What a challenging year this has been with the pandemic, fires and all our lives being disrupted. We feel very fortunate in that everyone in our family has stayed healthy. The bright spots have been the newest edition to the family, little Theo, and playing with Maddy several days a week. We miss our friends, gathering with family and hitting the road. We decided to take Wolfgang out for a 3 week road trip. The goal is to do it safely so this time no visiting museums or tourist spots. Instead, we’ll explore natural hot springs while camping and getting in some hikes and bike rides.This is definitely going to be a more organic trip. Spencer Hot Springs was the first stop on our tour. 
Located off Highway 50 in Nevada, also known as the loneliest road, Spencer Hot Springs is waaaay off the beaten path. A few miles outside of Austin, NV (google it cuz it’s in the middle of nowhere) is a dirt road that will take you to the hot springs. It’s a good 10 miles down a washboard road so make sure you count all your teeth when you finally arrive at the springs.
There are a couple of troughs and some watering holes where the hot spring water is piped in. Ned brought his thermometer and the first spring clocked in at a toasty 109. You can cool it down by removing the pipe that feeds hot water into it. We decided it was a good time to have lunch while we waited for it to cool down. (Thanks Megan & Kevin for the manchego cheese, it is delicious!)
We did some exploring and found another spring up the hill. It was a bit cooler (maybe by 2 degrees?) so it took a bit of moxie to get all the way in.
You can’t beat the gorgeous desert location surrounded by beautiful mountains.
Final verdict on this hot spring: Plus - would be a great place to boondock and hang out on a cool night. Cons - not sure if the 10 miles down the washboard road is worth it. Glad we experienced it, but don’t think we’ll come back.
Extra bonus was watching all the wild burros hanging around.
We pulled into Great Basin National Park at about 4:30 and all the campgrounds were full. We’ve camped here 3 times in the past and pretty much had the campground to ourselves. Wow - people really are anxious to hit the road and get out of their covid bubble. (FYI - Great Basin is a first come-first serve campground. It’s one of the least visited National Parks, go figure). Onto Plan B. We continued along Highway 50, crossing into Utah. It’s pretty open and bleak here, but we did manage to find a grove of pinion trees on BLM land. We got ourselves a really sweet little spot for the night. Yesterday Ned made some homemade beef barley stew. All we had to do was heat it up. Perfect. After a long day driving it hit the spot.
