December 4 -- Faranuf Is Paid For, I Get Fingerprinted, and A Look Back At Steens Mountain

I left early in the morning, driving on the scenic Northshore Road in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, but making good time as the scenery was socked-in with low clouds from a lingering storm front that drenched California (all we got here was just enough rain to muddy the dust on the cars). I was heading in to Henderson first, then Las Vegas, aka "Lost Wages"...I stopped at a Bank of America in Henderson to wire the the money for payment on the Faranuf house in Portal. It felt funny, standing in line inside the bank as I was used to using the ATM and have hardly set foot inside a bank these days. I was ushered into the presence of the branch manager when what I needed to have done was made known -- having the bank wire the money to the title agency in charge of the escrow. Juanita and John, branch manager and assistant manager, were helpful, friendly and efficient, and before I knew it the money was sent -- and I was "elevated" to a more prestigious account with B of A since I've been a "preferred customer" since 1982 -- and I had a lot of money in the account.. ;o) Portal, Arizona -- my new hometown -- is about 100 miles to the east of the closest Bank of America branch, so I was considered going with Wells Fargo, but Juanita and John enticed me to stay with B of A by adding things that could be done online, which is perfect for my "new" home town. So I left the bank humming a tune,  with only the closing documents to sign next week then Faranuf will be in my possession -- Yippee!  I headed into Lost Wages for my next destination, passing as I did so a nondescript building called "The Library". It looked like it was no longer in business, which was a shame as it looked like a strip joint, with the girls advertised as "Librarians". What did they look like -- cat eye glasses, hair in a bun, a severe look on their face as it they were about to dish out a punishment for a lost book? Ooooohhhh.... Just kidding, I am NOT into that.  But the image a strip joint called The Library conjures up is kinda fascinating....I was heading for a place called "Fingerprint Pros" as I had to get my fingerprints "done" for volunteering with the Nevada Dept of Wildlife. I went in -- and promptly found out that I was missing an important paper. So after getting "fingerprinted" I headed back to the Dept of Wildlife office, about 7 miles to the north, to get the missing paper, then headed back to Fingerprint Pros and dropped it off, then went BACK to NDoW to drop off the fingerprint report and missing paper... I'm glad I didn't have anything else planned for that afternoon, as it was after 3pm when I finally headed back to Overton, which is about an hour's drive on Interstate 15. But everything I set out to do that morning was done, and now I could look forward to a relaxing Friday -- doing another bird count at the Overton Wildlife Management Area... :o) And in between all of the above, I found out that the 2004 Tundra I was interested in purchasing will be at the Henderson CarMax in time for me to drop off the rental car at the Enterprise next door to the CarMax. Things just seem to be falling into place perfectly these days...I was heading down Moapa Valley Blvd, heading south to Overton, when I noticed sunset colors beginning to take place in the clearing skies, especially looking east. So I drove south out of Overton, to an area where I could look both east and west; here's the view looking east toward the Virgin Mountains and Gold Butte --

And looking west to the Valley of Fire -- 

Here's another look back at one of the highlights of Travels of Discovery. I visited SE Oregon before I started making daily posts to my blog, and it's well worth highlighting. Especially Steens Mountain, a single fault block range much like the Sierra Nevada (which is why it's called "mountain" singular, not plural;  and it's Sierra, NOT Sierras) that has a gently sloping west side -- it was heavily grazed by sheep until fairly recently -- and a precipitous east side dropoff, again much like the Sierra. Here's a photo of Steens from the approaching main road -- 

Malheur National Wildlife Refuge runs through this area; the area in the foreground is part of it, and Steens is in the background, perhaps not impressive from a distance, but once you get closer...See that "notch" in the mountain, to the left of the photo? It's called Kiger Notch --

And the above photo shows Kiger Gorge. You really have to be there to be awed by its vastness, dropping thousands of feet to the gorge's floor. And that's the Notch to the right. The gorge was formed by a huge glacier; you can still imagine what it looked like, thousands of years ago, and the Notch was formed when the glacier broke through to the other side. It's just an astounding example of glaciation. And I visited Steens during the height of the wildflower season; here's Little Blitzen Gorge, looking west with the wildflower fields in the foreground --

There's a lake up here, Wildhorse -- 

The views from atop Steens -- it's not particularly high, only about 9500 feet at its highest point -- are amazing, sometimes going for a hundred miles looking east or south. Here's another of the Steens gorges; these were all viewed while traveling on the dirt-road loop trail, 66 miles of 4-wheel-drive road that is one of the premier dirt-road experiences in the western US -- 

It's really hard to grasp how immense these gorges are, and the distance to the bottom. And there's plenty of wildlife to be found here, too -- 

And we can't leave out the birds... Rosy Finches are here, along with more common birds like Yellow-breasted Chat -- 

And how about this, a Snipe on a post -- 

A closeup -- 

With its far-ranging vistas, stupendous scenery, abundant wildlife, and being near to an major wildlife refuge in Harney and Malheur, Steens Mountain is an outdoor enthusiast's dream area. Just writing this post, and viewing the photos again, makes me want to go back...