Baker, Nevada

At this point I have to specify the state because right now I am technically looking at Utah!

Baker is a very small town a few miles west of the border.  If I were heading southeast towards Zion,  I would be staying here tonight.  But since I've made the decision to brave the long stretch to Delta,  I'm going to stay a bit farther along on 50,  at the Border Inn (restaurant in Utah,  casino in Nevada).  They have camping there which is probably not great but it's hard to complain when you're sleeping at a glorified truck stop in the middle of a desert.

Baker is just outside Great Basin NP,  one of the least-visited national parks.   It actually gets 80,000 visitors a year,  but that is dwarfed by the millions that go to Zion and Grand Canyon and the other famous parks.

Biking today was pretty awesome.  Leaving Ely was the only hard part.  Not because Ely was nice - it's a dump (vampires wouldn't go there.  Ask me if you need an explanation of that joke) - but because it was slightly uphill with a nasty headwind for 17 miles.  Then you reach the base of the next mountain and turn northeast,  and suddenly the southerly wind is right behind you to blow you right up the mountain.  The first pass was long and high (actual highest of the trip -  sorry,  Austin)  and the second was shorter but pretty steep.  There was a big wind farm in the basin between the two.  Once over the second pass it was all downhill to Baker!

I actually took the turn to the Border Inn before deciding that I didn't want to spend the next 7 hours at a service station,  so I took the aptly-named cutoff road over to Baker,  where I have spent my time chatting up a park ranger,  eating a sandwich and drinking beer.  Also swapping stories with some cyclists who came in from Milford,  to the southeast.  Life is good today at the edge of Nevada.