Day 9 – Carson City, NV

I opened Google Maps and asked for directions to Carson City. Because from the last few trips through there in 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 & 2025, I didn’t really need them. And sure enough, that usual US-95N to US-50W route is what I got, but this time it offered a different option: west through Death Valley on CA-190 and then north on US-395 that was an hour longer. I’d ask you to guess which one I took, but I’ve spoiled it already with the big image above.

Donna and I had seen parts of this route into Death Valley, but we’d never been on the CA-190 section where the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes are. We had traveled most of US-395 in 2001 when we drove from San Diego, CA to Granite Falls, WA. We visited both Manzanar and Mono Lake, but I wanted to stop to see them anyway, because, well, they are interesting and cool places.