Gribblenation

Back in the winter of 2016 I was heading through southern Nevada towards Death Valley National Park.  In Beatty I pulled off of US Route 95 onto Nevada State Route 374 to approach Death Valley National Park via the ghost town of Rhyolite through Hell's Gate. NV 374 is a short 8.8 mile state highway located in Nye County between US 95 in Beatty west along the Bullfrog Hills near the ghost town of Rhyolite to the boundary of Death Valley National Park.  The implied routing of NV 374 continues over the California State Line into the Funeral Mountains where it becomes Daylight Pass Road.  Day Light Pass Road continues through Hell's Gate in Death Valley National Park to CA 190.  NV 374 originally signed as NV 58 prior to the 1976 State Highway Renumbering.  NV 58 in it's original form can be viewed on this 1956 Nevada State Highway Map. 1956 State Highway Map A couple miles west of Beatty NV 374 intersects Rhyolite Road which continues north into the ...

Back in 2012 I visited Dungeness which is located north of Sequim at the tip of the Olympic Peninsula of Clallam County, Washington. Dungeness is located on the Dungeness River which empties into Dungeness Bay.  Dungeness Bay is separated from the Strait of Juan de Fuca by the 6.8 mile long Dungeness Spit.  The area was first discovered by Spanish explorers in 1790 but was named in 1792 by British explorers who thought it resembled the English Dungeness headland. Dungeness as a community got it start from a 1848 fishery which hauled the Dungeness Crab.  There isn't much to the community aside from sea side homes and abandoned buildings along the Dungeness River.  My primary interest in the community was viewing Dungeness Bay and checking out the Dungeness Schoolhouse which was constructed in 1892. The Dungeness Schoolhouse was opened in 1893 and had a first year enrollment of 63 students.  High School classes lasted at the Dungeness Schoolhous...

After making my way off of Dante's View my destination for the night was in downtown Las Vegas.  Reaching Las Vegas from Death Valley National Park has a surprisingly large amount of options, my path was on Nevada Route 159. This blog serves as a continuation from Part 4 of the 2016 Fall Mountain Trip which can be found here. 2016 Fall Mountain Trip Part 4; Death Valley and Dante's View Road After leaving Dante's View Road and making it back to CA 190 I took it east to it's terminus at CA 127 in Death Valley Junction. CA 127 intersects State Line Road in Death Valley Junction. I took State Line Road east to the Nevada State Line where I entered Nye County.  On the Nevada side State Line Road had recently been repaved, when I last visited in 2012 it was in really bad shape.  Eventually I made my way to Pahrump and joined NV 160 east towards Las Vegas. The Clark County Line isn't too far east of Pahrump on NV 160. NV 160 cl...

Alongside Spreckels Avenue about a mile south of California State Route 68 is one of the oldest Company Towns that has been continual operation; Spreckels. Spreckels was built on the bank of the Salinas River by the Spreckels Sugar Company in 1898.  When Spreckels was opened it had the largest sugar beet factory in the world.  Freight service in Spreckels moved via the Spreckels Branch Railroad which opened alongside the company town.  Spreckels Sugar operated in Spreckels until the 1980s and it was eventually replaced by two agriculture companies that still operate in town today. Spreckels essentially consists of nothing but company homes and commercial buildings built in the late 19th/early 20th century.  Alongside Spreckels Avenue there is a small strip of buildings that clearly were meant to serve as a Main Street.  Above the building on the left is a closed two-story commercial building, a US Post Office, and Volunteer Fire Department building. Th...