Wells, Nevada

 Angel Lake is a natural, high elevation, alpine lake that was modified to increase irrigation storage.  The lake sits at an elevation of 8,400 feet, covers 13 surface acres, and has a maximum depth of 35 feet.  Brook trout, rainbow trout, and tiger trout are stocked annually.  Due to its high elevation and snowpack, Angel Lake is usually not accessible until June during most years, but usually remains open until the first heavy snows in October or November. 

Angel Lake is one of the most popular recreation sites in the area especially on this warm 

Labor Day weekend.

As dams go, the one creating Angel Lake is small, measuring a mere 15-feet across. Built in the 1880's, this dirt-and-rock barrier is one of the state’s oldest dams and creates a picturesque alpine lake.

The group of pinnacles known as Chimney Rock 

Pictured it to look different 😄

Deeth, Nevada

As ranching and mining activity increased in the area the town grew in size. The Western Pacific began running thru Deeth in 1910. At the time, the community had mercantile stores, a Mormon chapel, livery stables, hotels, saloons, a blacksmith and a population of approximately 250.   In 1915, a fire destroyed most of the town. The post office has been in operation at Deeth since 1875.  Little remains of the original community.

Now just a small blip on the map with a population of only 28.

Bishop Creek

Dam and Diversion Canal build in 1910

We had been to the Dam in April 2019 but what we didn't realize was there was another point of interest just a little further up the canyon.  

Bishop Creek Hot Springs is also know as 12 Mile Hot Springs.  The name - 12 Mile Hot Springs comes from the distance from the nearby town, Wells.  The hot springs are a primitive long man-made concrete pool 40 feet long and 3 feet deep.  The source is about 105 degrees.  Depending on the season the hot springs average about 100 degrees.

The source of the spring is located right under the cliff.

Cobre is a ghost town in northeastern Nevada built at the junction of railroads where copper, transferred from the line serving the mines to the line that would take it to market. 

Cobre is the Spanish word for copper. It would seem appropriate that the settlement at the terminus of the Nevada Northern Railway serving the rich copper mines in the area be named Cobre. The year was 1905. Cobre boomed in 1906 when the Western Pacific Railroad moved its headquarters from Winnemucca to Cobre. The town supported a hotel and a post office opened in 1906 along with other businesses and stores. As Cobre grew, it developed a reputation for violence. There were several murders during the next few years and by 1910 the town had a population of only sixty.  Cobre had reached its peak. While ore trains from Ely kept coming through Cobre, passenger and freight traffic declined during the ensuing years. By 1937 Cobre was labeled a ghost town even though twenty people lived there. In 1948 the Southern Pacific Railroad abandoned Cobre as a shipping point. Cobre’s end came on May 31, 1956 when the post office closed for good. One of the only structures left is a cinder block engine house built during the last years of the Nevada Northern Railway.

The town was located at the former interchange point between the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Nevada Northern Railway.

 Handcar shed 

Water storage

 Engine house

Desert Bottle Tree

Nevada Highway 233

A quirky old tree covered in tokens, cans, and bottles of wishes.  

The Transcontinental Railroad Back Country Byway represents an epic achievement in American history, linking East to West in the new nation. Today the landscape looks much the same as it did in 1869, but the rails, the towns, and even the lonely rail sidings are gone. Now you can only imagine the vision and effort of those who struggled to build the nation's first transcontinental railroad.

Lucin, Utah 

Lucin was founded in the late 19th century, about 1 mile north of its current location, to provide a water stop for railroads to replenish their steam locomotives.  Ponds were constructed using a pipeline from the Pilot Mountain range, and are still full today.  The town was moved in 1903 to serve as a stop for the Lucin Cutoff.  Historically, the town’s population consisted mainly of employees of the Central and Southern Pacific Railroads. After being abandoned, the area is now managed for migrating songbirds and other wildlife by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

The Lucin Cutoff is a 102-mile railroad line in Utah which runs from Ogden to its namesake in Lucin. The most prominent feature of the cutoff was a 12-mile long railroad trestle crossing the Great Salt Lake, in use from 1904 until the late 1950's.

The Sun Tunnels is a unique art project completed in 1976. The four tunnels are concrete tubes laid out in an X shape, each drilled with holes to pattern the constellations of Draco, Perseus, Columbia, and Capricorn. They are massive - nine feet high by 18 feet long. They sit in a remote valley in the Great Basin Desert, west of the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Can you tell it was windy?