Transitions

I admit, the main reason for this post is just so the first one doesn't just sit there all lonely like.  Plus it gives me the opportunity to encourage, even motivate myself to keep going forward, not letting this blog go by the wayside. To do this I've decided to share a picture from my travels and use it as a springboard for composition.

The Desatoyas have always been my favorite Nevada mountain range.  They're high yet compact and spectacular.  I even wrote the Wikipedia article for the mountains, humble though it may be.  The old Lincoln Highway and the Pony Express trail both traverse its high passes and its wooded lowlands. 

The beautiful "hamlet" of Eastgate straddles Nevada State Route 722 (the "old highway") at the foothills of the to the west; on the Eastern slope the ruins of Carroll Station sit roadside along the same highway in an idyllic glade.  

Pictures don't do much justice.

Between them runs Highway 722...the Old Highway, the original route of the Lincoln Highway, twisting, winding, and occasionally careening up, down, and across the mountains.  Its an exceptional cross section of an impressive bit of Nevada geography that represents a transition between the more arid lands of Western Nevada and the somewhat tamer expanses of the Central Nevada Basin and Range.

The modern traveler heading East on U.S. 50 bypasses this old route for the slightly longer, slightly quicker trail over New Pass Summit to the North. In doing so one misses out on some great measure of natural beauty and pastoral serenity; trading time for experience is a sacrifice that must be weighed, unfortunately.

As my above cited article mentions, the derivation of the name for the range is unclear.  The suffix toya is a permutation of the Shoshone word Toyap, meaning "Mountain;" toyap may be more familiar in its adaption to the word "Toiyabe," the name of one of Nevada's longest ranges, in which Austin is situated, as well as the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest which, incidentally, at 5,640,424 acres is the largest national forest outside of Alaska.  Desa "...has been multifariously interpreted as 'short, low,' 'big-black,' and 'cold."

The range was earlier known as either the "Lookout Range" or the "Sedaye Mountains."  Sedaye is said to mean "no good," yet in experiencing these peaks and hills, creeks and woodlands, how it ever got that name is beyond me.