2003 02 Nevada

Today was supposed to be just a trip out to Sand Mountain and back.  It's about 25 miles west of Fallon NV, which makes it about 120 miles from Truckee. Since it is all on 80 and then 50 it is not a bad day trip.  But I started a little early to get to Sand Mountain for sunset and had some time.  One of the places that intrigued me is this military reservation in the Dixie Valley just south of US 50.  It's marked restricted but there is not much security.  It appears to be all targets, although I can't imagine the Navy actually using live ammunition on targets so close to a highway.  Since the Dixie Valley is essentially all in the Navy's "electronic warfare range" I guess they must just practice on these targets electronically.  Sort of a large game with real planes and targets.  The shimmer you see in these photos is from ground heat.

I did not see any activity here while I was watching.  I don't think anyone was home.  I am sure, however, that a lot of people were home at the Navy "Centroid Facility" across the highway and down a mile or two:

This is the electronic heart of all the war games the Navy plays in central Nevada.  (I think "centroid" means center of mass, or something like that.) You can hear them zooming around but they are hard to see.

Here are a couple interesting articles:
http://www.electricnevada.com/pages96/topgun2.htm
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/fallon.htm
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/fallon-trc.htm

Going into the Dixie Valley on Nevada 121 you can turn off and climb into the mountains to the old mining town of Wonder.  There is not much left:

I think the above valley actually contained the town.  It's just gone.

The above must have been a really large structure that was part of the refining operation.  It's big.  Since this town was right at the top of Wonder Mountain at about 6800 or 7000 feet you get a great view into the Dixie Valley to the west.   This valley is about 50 miles long and I am sure that if you sat up here with good binoculars you could see Navy jets zooming around.  There is also an actual bombing range in the next valley to the west.

The steel junk in the foreground in the above has this on it:

I don't think you see "Carnegie" steel anymore.  Didn't his company morph into US Steel as he bought everything in sight?

I did some shooting here and then went back to Sand Mountain, which as I feared, was completely tracked up by ATV riders.  I guess that is just the way it is there.  There are a few "dunes" parks in the country that allow ATVs and this is one of them.  I didn't shoot any film here.  On the way out I did take a couple digital shots from the road, and they are better than I thought they would be:

From this distance the dunes are nice looking.  I actually got the horizon horizontal in this too!   Hand held!

So, that's it.  I went back through Fallon to Truckee and I am done for now.  More next trip.. I shot an awful lot of film and it is going to take me a long time to edit my way through it once it is processed.  I am sure I have forgotten most of what I did.  Having these notes will help.

P.S.  So far I have three yes votes for the "Shot Up Cars 2004" calendar.