Yep that's right I drove to Berlin over the weekend and did some camping. Just me my girl and my dog. Had an absolute fantastic time.
Oh yeah, that's Berlin, Nevada.
Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park
Because of the dramatic climate change Debbie and I had the park to ourselves, save one other guy. It was 29 degrees at night and our dog's water bowl was a block of ice in the morning. Oh and with fire restrictions, no fires so brrr.
We set up our tent and headed off to the Ichthyosaur fossil dig and tour. At the tour we ran into some other tour attendees that we had met previously in the year at the
Ely run.
Both Debbie and I have been to the fossils 3 times so far and it never gets old.
I cooked up our dinner so we could eat and be cleaned up before the sun went down then watched a nice sunset through the pinion trees. Once the sun had gone the stars came out bright as day and the Milky Way lit our stroll around the empty campground.
It was however already getting a little chilly so we opted to nestle into our sleeping bags and play movie trivia until we got tired.
I slept like a baby and the cool night air was a welcomed difference over hot air of summer. The dog slept with Debbie to keep her warm and everyone was nice and cozy.
The morning sun hit the side of the tent and woke Debbie as the temperature began to climb. She went out and turned the coffee pot on and fed the dog while I slept for a bit longer. When I finally awoke we figured we logged some 12 hours of sleep and I guess we both needed the break and the mini-vacation because we both felt much more relaxed in the morning. This is the longest I have slept in a couple of years!
I cooked up some breakfast burritos with scrambled egg and tri-tip beef strips then we leisurely broke camp and went to tour the town of Berlin.
The town is in arrested decay and with some restoration taking place. The old stamp mill is a monster and in pretty good shape. The assay office still has the scales and measurement devices along with the furnace. A couple of the cabins are in excellent shape and still packed with all kinds of things that one would have expected to find in a cabin of the period.
We left through a different route than we came in on and went through the town of
Ione as we made our way back towards Highway 50 and to home.
It was an awesome trip. It was just what the doctor ordered for relaxing and catching your breath.
I didn't take any pictures but I shot some video that I'll post up later. There wasn't any rock crawling or hard core off road activity just us and the dog and the Jeep being the way in which we got our mini-vacation.
