Last week I took off for the middle of the Nevada desert with the
Stargazers to attend the
Twain and Tears teardrop gathering in the tiny hamlet of
Unionville. It was hot, but the area had just received several inches of rain, turning the desert into a green paradise.
Unionville currently has about 20 residents and was the site of a mining boom between 1863 and 1870 and had over 1,500 residents. For a short time Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, tried his luck here. Canyon springs and rushing creeks make this area of the desert lush and full of wildlife. During this trip we saw antelope, wild donkeys, deer, marmots and chukar.
We chatted and ate with other teardroppers, went fossil hunting in the foothills, explored the rugged and muddy backroads, and hiked the canyons around the former mining towns that used to dominate the absolute middle of the middle of nowhere.
Photos by Christina Nellemann
