They don’t call Hwy 50 through Nevada “The Loneliest Highway in The US” without good reason, and we are six miles off that road on a jeep track. Miss Daisy, our 2009 Competition Yellow MX5 Miata doesn’t even have 2000 miles on her odometer, and I don’t think she is too happy with my taking her out in the rough. I’m hoping she doesn’t get even with me by having a flat – It’s a long way from where we are to anywhere and I think the buzzards have taken an interest in us… The sign back at the highway (if you can call two-lane blacktop a “highway” – that’s as good as Hwy 50 gets) said we could see earthquake faults just six miles away. Well, heck, we are on day three of our journey, behind schedule (our usual state of affairs on road trips), and Miatas are not known for off-road capability – “Sure, I’d like to see them, too”, I had replied to Marilyn’s request. This area near Fairview Peak had experienced a magnitude 7.1 earthquake on December 16th, 1954. The area we are in has some of the largest and best preserved fault scarps I have ever seen. While the average displacement in this extensive system of faults had been 1.2 meters, here they are over 5 meters. We would like to hike up to the area showing the greatest displacement, but we choose to take some pictures and point Miss Daisy back towards the highway – we have a lot of miles still to go before we reach our destination in Moab.
It all started some months ago when I decided to try to get a room for “Miatas In Moab IV”, to be held May 14-16, the fourth in what has become a bi-yearly event put on by the Utah Miata Club. We had enjoyed “Miatas In Moab, the Sequel” (it was the second time they had put on this event), and wanted to find some dry roads and sunshine, and introduce Miss Daisy to about 225 of her kin folk. Now for those of you who have gone on one of our drives know, if there is a back road between Point A and Point B, even if that road takes you through Points C, D, E, and F, that’s probably the route we will take. In our case, the “points” were Bend Oregon and Virginia City, Fallon, and Ely Nevada. If you put those towns in Google Maps you will see that instead of the nice straight diagonal between Seattle and Moab, you will have the “other two” sides of the triangle, with the turn at Virginia City.
The first day was mostly a shake down; it was the first long trip in Miss Daisy, and we had left directly from work – it was late when we got into Bend, and early when we left. Day two took us along Hwy 97 through the “Oregon Outback” – which is a very apt description. We made sure we kept the tank topped off, as there are several long stretches of road without operating gas stations. Just after entering California we found a place making plum wine like my grandfather used to make, so we stopped for a tasting and of course a few bottles to take back. We hit Reno at rush hour and were glad to escape the traffic to turn up the steep and winding narrow road into Virginia City. Even though many shops had closed, there were enough still open to give us a chance to stretch our legs as we poked about the old antique mining gear, sundries, clothes, and tools from a bygone era. Everyone we asked about restaurants mentioned the same place and so we had a wonderful dinner of Mexican Fried Pork, Chile-smothered Burritos, and Margaritas. Heading East down off the pass, it is only another 60 miles until we reach our motel room in Fallon. Fallon is home to one of our “Top Gun” fighter schools. Exhausted but amused, we can only wonder what maneuvers our “Top Guns” have performed in this room, where every wall is covered with mirrors…
Breakfast the next day is at a wonderful 50’s style diner. It’s got fast service, good food, and has a menu and décor, and jukebox, that transport us back to simpler days. We finally realize that we on a vacation, however short, and we are looking forward to some of the stops we have planned along Hwy 50. We noticed an espresso shop and gas station next door to the diner, so we get some high octane for Miss Daisy and high test for us, wipe the bugs off the windshield, and take Hwy 50 East out of town. Tonight we have reservations in Moab.
The plan is to stop at each of the towns between Fallon and Ely, and see the charcoal ovens outside of Ely before continuing on into Utah where we will eventually catch the I-15 and I-70 Superslabs – we figure we should get to Moab in time to get registered for MiM-IV. Now, we’ve done some research and so we can pick out points of interest, like the huge sand dune where folks play with their jeeps and sand rails. We’re buzzing right along and I start figuring the distance to Middleton when Marilyn points out the sign to the earthquake faults. Now I’m a sucker for geological features, and six miles doesn’t sound too bad, and the jeep track looks pretty good, and that’s how we ended up outside of Fallon, Nevada, six miles off the highway, on a jeep track, in our new Miata, with a blown schedule.
Besides being “Lonely”, Hwy 50 is interesting for two other reasons. First, a large portion of it was an alignment of the Lincoln Highway, which was the first coast-to-coast highway in America. There are several original or replica Lincoln Highway sign posts along Hwy 50. The Lincoln Highway, in turn, followed several popular emigrant trails, including the Oregon Trail, the Pony Express Route, and the Mormon Trail. Middleton is an original Pony Express stop. Second, this area of the country is known as the “Basin and Range”, because it consists of North-South valleys, or basins, separated by steep and high mountain ranges. Each range seems to have some little town built around one or another mining operation.
Middleton, however, is in the middle of 
a “basin”, and was situated here because a spring nearby provided water for the horses used by the Pony Express Riders. We stop for a soft drink and are amazed by the dollar bills, each with a name or names written on them, covering the ceiling of the only building in Middleton, which serves as gas station, restaurant, general store, rest stop, and tourist attraction. There are buggies, old car parts, and old tools and mining equipment strewn about, and across the road is what appears to be an original Lincoln Highway sign. We would have liked to stay longer, but the siren call of the road calls to us. Zoom-zoom and off we go.
And zoom-zoom we do, as most of the road in the basins is arrow-straight and there is no one else out there. At one point I saw the speedo was indicating, well, pretty darn fast, OK?, before Marilyn noticed and started “talking” to me. Like most men, I would rather eat broken glass than be “talked to”, so I dropped Miss Daisy well back into double digits and we enjoyed the rest of the ride into Ely; along the way we made brief stops in the several mining towns and dodged the weather we could see off in the distance. Outside of Ely we saw the signs to the Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Site, but alas, it was too far off the road and we did not have enough time. Likewise with Great Basin National Park. And the site we heard about where you can collect your very own garnets. We will have to come this way again.
It was dark when we reached the Interstate. We stopped at the last restaurant before Green River, a stretch of 200 no-services miles, then turned south and arrived in Moab just before midnight, local time. The entire parking lot was full of Miatas – Miss Daisy sighed contentedly and we all went to sleep. Next up: Arches, Gun Fights, Hanging Flumes, Pallets of Goodies, and Grand Junction.
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