#4: [20-Nov-06]

#3: [31-Aug-03]

#1: [20-Apr-01]

20-Apr-2002 -- The confluence at 38N117W lies about 5 miles southeast of the Tonapah, NV, airport. A well maintained gravel road leads to an FAA facility of some sort (see photo #6) that is approximately three miles from the confluence.

Perhaps I wasn’t looking in the right place, but I saw no way to get any closer than this on any road or desert path anywhere. The previous visitor a year ago found a dirt road to get within 1.6 miles on his motorcycle, but I found no evidence of this road. It was getting late in the day and a six mile desert hike was not appealing at all, so I decided to once again give the job to Emma (my Explorer).

The terrain was very flat open desert with low sagebrush coverage. Emma handled it quite well in 4WD and got us to the zero point with relatively little difficulty (5 to 10 MPH cross country in Emma certainly beat walking). I took pictures in each direction (photos 1-4) showing pretty much the same scenery all around. Photo #4, the view to the south, shows Emma, the hero of the day, at the confluence. I had to back Emma up a bit to do the ritual GPS dance to get all zeros for photo #5, as I had parked her right on the confluence. The three mile cross country return trip did not even require GPS navigation as we simply headed for the FAA facility which was visible across the open desert.