We’ve found that early fall is a good time for a vacation. Most of the summer road repair is completed, the places that we’ll visit are less crowded, gasoline prices have come down and lodging is less expensive. So it’s off we go.
We decided to skip the camping this year and instead enjoy the comfortable hotel beds at the stops along our planned itinerary. This trip is probably a 5000 mile journey, but I like driving and my wife Kris doesn’t mind filling in once in a while. She has plenty of books to read during the long hours in the car.
From our home in Grand Rapids we start with a long initial drive to Salt Lake City to visit our grandson in college. Next across the sparsely populated central Nevada to Mammoth Lakes and Yosemite to view its sweet valley and giant sequoias. It’s a short hop to Reno for a few days stay with family. Then it’s through the mountainous forest of Idaho and Montana to do some hiking in gorgeous Glacier. We’ll head south to northern Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley and then traverse the torturous Beartooth Hwy before the snow falls. Finally traveling east again we’ll hit Badlands and then head home again through South Dakota.
The car is filled with snacks and drinks for the long hours on the road. And as always I have my photo equipment ready to travel.
We’re going to place a few stickers on our car from our sister company StickItToYourCar.com
We’ll have some new photos from our travels here when we return.
This is a visual chronology of gas prices over the years – another one of my photographic idiosyncrasies – why would anyone take a picture of gas station signs?????
It’s interesting to see how the prices have varied so widely over this time span of more than 15 years. I won’t comment on any of the events taking place at the time that might have affected the gas prices.
Due to my love of traveling I’ve made countless cross country trips by car.
Our interstate highway system gives us easy access to most of the USA. On the road, I’ll sometimes see an exit with a name that I don’t recognize. Places with colorful names stick in my mind. I’d jot down the name and when I get home search to find out about the place I passed. earlier.
Interstate 80 in Utah
Aragonite in the high desert of north central Utah is one such place. Now a ghost town, it was originally set up in the early 1900s to mine the crystalline mineral of the same name. Buildings were erected there to house and supply the miners. These mining operations lasted only a short time but later reopened to quarry mine for limestone. One report says that this mining included construction of shafts and deep holes so if you visit the area, watch your step. There is no longer is any mining in here.
A Desert Remote Locality
You can also tell that Aragonite is remote by the surrounding localities. To the west is the Utah Test and Training Range. This is a military base where supersonic flights are routinely conducted. To the southwest is the Dugway Proving Grounds an Army facility where chemical and biological weapons testing are performed.
Not far from the townsite is the Aptus Incinerator. It is used mainly for hazardous waste disposal including PCBs. The operating company is Clean Harbors which claims “ample on-site storage capacity allows for acceptance of large volumes of material before treatment. The site can also be easily accessed by rail or truck, which keeps transport costs down. And, an on-site lab assures timely approval and efficient processing of shipments.” Clean Harbors has been cited multiple times for violating EPA regulations.
Sometimes places are deliberately remote to keep people away from them.
I found that aside from its interesting name Aragonite’s history and surroundings are a worthwhile stop the next time I’m in Utah.
Still Interested
More of my places that you may never have heard of are in
Places that you may have never heard of
Friends know that I’m a big fan of traveling and do so frequently by car. Whether I’m visiting relatives who live far away or I’m vacationing at distant places, it’s usually a cross country trek.
Anyone who has traveled on our extensive road system has driven past signs denoting names of places of which they’ve never heard. Those places that especially stick out to me are ones that have colorful names. One of my “hobbies” is to note these names and later (sometimes weeks, sometimes months later) find out more about these places.
One of these places is Argenta, Nevada and this is what I learned.
Argenta is a ghost down in central Nevada. In the mid 1860’s prospectors discovered silver in the area. The town was planning to develop as a shipping center for the nearby mines and in Austin to the south. However, the town of Battle Mountain had stronger ties to the silver industry and by 1871 the entire town moved to Battle Mountain making Argenta effectively a mining ghost town.
Argenta remained vacant until 1930 when barite was discovered nearby. This mine in Argenta Mountain was operated by the Baker Hughes Company until it closed in 2015.
One of the Baker Hughes operations alongside a railroad siding and Interstate 80
Well, that’s the short story about Argenta, NV.
Yet curiosity remains high and I hope to report on other interesting names of places that are part of my hobby.
More of my places that you may never have heard of are here
