latest ever opening for Going to the Sun Highway in Glacier. I had planned my summer tour around riding that road and was not able to stay out long enough.
Thanks Willis.
kadaka (KD Knoebel) says:
July 14, 2014 at 12:15 am […]
With iron that heavy, if you leave rotating parts unrotated for too long, can the film of lubricant get squeezed out and the prolonged metal-to-metal contact will then result in pressure welding of the forced-together surfaces?
—————————————
Nope, not in any time frame that includes how long the tower will stand to allow for it. Bad things happen when rotating machinery doesn’t rotate, but pressure welding is not usually a concern.
Rotating machines require lubrication and occasional overhaul when one can make the parts very large with lots of mass and operation is mostly continuous. Lubrication is extremely important. It is hard on a tall tower, and one cannot meet the other requirements up there on that tower either, which is why despite the fact wind blows, windmills suck.
Katherine is right the tree was in Yosemite. It was a Sequoya not a Redwood, however, as Willis would know living amongst them.
This part of the trip is familiar to me, as I have passed by a bit of it recently. Last summer I drove clear across the US and back again, though I stayed mostly North. I still prefer the West, even the scrub land. Willis and his lovely will be visiting one of the last frontiers of the West commonly known as the Little Switzerland Of America. I can’t wait.
Thrill seekers to the core, little boys growing up in the country drop whatever they are doing and run into any dust devils which appear nearby, not quite sure if they’ll go spinning away like Toto, but doing their best to find out.
I spend much of my “free” time in northern Nevada’s high desert area. Stark is my word for it, but the appeal for me is in its singularities. By this I mean one at a time. When I see a tree on the canyon side I am impelled to discover why. Green is scarce as is water. A trickle that runs a few hundred feet then sinks back into the earth can occupy me for hours. (My friends joke that I am easily amused). I have also spent many hours on high ground watching dust devils, and have had similar thoughts about the heat transfer abilities they have. On a very hot day (110 on the playa floor I have seen hundreds per hour, some a hundred feet or more across and a thousand feet high. Some have winds strong enough to do damage. I have seen buildings damaged and structures toppled. I have seen debris carried hundreds of feet in the air and then fall back to earth. On a local scale the heat displacement must be measurable, and would make a great research project for a young desert rat majoring in earth science at the wonderful University of Nevada Reno. If not I might have to undertake the task myself .
There are 3 drive thru redwoods on the California coast…http://redwoods.info/showrecord.asp?id=2464
cal smith says:
July 14, 2014 at 6:17 am
Katherine is right the tree was in Yosemite. It was a Sequoya not a Redwood, however, as Willis would know living amongst them
==============================================================
Redwood trees are coastal in their habitat. The moisture off of the oceans is important for their health. I have heard that several redwood trees were found in the Sierra,s north of highway 80. Perhaps someone planted a few back in the late 1800s. The only other country where redwoods are found is in China.
If you have not been there yet I would recommend going to stand on the shore of Lake McDonald on the western end of Going-to-the-Sun Road. Read the placard placed by the government about the glacial lake, how deep it is, etc. The deep rich blue color of the water and how fast it drops off. And then think how anyone could use the term climate change den**r and mean it. Mind boggling.
I’m glad to see that an old cowboy like you knows when to “Let’er Buck!!” It was Montana’s Bob Fletcher who wrote, ““Civilization is a wonderful thing, according to some people.”
That Indian memorial building reminds me of the Watts towers, wonder if they are still there?
latecommer2014 says:
July 14, 2014 at 7:32 am
“On a local scale the heat displacement [from dust devils] must be measurable, and would make a great research project for a young desert rat majoring in earth science at the wonderful University of Nevada Reno. If not I might have to undertake the task myself .”
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Maybe a high resolution, high frame rate, thermal imaging video system would be the ticket.