NW Nevada & SE Oregon -- 4 Days in Early December 2011

Very enjoyable and detailed report Mark. You have many incredible photos in there, so many that i can't even pick a favorite! Thanks.

Appendix -- Panoramas

I like shooting panoramas because a lot of the time they're better at conveying the big/broad view of a scene than any one frame can. But with the 900-pixel-width limit of photos posted here it's hard to show the broad view without it being a small view.
So...just in case anyone wants to see the fuller-resolution (wider-image) view of any of the small panos posted in the Report I've uploaded them to my own website-server.

The link to the wider-resolution image is found under the smaller image. Open the image at "100%" or full-size, etc. They're 800 pixels tall, so should fill up most of a screen vertically and require scrolling left and right to see the whole thing.


Alvord Playa


Alvord Camp


Alvord Sunrise


Rock Cr Reservoir


Hart Mt. View


Hart Mt. HQ


Warner Lakes

- Mark

Interesting geology, solitude, great photos, ice, an incident, a rescue, local folks, hot springs, total lunar eclipse - looks like one pretty darn good trip Mark. Thanks for the report, we enjoyed it!

Excellent report Mark. Thank you. I love that area and all those places. I always wondered what they'd be like in winter. Now I know.

Great report from some great places, Mark. I'm glad to hear you escaped the mud!

Many thanks for the inspiring pictures and prose.

Thanks, all for the kind words -- I do enjoy the creative act of making an illustrated Report of my trips!

I envision you coming out of retirement in a new career: Travel writer/photojournalist/minimalist truck camping scout.


Foy, I'd love to get paid for this...but then it might become like work...meeting somebody else's expectations...pressure...stress -- OMG! I need to retire again! But...I don't know -- maybe.

How many miles was that, Mark? How many days and nights?
How many exposures? How many keepers?
How few people?
Or . . . how much terrain (sq. miles or hectares or whatever) did you see?

I hope WTW will archive these A+ reports in a way they are preserved.

Lighthawk, I guess I did get around a lot...but it all felt like I was in my own territory (compared to the eastern Sierra, for example). I don't usually camp a different place every night. If the Alvord playa had been dry and drivable and if I'd gone there first I might have ended up driving out there and staying put for the whole time.
Regarding archiving, here's what I've started doing: Near the bottom of each forum-thread page is "Share this topic". I choose "Download", then "Printer Friendly Version", then (depending on the browser) Save as "Web Page Complete", which puts all the images in a folder that is referenced by the HTML. This saves the entire "topic", not just that page.

I always wondered what they'd be like in winter. Now I know.


Generubin, We've been having several weeks of chilly sunshine...which makes for good camping, but may not be typical in other years. The Alvord is accessible just about any time, any year -- at least the main road...but some higher areas -- while desert -- may have drifts making access more difficult than I had.
But you've been around and know how to get around.

- Mark

Thank you for this report, I can hardly wait to capture the memories of this region!

Way cool trip, pics and report. Thanks for taking the time to put it all together for us.

Just a word of caution (hopefully not covered in some other post) regarding cold temps and camera gear. Camping at Mickey Hot Springs/Alvord area last year over New Years weekend with temps going below zero for a few nights, I remembered to keep my camera/lens in cab and not let it get warmed to camper temps. Chance of fogging seemed to be reduced but I did also remember to keep batteries inside heated space(close to me).
With no insulation added to soft sides and and not running heat overnight my inside camper temp was around 14F with outside temps around -5F. Well within reason for my winter bag etc.. but I think next time around I would probably run the heat a bit more overnight.

Just a word of caution (hopefully not covered in some other post) regarding cold temps and camera gear. Camping at Mickey Hot Springs/Alvord area last year over New Years weekend with temps going below zero for a few nights, I remembered to keep my camera/lens in cab and not let it get warmed to camper temps. Chance of fogging seemed to be reduced...

I think it's as bad or worse to take a cold lens into a warm (and humid) space, as the other way around..though I agree that you won't go wrong with the cold-lens-to-cold-air scenario.

After shooting dawn photos on this chilly-dawns trip I would take my camera back into the camper and immediately warmed it (carefully) in front of the Wave heater, lens-heatward. No fogging.
I could have avoided all risk of lens-fogging by putting the camera in the cold cab (after pic-shooting) and just taking the memory card (for photo-processing fun) into the the warm/humid camper...but I live for danger.

Warm to cold seems fine, cold to warm is bad??? My friend brought his very cold camera into the camper and of course it immediately fogged. Of course it was a Pentax so probably a Nikon would never have this problem.