To The Coast! - Surprise Valley

The plan was to go north on 34 from Gerlach stopping to see the Lund Petrified Forest. From there we'd top off our gas in Vya, check out the Sheldon Antelope Refuge, sashay through the ghost town of Adel, Oregon and resupply either in Lakeview (to the west), Plush (to the north) or Fields (to the east and toward Steens Mountain). But after a mile past Fly Geyser Ranch, where the pavement ends, we'd had enough of the washboarding.

We made camp early at The Cairns where the afternoon's lingering heat prompted a look at the weather ahead; it was forecast to hit 90.

The next morning it was already hot at 9 a.m. and after deploying the shade cloth we hunkered down for some serious discussion...and beer. After perusing various locations both near & far, we settled on a hell-bent-for-leather drive to The Coast. 

Backtracking to within a few hundred feet of Gerlach, we took highway 447 toward Cedarville. On the first day, my true love said to me: "This is WAY too far to go in one day."

So we made camp on a high promontory overlooking Surprise valley.