Day 1 – Ontario to Tonopah
Friday Dec. 24th, 2021
Ontario – Jordan Valley (83.4 mi – 1.5 hrs)
Jordan Valley – McDermitt (101 mi – 1.5 hrs)
McDermitt – Winnemucca (74 mi – 1.2 hrs)
Winnemucca – Battle Mtn ( 53.3 mi – 49 min)
Battle Mtn – Austin (89 mi – 1.3 hrs)
Austin – Tonopah (118 mi – 1.8 hrs)
Mizpah
100 Main St.
Tonopah, NV 89049
855-337-3030
Totals: 518 mi – 8.5 hrs
Our day started in Ontario OR, on the road about an hour before sunrise. As you can see by the pictures we were driving in winter conditions (Lance’s favorite), along the way he found someone to “rescue.” we had been driving in a white out, between McDermitt and Winnemucca we came upon a vehicle off the roadway. There was a big Dodge Ram trying to use his winch skills to pull the vehicle back up to the road. Lance took a look and decided that even though the vehicle had slick tires, it might be easier/faster to drive it out (being a follower of Matt’s Off Road Recovery ). So he got the winch unhooked and helped manually positioning the vehicle for the best chance, and told another helper to “give it the beans!”
And viola, we were all back on the road to our destinations. The elder couple in the minivan promised to go straight to the tire store and get new tires uon arrival at Winnemucca. We actually saw them at Les Schwabs, while chasing down a few items we had forgot at home. The rest of the trip was less eventful, but beautiful driving through snow covered hills. Our favorite gas stop of the day was Austin, NV a quaint little town on a mountain pass where the infamous Hwy 50 (The Loneliest Road in America) crossed our route south.
We arrived in a frozen Tonopah, pulling into the icy parking lot of the Mizpah Hotel for a Christmas Eve dinner, a couple of drinks and a great nights sleep before launching again in the morning.
