Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

This past Saturday morning we headed up to Bassi Falls up in the Sierra Nevada. The drive was pleasantly short at about 60 miles. We knocked out the majority of the driving from home with our “Friday Night Halfway” to Folsom.

While Bassi Falls was the main event for the day, getting there was part of the fun. The journey is part of the adventure. This journey included three fun things: US 50, a waterfall (yes, a waterfall on the way to see a waterfall!), and 4x4 driving.

US 50: Far from the Loneliest Road

Most of our driving Saturday morning was on US 50. It's dubbed "The Loneliest Road" for its path through the middle of nowhere in the Great Basin desert of Nevada. Having driven across Nevada four times now I can attest that it's a very lonely road. Here in California, though, it's anything but lonely. Crowded is more like it.

Our journey on US 50 actually began Friday evening, when we exited from eastbound Interstate 80 onto US 50 in West Sacramento. That's where US 50 begins— or ends, depending on which end you're starting from. That other end, by the way, is Ocean City, Maryland, a whopping 3,073 miles away. (Interesting note: this isn't even the longest road in the US. Four others are longer!)

Thankfully traffic on US 50 Saturday morning wasn't too bad. By leaving Folsom before 9am we managed to get out ahead of the road-clogging people driving motor homes and towing boats over the mountain pass to Lake Tahoe. It helped, too, that almost all of the route up to our turnoff at Icehouse Road has at least 2 lanes in each direction— so there's no getting stuck single file behind a slow moving vehicle.

A Waterfall on the Way to a Waterfall!

While getting stuck behind a slow moving vehicle on mountain roads is no fun, there are things you'll miss if you go too fast. One of those things is Bridalveil Falls. It's tucked in a blind corner on the side of the road, and the one small road sign announcing it's ahead doesn't give you enough warning to slow down and be prepared to pull off. I imagine most people zoom past it least twice, saying "Wow! What was that waterfall?" before making a plan to stop and visit it.

This trip, like our last one 6 weeks ago, I drove at a gentle pace through this stretch of the mountain pass. I watched for that small brown sign. As soon as I saw it I eased off the throttle and began signalling a turn so everyone trying to rush up the mountain could go around me instead of impatiently riding my tail.

When we pulled off we had the spot to ourselves for a while. Indeed, the road was pretty busy, but almost everyone was passing by these falls, seeing them too late to stop. I took advantage of the quiet to set up my tripod to take some timed exposures and a picture with the two of us in it. It didn't turn out so well... We were squinting in the bright morning sun, so I'm not including it here. But it was still closer to a keeper than almost any picture I get when I hand my camera to a rando to take a picture of us, which is why I carry the tripod and take the time to set it up when reasonable.

I note the water flow is much lower here than six weeks earlier.

Back on the road it wasn't much further until we reached our turnoff at Icehouse Road. From there we ascend steeply into the Sierra Nevada, heading toward the Crystal Basin.

A Bit of 4x4 Driving

Icehouse Road is paved all the way and in good shape, even if it is steep and winding in parts. From Icehouse we turn onto a dirt road for the last 2 miles to the Bassi Falls upper trailhead. Yes, upper trailhead. There are actually at least 3 trailheads it's reasonable to hike Bassi Falls from. We usually do the upper trailhead because it's the closest to the falls, leaving us more time and energy to spend at the falls. The upper trailhead isn't for everybody, though. You need a 4x4 to get there.



The dirt road is actually pretty easy for the first 1.8 miles or so. Then there's a hill climb that's slightly rough. That filters out the passenger cars. Then right near the end there's a tougher hill climb, with "tank trap" ruts. The video above shows us going over it.

You'll see I actually had to try it twice— the first time with 4-hi and choosing a tougher line I got stuck. I backed up, engaged 4-lo and my rear locker, and walked it.

This obstacle was tougher this Saturday than 6 weeks earlier. It looks like vehicle traffic in the intervening time with dry weather has dug the ruts deeper. But there's a plus to the road getting tougher: fewer people make it to the trailhead! We had the trailhead all to ourselves on Saturday morning.

Colorado Travelog #30
Cimarron, CO - Thursday, 7 Jul 2022, 3pm

Although we left Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park just after noon today after a bunch of short hikes this morning we're not done with it. We left the south rim. We're driving around to the north rim! The canyon is so deep this is one of those cases where the opposite rims are a few hundred meters apart yet a 2½ hour drive around.

The drive today took even longer than that as there are several miles of road construction on US 50. (Yes, that US 50, "The Loneliest Road in America".) We were stopped several times to allow crews and machines to do their work. "We should have gone the other way around," I fumed. But the other way around wouldn't have brought us through Curecanti National Recreation Area. We turned adversity to serendipity as we stopped at one of the area's vista points and hiked around a bit.



A National Recreation Area is a different designation than a National Park. It's lower on the protection scale and more generous on the access scale. That's why, e.g., you see a power boat on the water in the picture above.

Geology-wise, it's basically the same place as Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The Gunnison River flows through narrow, steep canyons over 1,000' feet deep.



There's more water up here in this part of the canyon because it's controlled by dams. The dams are managed to maintain this part of the canyon as a reservoir. About 5 miles upstream, past one of the dams, the canyon is much lower and wider, allowing easy access to the river.

Now it's pedal-to-the-metal again to get to Black Canyon of the Gunnison's north rim before the light fades. Update: see how it turns out!