Day 1: SF Bay Area to Tonopah, Nevada

I got off to an early start on Saturday morning. Well, actually, I had intended to leave Friday afternoon. However, by the time I got organized and ready to go on Friday, it was 5:00 PM. I didn't see the point of riding for only two or three hours before stopping for the night. So I went out for a leisurely dinner in Pleasanton and relaxed. With a good night's sleep and the bike already packed, I was ready to go when I awoke on Saturday.

Return to 2002 trip map.

 
California highway 120, picked up south of Stockton, took me eastward across the Central Valley, through Yosemite National Park over the Tioga Pass, and finally south of Mono Lake to the town of Benton near the Nevada state line.

The photos below show views of Yosemite National Park from Tioga Road. The top photo looks over Yosemite Valley with Halfdome hidden behind the ridge at right. The two lower photos, shot from a viewpoint a bit farther along, show Halfdome across Yosemite Valley, and the view east along the road toward Tenaya Lake. You can almost make out the cables placed on Halfdome in summertime for the assistance of climbers. They run up and over the hump at the left of the main peak.

 
California highway 120 ends at the junction with US route 6 in the very small town of Benton, California. I stopped for gas before proceeding northeastward on US highway 6. The first photo below shows a view of Benton and Boundary Peak, 13140 ft, the highest point in Nevada, looking eastward from the gas-station/cafe.

US 6 and US 95 from Benton to Tonopah, Nevada, are well paved but for the most part desolation. The junction of 6 and 95 at Coaldale appears to have had a gas station and store until some recent time, but is now a ghost town.

I arrived at Tonopah about 6 PM. The town was hosting auto and desert ATV races, and motel rooms were scarce. Plus, Tonopah was so ugly that I considered riding on to Warm Springs in hopes of finding a room there. "Warm Springs" sounds more friendly than "Tonopah," doesn't it? I'm glad I didn't, as you will see from my day-2 pictures. Good sense got the best of me, and I found a room at Tonopah's National 9 Inn.

After a typical casino dinner across town at the Ramada village, I took some photographs of the motel and the Nevada desert sunset.