DAY 1 – 5 ~ NEVADA

(209 miles, 4 hours)

DAY 1 ~ SPARKS

It was snowing when we reached the top of the pass on I-80.  After Truckee, CA, the snow turned into rain and it was raining hard when we reached our destination at Sparks Marina RV Park.

SPARKS MARINA RV PARK is a great place to stay.  We always stay there whenever we go through this area.  It has 181 pull-thru sites.  The sites are paved, level with a green area (fake grass) and picnic tables.  The place is clean and well maintained.  The restrooms/showers are excellent.  It is close to ‘The Legends at Sparks Marina’, an outlet mall and with casinos, of course.
                     

We had to ‘set up camp’ in the rain and we quickly discovered that our trailer has leaks.  Around both skylights water was dripping onto the table and in the shower.  This is new, but it is a 14 year old trailer.  The rain did stop for the night.  This evening we went to The Legends to the cinemas to see the new Avengers movie.  It was a good movie, lots of deaths and left you hanging.  Now we have to wait a year for the next adventure.

(370 miles, 7 hours)

DAY 2 – 5 ELY

Highway 50 (Lincoln Hwy) from Sparks to Ely is a very long and boring road.  In fact, it is called the “Loneliest Road”.  In some parts it is a straight line that goes on forever into nothingness.  On this day it actually was picturesque as we were watching a thunderstorm with dark clouds and lighting and pockets of rainfall in the distance above a snow-capped mountain range.  When we finally drove into that thunder cloud we were engulfed in heavy rain and some hail; just for a short time.  A few hours later, after we drove over the pass and into the flat desert again, we arrived in Ely.

Ely KOA is a nice campground a few miles outside of the town of Ely on Great Basin Blvd.  A road that goes to the turnoff into Great Basin National Park (66 miles away). This campground has about 100 sites on a grove of what looks like Aspens and Cottonwood trees.  The sites are gravel and dirt, very level and spacious.  We are staying in Ely for 4 nights.

DAY 3 & 4 – Great Basin National Park

It is an hour and half drive from Ely to Snake Creek Canyon in Great Basin National Park.  Half an hour of the drive is on a winding dirt road, but scenic with all the Aspen on both sides of the road.  We made this drive on Friday to check out the area and to scatter Elinor’s ashes on the very site that her family had a home (cabin with dirt floors) near the sawmill that Elinor’s father built and ran.  Elinor never lived there, but she was born nearby in Ely. The only thing left of the cabin is a partial large rock foundation.  Elinor’s sister Bonnie and Bonnie's best friend were also scattered at this site along with Bonnie’s beloved dog, Tiger.

Rest in peace dear Elinor.

Dave is scattering the ashes at the home site.  See the large rocks to the right?  That is what is left of the foundation.  You continue up the slope (above Dave's head) onto a flat area.  That is where John Tilford (Elinor's father) built his sawmill.  Dave also scattered the ashes in this area.

 On our way back we did a little sightseeing.  Still on the dirt road there is a large rocky mound.  The locals call this 'King George'. 

King George sits upon his throne.  Upon a closer look, it actually looks like something else.....

From Great Basin we took a short trip to Osceola.  After Elinor's father gave up the Sawmill and mining tungston in Snake Creek he went back to mining gold here.  This is what is left of John Tilford's cabin.  John lived here with his sons. His remaining family lived in San Francisco.  

 

 John, we think, planted this lilac tree over 100 years ago.  At this time it is still surviving and blooming.  Wildflowers are also blooming in the desert.

Indian Paintbrush.

  

On Saturday we went back to Great Basin NP to Snake Creek Canyon again.  Today we are having a memorial picnic honoring Elinor.  About 25 family and friends of Elinor will be there to remember her with stories.  The man who was the leader in rebuilding the food storage cabin at John Tilford's Bonita Mine site on Snake Creek was there along with another Park representative who was responsible for naming Elinor the Centennial Park Ranger of Great Basin in 2016.  It was a nice sunny day with scattered clouds as Dave and his cousin, another Dave, gave speeches and other people came forward sharing stories about Elinor.  Then we ate a wonderful picnic lunch organized by the other Dave’s daughter and granddaughter.  We had the picnic in a parking lot right next to where the Tilford sawmill was.

   

   

 Dave starting the speeches.

Elinor's grandchildren (and their mother), two great grandchildren, and one great great grandson.

As we were relaxing and visiting, those scattered clouds merged into very big dark clouds.  Then it opened up and turned into a thunderstorm with pouring rain that turned into hail.  We all huddled under the 3 canopy’s that were set up.  Some ran for their cars.  When the canopies started the leak, we all agreed that Elinor was telling us “I told you..no fuss.  Thank you but go home now.”

No, that is not snow....it's hail (pic taken from moving car)

DAY 6 ~ DAY OF REST

Today was cloudy and cold.  We had a late start to the day.  We went to a small coffee shop that was supposed to have WiFi.  But we got there too late it was closing early and beside their WiFi was down.  We decided to wait until tomorrow.  We will be in a new RV park then and hopefully they will have WiFi. We visited Dave and Edith Tilford for an hour or so before we called it day.  Dave & Edith’s daughter and granddaughter and family did a lot of work on making Elinor’s memorial picnic a success.  We really appreciate all the Tilford family's help in this.

Tomorrow we head north into Idaho.

In the Beginning......

The last time we did a trailer trip through Alaska was in 2009.  We are ready to revisit this cool state.  We are still in the same trailer and we plan to revisit many sites.  But we will also visit new sites.  Things probably will have changed in the last nine years.  So it will all be an adventure.

Our 14 year old trailer.  Our 3rd one and probably our last one.

We will be starting our trip with a detour to Great Basin National Park area, staying in Ely, Nevada.  There we will pay tribute, with family and friends, with a memorial for the matriarch of the Charleston - Tilford family.  Dave's mother, Elinor, passed away last year a few days after Thanksgiving.  She was 101 years old. 

  

She was born in Ely and her family had a homestead and ran a mining camp at a location that is now a part of the Great Basin National Park.  Today it is a historical site inside the park.  In 2016 Elinor was honored as a Centennial Senior Ranger and was given a plaque, ranger hat and sash.

 

After the memorial in Ely, we will head north through Idaho and into Alberta to visit the Jasper and Banff National Parks in Canada.  We will continue north through British Columbia into The Yukon.  Then we head back into the US and into Alaska.

The adventure begins in mid-May.  Come join us and share the trailer tripping with us!