After leaving Zion, I decided to explore more of Nevada before going to Death Valley National Park. About 10 years ago I had briefly visited Cathedral Gorge State Park in Nevada. It’s a very small and unique place. I’ve always wanted to go back and photograph it again.

I finally had the chance to do so. The weather was cold, but clear and beautiful. I got there mid-day and was thrilled to see it wasn’t very crowded at all.

It’s a canyon that is made up of soft sediment that erodes easily. This erosion has made several short but deep, narrow slot canyons. I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, I love slot canyons!

Maddie and I explored these slot canyons as soon as I had set up camp. I think they may be about 40 feet deep.

At sundown, the light became much more favorable to photograph these formations.

I decided to try to take a night shot. Little did I know that it would get very cold, very quickly. Normally to get a good night photograph, I need to take a lot of images at a long exposure. But it was so cold, I decided to rush the process. So my nightscape didn’t turn out nearly as good as it could have, but under the freezing circumstances, I think it turned out pretty nice.

Maddie kept begging me to head back to the warm RV and bed. She would put her head in my lap and gaze up at me with big puppy eyes. We had a short hike back to the RV. By the time we got home, we were both shivering!!! It took me a long time, even under the warm covers and Maddie glued to me, to get warmed up enough to fall asleep.

The next day we headed on our way to Death Valley National Park. My route was going to take me through historic gold mining towns in Nevada.

The first town I came to was Tonopah, Nevada. It’s a living ghost town. It has a lot of historic buildings around the town. It’s a fun main street to explore. A lot of the buildings are still in use today.

I have been a long-time fan of Ghost Adventures. If you are too, then you will remember the episode featuring the Clown Motel. Zak Baggins was sure afraid of all the clown dolls! Well, that hotel and gift shop are right here in Tonopah. I had forgotten it was here until I drove by. It’s kind of a creepy place even during the day!

After driving through Tonopah, I decided to stop for the night. I found a great little campsite about a 1/2 mile from the highway. It was quiet and beautiful with the Joshua Trees. There were also wild donkeys around – so cool!

Maddie woke me up barking during the night. She heard a donkey braying, and she didn’t like that! I wonder what makes a donkey call out at night? Hopefully nothing was trying to cause it harm.

The next stop was Goldfield. It’s a tiny little town with a lot of historic buildings still around. It is also a living ghost town, but not to the extent that Tonopah is. But it has the famous Goldfield Hotel – which is the location that was the start of Ghost Adventures! This hotel has since been featured on their show several times more. It’s actually for sale. I can only imagine what it would cost just to renovate the first level of this giant building. Of course, I’m very curious what the asking price is.

Lastly, I visited Rhyolite. It is a true ghost town. I would have loved to stay here to do night photography with the old hollow buildings. Sadly, they don’t allow overnight camping here.

What made touring this ghost town nice were the informative plaques in front of each building. It was interesting to hear what the building was used for and what it cost to build and some facts about the town itself.

A gold rush to the area grew Rhyolite’s population from a mining camp of two tents in 1904 to 10,000 people in 1907. With the gold ore playing out, the population had declined to 675 in 1910.

This town had a very short life. The peak gold rush of this town only lasted about 4 years. It was kind of sad to see the beautiful buildings that cost thousands of dollars (at that time!) to build, only to be abandoned about 4 years later.

The train depot was by far the most elaborate building in town. It 1906 it cost $130,000 to build, which is about $4,550,000 in dollars today. That’s a massive amount of money. Three different railroad lines ran to this train depot, which was unheard of during that time. Most towns were lucky to have one train line. They hauled freight, ore and passengers.

In the 1920s, the town enjoyed a small revival through tourism. The train depot was turned into a casino on the main floor. Downstairs had your more illicit games, and upstairs was staffed by “soiled doves”. The onset of World War I ended the little town of Rhyolite.

All along this highway, I saw lots of burros that are descendants of the burros used in the mines in the early 1900s. Most of the burros I saw were timid.

But eventually I came across some burros that were very friendly. These are the smart burros. They have learned that people will give them treats in order to get close to them. A fair trade off I think.

My next night of camping was quite different than the night before. A major storm came in. I found a beautiful spot to park off the highway to weather out the storm. It rained all night and the wind blew up to 50 mph.

However, photographers love bad weather. That’s how you get those dramatic photos! And this storm didn’t disappoint. Too bad I wasn’t in a more cinematic location. But I think I still managed to capture some nice scenes.

We survived the storm. I had to reposition my RV so that it faced into the wind. I didn’t want to tear the canopy that goes over my bed slide out.

The next morning was absolutely gorgeous!

My next post will be Death Valley National Park! A place I’ve wanted to visit for a long time.