April 16 - 18, 2024 Hawthorne, Nevada

 High of 72 and sunny.

We are now at Whiskey Flats RV park in Hawthorne, Nevada. We are visiting our friends James and Judy. John, James and Judy happy houring at James's house. They cooked us a yummy steak dinner.

Sunset. We hiked up a canyon off Whiskey Flats today. James, Judy and John hiking up hill. 

Our destination was these cool petroglyphs. 

We hiked farther up the canyon because we could. Beautiful sunny day with the scent of sage and pine.

We saw some early flowers. Bladderpod, crypantha, phlox and some arrowhead chips I found. Judy D found two arrowheads in this area. so we went back and spent a few hours looking. But only found chips.  James's house in Hawthorne. 

I wire wrapped one of the arrowheads that Judy found for her. Judy and James at our place for dinner.

Judy, James and John at dinner. Sunset at the RV park.

We went to Walker Lake which is just north of Hawthorne. Beautiful lake. It used to be much larger, but over the years the water being taken out of the river for agriculture shrunk the lake. It was once a recreational haven, with fishing, bird hunting, water skiers etc. But now the salt level of the lake is so high it killed the fish and birds left, so there is very little recreation happening there now. A photo from the top of the boat ramp, the recent moisture brought the lake up some, but it is still not to the bottom of the boat ramp. And there is a band of green algae along the shoreline. The danger sign says the south shore is off limits. It contains unexploded munitions that can cause injury or death.

Beautiful historic downtown Hawthorne. Hawthorne is home of Hawthorne Army depot, which is the worlds largest ammunition depot in the world.

We wanted to see the Ordinance museum in town, but it was closed on Thursdays. Lots of munitions outside to see. 

Across the street were blow up lungs, not sure why. We went to the Mineral county museum. It was very interesting. A bit of everything. 

The veteran's memorial park was across the street from the museum. We wondered what the sacred rocks were. They were large stones with the names of the dead from the various wars.