Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, And Oregon Again

Travel Day

• Winnemucca, NV to Ontario, OR via US 95 and I-84

This is what the Nevada desert really looks like, without the rain. Lots of rocks and sage brush.

The mountains off in the distance are even drier. Their hard scrabble shells of sandstone and igneous rock maintain no moisture, in spite of the heavy rains yesterday. The only thing in those sullen rocks worth having is the gold and silver deep within.

It is possible to make the Nevada desert green, but it takes an awful lot of irrigation. There is already a battle going on between the cities and the farms over the diminishing auquifers and groundwater supplies.

After a couple of hours of driving through the Nevada desert, I got to drive into the Oregon desert. Note the street name.

As you move north on US-95, the landscape gets greener, Then after a while you come across the canyon of the Owyhee River. That's the canyon edge up there.

And you leave Oregon, just after you enter Owyhee country.

Welcome to Idaho. Redundant, I know.

You move up the canyon of the Owyhee until you reach the top where you can see the Snake River valley in the distance.

Here is why it is called Owyhee country.

Down the canyon wall and into the Snake country.

I am headed for Ontario, only this time it is a city in Oregon, not a province in Canada.

Ontario is just on the other side of the Snake River, which, in these parts, is the border between Oregon and Idaho. I am back in Oregon for the night. My first turn tomorrow morning will take me back over the Snake River and once again I will see a thank you sign.