Wednesday, May 3

With temperatures in the 70s, today is perfect for a windows-open drive through scenic Rainbow Canyon!

Less than a mile from our RV Park, we turn onto Route 317.

We pass the entrance to Kershaw Ryan State Park and continue southward. The paved, two-lane road follows alongside Meadow Valley Wash.

At the Longhorn Cattle Company, the Perfect Tow Vehicle stops so I can photograph the longhorns. They are dwarfed by the immense canyon wall.

I choose a group and zoom in . . . . Awww . . .

Next we come upon a flock of turkeys!

The PTV creeps forward. Two toms are in display and I assume this is the cause of the excited gobbling. What a ruckus!

This guy takes his show to the road.

It’s hard to imagine that the canyon was the site of a massive flood in early 2005.

As the water roared down Meadow Wash, it ripped up train tracks, bending and tossing them aside.

The line across the bottom of the next photo is the new track line. Trains travel through here regularly. I hear them from the RV park as they go through Caliente.

I want a better look at the red rock in the photo above. In photo editing, I crop out this section. Wow!

My favorite scenic drives are the ones less traveled. We meet only one vehicle on this drive, a road crew truck.

Several times we slow or stop for repair work on low sections of the road.

No marked trails are apparent along this route.

It’d be nice to take Reggie on a hike. Well, no matter. If there were trail heads, there would be people and vehicles.

Anyway . . . There will be trails in our future.

“That’s called The End of the Rainbow Canyon Ranch, Reg. I bet you’d like to get out. I’ll let you out in a minute, up here at the schoolhouse.

Elgin School has been designated a Nevada historical landmark.

The PTV rumbles over three railroad tracks.

The one-room schoolhouse opened in 1922 for children in grades one through eight. We don’t go inside because tours of the renovated building are by appointment only.

The last student graduated in 1967.

See the slide in the photo above? Do you remember playground equipment made out of metal? That metal would get so hot you’d burn your legs on the way down.