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Nevada Ranges and the Sierra Nevada July 13-19, 2016
Sunrise on 13,886' Mt Humphreys and the the Sierra from Dry Lake Springs above Laws near Bishop (Site of my first night's camp on this trip)
It was time to get out of the heat again already. The original goal was Idaho but was modified by the FOB for the Grand Cherokee acting funny and me not carrying a spare. Would hate to not  be able to start the vehicle so turned back in Oregon at the Owyhee River getting close to the Idaho border on 95. I also planned to get to Manhattan which we did. I always wanted to check out the mountain ranges north of Tonopah towards US50. Managed to check out some of the Santa Rosa Range near the northern border of Nevada.
Manhattan
Mid town Manhattan
There are three north/south running mountain ranges north of Tonopah Nevada. Manhattan is at the south end of the middle one, the Toquima Range. Bald Mountain at 9274' is the highest point in the range not far from Manhattan and Belmont. The road from Nevada 376 to Manhattan is paved but turns into dirt after Manhattan. (I also went by Wall Street on my way to Manhattan. Wall Street is in Independence on US395.)
Kingston
Kingston is at the mouth of the Kingston Creek canyon which has a non paved  road that takes you 20 or 30 miles across the Toiyabe Range and north to Austin.  11,474' Bunker Hill is the highest point in the range and is not far from Kingston. Unfortunately I got a flat tire and was unable to take the road
After changing a flat tire I had a few at the local watering hole. Mya was invited in. Stayed in the free federal campground a few miles up the road as I had no spare so I didn't want to go too far off the pavement. The next morning I went back south to Carver to find out that my tire wasn't repairable and picked up a poor condition spare.
Santa Rosa Range
One of the switch backs working your way up to Windy Gap. The narrow dirt road climbs up about 3000' above US 95 and it amazed me it was shown on a 1999 Rand McNally road atlas. Definitely not traveled much.
Humbolt National Forest  seemed more like Humbolt National Grasslands to me. I did manage to find some trees to camp in, mostly Aspen. I had to travel where the vegetation in the middle of the road was almost hood high in spots. Camp was a round 7,000' in elevation and got down to 32F for a low at night.
Walker Lake
For the second time in my life I saw some wild bighorn sheep. (I saw some ewe and lambs in Yellowstone in the early 90s) They appeared to be female and were squeezed between the uphill cliffs and the road along side Walker Lake north of Walker Lake (town) on US 95. They claim Sierra Bighorn only live in the Sierra, these were either lost or Mountain Bighorn. Actually I'm not sure if the sheep know how to read maps or follow their supposed restrictions, the Sierra were about 35 miles to the west of where I saw them.
There are several isolated Walker Lake camping beaches along highway 95
Dunderberg
Mono Lake with distant White Mountains
Bodie from my camp area on the side of Dunderberg Peak	Dunderberg Peak from camp area. (I've climbed the two closer peaks but not the farther Dunderberg)
I Took a hike with Mya Monday morning. We went up to the snow bank that is blocking the way to Kavanaugh Ridge. About a  mile and a half each way with about an eight hundred foot elevation gain to about 10'1120 feet. Kavanaugh Ridge is about 11'000' with camp about 9350'.
Towards Bridgeport and Bridgeport Reservoir from snow bank blocking the road to Kavanaugh Ridge. Actually two Jeeps with over sized tires got over the bank and up to the ridge on Monday.
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