Interesting highways

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heat mirage
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Interesting highways

Post by heat mirage »

When my family and I were returning to our Southern Nevada home from Northern Nevada, we decided to take roads we hadn't used before. I wanted to go through Death Valley, but was outvoted by the rest of the family who believed driving though Death Valley in August wasn't a good idea. Besides, my wife said, you've already taken that road.
She was right. So we took California Highway 168 east from Bishop through the White Mountains and to the Nevada border. Once in Nevada the road becomes Nevada 266. The highway didn't disappoint. It is full of twists and rewarding views, contrasts and surprises. California 168 ascends to a 7,100-foot pass, squeezes down to one lane through a narrow squeeze and passes by the ancient bristlecone pine area. then it descends quickly and stretches out ruler-straight through empty valleys. We passed by a fertile green valley with Deep Springs College in the middle of nowhere, crossed more mountains and reached Nevada where a broad valley with green ranches sat. We passed ruins, Lida (a tiny hamlet), saw Goldpoint in the distance and connected with US 95 at abandoned Lido Junction. The journey lasted about 90 minutes, and the family liked seeing new country on different routes. I'm sure winter travel there brings a bunch of challenges, but it's a nice way to avoid the dreary US 6/95 drive through Tonopah to Hawthorne.
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Space Cowboy
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Re: Interesting highways

Post by Space Cowboy »

I googled Deep Springs College. Do you know the history of that school?
heat mirage
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Re: Interesting highways

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I know nothing about Deep Springs College. I hadn't ever heard of it before. I couldn't believe a college would be located in such a remote spot.
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Re: Interesting highways

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I Googled Deep Springs College after I logged out. It's a cowboy campus with a unique philosophy several mountain ranges away from the nearest towns. Pretty impressive for a campus tucked in among alfalfa fields.
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Re: Interesting highways

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I post their website link for those who might be curious:

http://www.deepsprings.edu/home

"The desert has a deep personality; it has a voice. Great leaders in all ages have sought the desert and heard its voice. You can hear it if you listen, but you cannot hear it while in the midst of uproar and strife for material things. 'Gentlemen, for what came ye into the wilderness?' Not for conventional scholastic training; not for ranch life; not to become proficient in commercial or professional pursuits for personal gain. You came to prepare for a life of service, with the understanding that superior ability and generous purpose would be expected of you."

Deep Springs Founder L.L. Nunn, 1923, Founder of Deep Springs College
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Re: Interesting highways

Post by Inyo »

heat mirage wrote:we took California Highway 168 east from Bishop through the White Mountains and to the Nevada border. Once in Nevada the road becomes Nevada 266. The highway didn't disappoint. It is full of twists and rewarding views, contrasts and surprises. California 168 ascends to a 7,100-foot pass, squeezes down to one lane through a narrow squeeze and passes by the ancient bristlecone pine area.
Yes. That would be the Westgard Pass district. That "narrow squeeze" through which route 168 passes is sliced in fossiliferous limestone of the lower Cambrian Poleta Formation, approximately 520 million years old--a primordial rock deposit that throughout the Westgard Pass area yields locally common remains of an extinct calcareous sponge called an archeocyathid. Most specimens observed in the field there are natural, rather poorly preserved circular to oval cross-sections of the critters, anywhere from perhaps an eighth of an inch to an inch an a half in diameter, but on occasion you can spot (check with the local US Forest Service office for current regulations regarding fossil collecting within that federally administered forest area) some pretty nice specimens similar to what I've encountered in the northern sector of Death Valley National Park. See http://inyo.coffeecup.com/site/dv/poletaarch.htm for a couple of such representative branching archeocyathids.
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Re: Interesting highways

Post by heat mirage »

Interesting information, although I was overwhelmed by the scientific terms. The geology of eastern California is unlike anywhere else.
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Re: Interesting highways

Post by Bambi »

10 Most Unique Roads In The World
1. World’s steepest street: Baldwin Street, Dunedin, New Zealand
2. World’s most crooked street: Lombard Street, San Francisco, United States
3. World’s widest street: 9 de Julio Avenue, Buenos Aires, Argentina
4. World’s narrowest street: Spreuerhofstraße Street, Reutlingen, Germany
5. World’s longest road: Yonge Street, Ontario, Canada and the Pan-American Highway
6. World’s longest road tunnel: Lærdal Tunnel, Norway
7. World’s most dangerous road: The Death Road, Bolivia
8. World’s most frozen road: McMurdo South Pole Highway, Antartica
9. World’s most monotonous road: The Eyre Highway, Australia
10. World’s highest road: Millau Viaduct Bridge, France
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Re: Interesting highways

Post by JasonBilly »

Good to know about California Highway 168...did you see the Ancient Bristlecone Scenic Byway?
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Re: Interesting highways

Post by Aldowin »

although I was overwhelmed by the scientific terms.
sbobet th
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