Day 6 - Cave Lake state park to Logandale Trails

It was another COLD night last night, so cold, as a matter of fact, that even though I had the heater running full blast all evening, when I crawled into bed, the Memory foam mattress was as hard as a rock! This morning it was 10 degrees f outside, and there was ice on the inside of the windows!

But, the weather was beautiful. I went for a lovely walk around the campground last night under the full moon, wearing ALL of my coats and sweatshirts. This morning the sun rose on the hills in the distance in all of it's glory.

I got on the road relatively early and started heading south. This direction had me spending long stretches running with the valley's (the last couple of days, I have been crossing valleys and hills).

The first stop was the Charcoal ovens from the 1860s. These ovens were huge, and it would take a single one of them (there are six) 12 days to turn 35 cords of wood into 1750 bushels of charcoal, which would then be used for the smelting of ore. This practice had a significant impact on the ecosystem as vast swaths of land were deforested for the charcoal, and are just now coming back with second-growth forests.

The next stop along the road today was the little town of Pioche, where I stopped for breakfast at a local cafe, and checked out the Museum. In the Museum, I had a wonderful chat with Emily, who works there three days a week. She has a brand new granddaughter (her first) in Vancouver, Washington.

The next stop was Cathedral Gorge. This place is quite stunning. I didn't know what to expect, and I pulled into the Miller Point overlook and had a pretty good view into what looked like a mini Grand Canyon. From there, I continued into the park proper and hiked back up to where I first glimpsed the Gorge. There are slot canyons in this complex that are stunning. I was able to get 50 yards or so into a canyon that was no more then three feet wide at the bottom and the top, and it must have been 30 yards tall as well.

From there, I headed towards the Englin schoolhouse. The road out to it was just absolutely stunning. It was up the Rainbow Canyon, running along a river, and the Union Pacific line. The schoolhouse was closed and inaccessible, so I snapped a picture and kept heading south on the Kane Spring Wash, which was a dirt road in a beautiful valley for close to 30 miles.

This evening, I am camped on the BLM land in the Logandale Trails. I got here just as the sun was setting, so I didn't have a chance to explore much. It is much warmer this evening :)

Tomorrow I head further south - I may end up in Flagstaff to see Jay and Jack.