Yesterday we took an enjoyable one hour drive to Carson City and then on to Virgina City.
Carson City for some reason is the capital city of Nevada although I do not understand why, it is a bit of a nothing of a city, The only good thing we found about Carson City is that it has a Costo and a Walmart so we were able to do some shopping for provisions that we needed.
Virgina City is another story, it is only 15 miles from Carson City and is a real tourist destination as it has been preserved as it was in the 1800's and owes its existance to what is known as the Comstock silver load, in the 1800's over $400 million in silver was mined making it a very wealth place, unfortunalty the silver ran out. It is surrounded by hills which have been heavily mined for gold and silver so the surrounding country is covered with old mine buildings and rusting plant and equipment. Some of the mines appear to be still active but to all intents and purposes they belong to yesteryear.
Virginia City is also known as the birthplace of Mark Twain. Virgina City also featured in the TV series Bonanza which was about a cattle ranch located on the northern side of Lake Tahoe and they would make the two hour horseride to Virginia City.
Here are a selection of photos from todays tour.
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| Crossing into Nevada side of Lake Tahoe on way to Carson City |
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| a tunnel on the way to Carson City |
From South Lake Tahoe in California at about 6,000 feet , we drove up over the Sierra Nevada mountains at about 8,000 feet and then decend into the Carson City valley in Nevada at 4,600 feet.
The topography changes from the Pondorsa pine forrest of Lake Tahoe to desert arround Carson City.
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| One of the many Casinos in Nevada just across from Lake Tahoe |
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| Derelict remnants of when Virginia City was the Silver City |
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| Another relic of the past. |
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| Main street Virginia City |
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| Betty with a David Crocket Fur Hat! |
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| Beautiful old Catholic Church |
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| Tom outside Garters and Bloomers Photo Studio |
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| Lovely Kokopelli artwork at Ice Creamery. |
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| St Paul's Episcopal church |
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| St Mary's of the Mountains |
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| This little fella lives at the RV camp we were in. It was very partial of apples and carrots. |
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| So was this Blue Jay. |
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| Managed to get close enough for this great shot. |
Happy to see Kokopelli featured in the blog. We first learnt about the figure at Grand Canyon, then have seen it pretty well all around Arizona, New Mexico etc. Isn't it fabulous visiting all these places we have seen in Westerns or other movies or read about in books or learnt about in history at school.
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