Traveling To the Reservation Where I Got Caught Up in a Cattle Roundup

Thursday September 28, 2023 Indian Reservation Nevada

 

I woke up at the state line by the two cabins and the gas pumping station near by. Right away a rancher drove by and then two maintenance trucks drove into the gas pumping station. It seems like I came in from the back way yesterday as now there is a lot of traffic coming in from the direction I’m going today, towards the Reservation.

Headed out

I got it going and was on the road that was mostly pretty straight for long distances and in pretty good shape too.

 

I had about thirty miles to go today to get back to the reservation store for gas.

I stopped here at the Juniper Reservoir for a break and to check the map.

 

These wild horses were a couple hundred yards off the road and didn’t seem too concerned about me going by. That one horse sure has it’s ears back.

 

A couple more wild horses I drove on by. They were sorta sneaking by me and more couscous than the last ones. I’m now on the Indian Reservation.

 

Round up

They were having some kind of big roundup on the Reservation. There were Indians and other white guys from other ranches. They seemed to be sorting out cattle on the go and each taking theirs off, either on foot or in trailers.

I saw this guy ride up the road and pull into this road to block it so I rode on in with him to get out of the way as the cattle were driven on by.

 

There was a nice reservoir right behind him which looked like it would be nice to kayak, but not today.

 

It seems I drove right into the middle of their roundup. I pulled over to let these guys go by as I didn’t want to make their job any harder by spooking the herd.

 

These are only a few of the trailers parked along the rode where they were working the cattle. They use these to bring their work horses out and also use some of them to haul some cattle back to their ranches.

 

Load them up

I stopped short of these guys as I could see they were working on getting some cattle loaded in one of the trailers. That’s easier said than done. It took about 45 minutes for them to get them into the trailer before I could pass without causing trouble. I really didn’t mind the wait as it’s all just part of the trip.

 

Gas and internet

That was the last batch I had to wait for so I made it to the Reservation Store in about another half hour where I gassed up the van and then headed here to use the internet, the Tribal Courts building.

 

Studied the maps

I studied the maps and looked at how much time I had left in the day and made plans to make it back to the Willow Creek Reservoir to camp for the night. I had about an hour and a half of driving to make it to the reservoir, Mostly all back roads.

I went by this nice green meadow on a ranch on the way.

 

And I noticed the aspens have turned mostly yellow in the week since I went by here which means it’s getting colder at night.

 

I went by this old cemetery at Tuscarora which looked real interesting. Maybe I’ll stop by here to have a look on another trip. Rest in peace, all you old timers.

 

A spring

I’m getting a bit low on drinking water so I stopped to check out this spring but the cattle have it too messed up to get any clean water. They aren’t as fussy as I am.

 

It wasn’t far past that spring to Willow Creek Reservoir where I pulled onto the dam to camp for the night.

Plans

Tomorrow, I plan to drive to Winnemucca to gas up and then start heading west. I’ll be trying a new route to get back to the forest that I was at earlier in the trip where I plan to spend some time.

Nice day.