Colorful Fly Geyser - Gerlach, NV

Gerlach, Nevada

3 Mile Playa, BLM

This is Fly Geyser, our reason for coming way out here in the remote NW part of Nevada.

In the morning, we leave our spot on the Playa and head towards Fly Ranch, caravan style, with others on our tour.  To get info on the tour as well as the organization check here, 

Friends of Black Rock/High Rock

You begin the 2 hour tour at Fly Ranch.  This is a working cattle ranch.  Some of the Burning Man creations are being kept on the ranch instead of recycled.  This is kind of nice as they are pretty amazing.  There are plans to keep more of them in the future.

The Narwold

This little home on chicken legs was built entirely by women who had to learn how to weld and build.  It is tied to Baba Yaga.  A sort of Hansel and Gretel story.  There are many versions from other countries.  In Italy there is Strega Nonna.

Wild Woman

I walk in the forest

and speak intimately with the animals

I dance barefoot in the rain

without any clothes

I travel on pathways

that I make myself

and in ways that suit me

my instincts are alive and razor sharp

my intuition and sense of smell are keen

I freely express my vitality

my sheer exuberant joyfulness

to please myself

because it nature

it is what needs to be

I am the wild joyous life force

Come and meet me.

-Baba Yaga

  

The stained glass windows were beautiful.  

  

The pie comes from the storyline about eating the naughty children that didn't help out and baking them into pies.  Yikes!  Children's Fairytales always seemed to have a dark creepiness to them.

Oh no, another naughty one!

After viewing Fly Ranch, we drove down to where the geyser and wetlands were.

The wild mustangs and their foals were out and about.

Our docents took us on a nice hike around the area.  There are many geothermal areas around here and lots of hot springs.  They told us they seem to pop up and then disappear over time.

This is the original geyser formed in 1916 when a well was drilled for irrigation water.  When the water was found to be 200 degrees, the well was abandoned.  A 12 foot cone of calcium carbonate started forming.  In 1964, a geothermal energy company drilled a second well near the site of the first well.  The water wasn't hot enough for energy purposes so they capped the well.  The seal failed but the discharge from the well released enough pressure that the original geyser dried up.  Dissolved minerals in the water which accumulated around the new geyser created cones and travertine pools. Fly Geyser now has multiple conic openings sitting on a mound.  The cones are over 6 feet and the entire mound is over 30 feet tall.  It is growing and changing rather quickly.

The colors were incredible!!

A little further down the trail is a new baby geyser growing.  The original, dried up one is in the background.  It is showing the same beautiful colors with a slow gurgle of water coming out of the top.

We absolutely loved the hike and felt privileged to visit this beautiful geyser.  The Black Rock folks and the Fly Geyser Ranch are doing a great job of protecting this area.  Tours are limited between April and October, only on weekends.  It was $40 per person.

On the way back to camp you see plenty of strange things.  You never know if some of these things are saved and used at Burning Man or if people own them and use them for other reasons.

We stop back at camp to have some lunch then we'll head out for a drive around the other side of the Playa to look for some hot springs.

It's a very quick drive through town as there are just a few buildings.  I like their "Welcome to Gerlach" sign where it says "Population: Wanted".  The town sits between the Black Rock Desert and the Smoke Creek Desert.  It's been occupied for thousands of years.  John C. Fremont traveled through these areas that the Paiute lived back in 1843.  The Applegate-Lassen Trail came through the region and was traveled by emigrants continuing west.  The town of Gerlach was established after the construction of the Western Pacific Railroad 1905-1909.

This was the fence around the Miners Club.

We decided to stop in for some quick refreshments.

We drove down Jungo Rd. which was a decent gravel road.

Frog Pond Cool Spring was first.  We were given some information on where to find these from our waitress at Bruno's the other night.  Eventually with some clues and luck we found them.

This one is on private property but as long as you don't mess up the area or bother the cows they don't mind.

Then we were off to find Trego Hot Springs which we hoped to soak in.  This was much harder to find from the description in a book and the waitress's directions.  Steve turned down one last dirt road then we got out and scouted around.  Found it!  There was a sign warning of contamination so we chickened out and only put our legs in.  Later we found out that the locals put that up to keep most away.  Here are the coordinates if you want to find it: 40.77103N, 119.11386W

On our last day we drove down Guru Rd.  Also known as Doobie Lane.  It was built by Dewayne "Doobie" Williams between 1978 and 1992.  This mile dirt road is filled with quirky art and rocks carved with even quirkier sayings.  Don't take any trailers down this road.

This is The Desert Broadcasting System.  It has clocks inside set to different countries and tv's.  I thought this one was pretty neat.  The weather and time is taking a toll on some of them and they are showing wear, but funny none the less.

Steve filling in for Doobie for the local news.

 

  

 

An Elvis Presley memorial.

There was a motorcycle memorial in one section.

I'm not sure of the Iowa significance but there it was.

We stopped back in Burno's one last time.  It was breakfast today.  We walked around and read all about him coming from Lucca, Italy and settling here.  There are pictures of many of the land speed records and rockets and Burning Man.

The breakfast was ample and delicious!

We really loved our time out on this mini-trip but time to return.

On our way back to Placerville we once again stopped into Washoe Lake State Park.

We met up with Sebastian for dinner.  He wanted to take us to one of his favorite steakhouses for my birthday. Everything was so good!  Thank you, Sebastian!

Salute!

  Port for dessert!  How sweet!

  

A late storm was moving in, so we decided to stay a couple more days and not drive over the snowy passes.  It was very cold and windy.  A couple of inches of snow came down and we just chilled and enjoyed ourselves.

Snow on our solar panel.

A pretty view of our backyard.

Well since we're here for a couple more days, back off we go with Sebastian to the NV Taphouse in Carson City.

I was happy with the Mimosa Sampler!

Driving back through Lake Tahoe with a fresh dusting of snow.

If you find yourself driving through the far NW of Nevada in the Spring or Fall, we definitely recommend a visit to Gerlach and Fly Geyser!