Today made it to the border of Utah. An easier ride today with only two summits to cross.

This morning as I was cycling through Ely, I saw a deer cross the road. Wouldn’t expect that in a bigger town. Just outside town, I briefly entered an indian reservation. However, it was small enough that one could see the “welcome to” and “leaving” signs from each other. Apparently, just enough to have a few businesses on the main road with rest of the reservation elsewhere.

After this the route mostly followed a flat valley, including going past the prison south of town.

At 20 miles I was climbing and at 23 miles came to the first summit of the day: Connor’s Pass.

There was a good descent to the Spring Valley here and a place called Major’s Junction. The bar/restaurant wasn’t officially open, but were able to give me a coke and took a brief peek inside. Again dollar bills stapled to the ceiling.

Outside was the Basque Condo and hotel

After this crossed the valley and went past a large number of wind turbines. Fortunately, winds mostly calm and hence they weren’t turning. After this slowly turned right and started climbing again with the summit at 47 miles. This pass was lower but found it a tougher climb.

There were however some good views of Wheeler Peak.

The descent from the pass was gradual. It also got a bit warmer. Here the routes divided and one road goes via Baker, Nevada and US 50 goes via Delta. I took US 50 which brought me to the Border Inn. The motel and gas station are in Utah. The casino is in Nevada. Unclear exactly where the restaurant is located.

Here is a photo of the Utah border sign. This was good place to stop since there would be a gap here until next services.