The Rhyolite depot of the LV&T  was a grand structure which remains standing to this day. From here the LV&T "high line" skirted the hills west and northwest to serve the mines directly and make direct transfer of ore from mine to train feasible.  We joined the line just west of Rhyolite from whence where we paralleled it for some distance as it meanders west and north to negotiate a low pass through the Bullfrog Hills.
 

Exploring a well-preserved section of the LV&T berm at Currie Well. The few wheel tracks on this section are fairly recent and probably result from explorations by members of the Nevada Short Line email list. This view looks north from Currie Well to the cut depicted in the next photo.	A closer view of the cut and the fill where the grade continues just north of it. The walls of the cut have collapsed and a bypass road skirts it to the east (right). The grade continues north (top right) around the low hills and out to Sarcobatus Flat in the background.

Beyond this summit the grade descends gradually to a couple of isolated low hills where Currie Well nestles on the slope. Here we carried out a closer inspection of the locale, observing the well itself some way off from the grade and a couple of collapsed buildings nearby. From this point north the grade pretty well makes a beeline across the enormous flat valley floor known as Sarcobatus Flat towards the mills of Bonnie Claire. The road paralells the grade -- sometimes really close, other times further away, and even crossing it at one point in the middle of the vast expanse. The soils in Sarcobatus Flat are sandy, and 88 years of erosion has rounded it well. Few remains of ties or spikes are in evidence, but the occasional relic can be seen.
 

Returning from a side trip to Phinney Canyon, Joe studies the wildflowers and the impressive glacial moraine paralleling the road to the left (north). The road is excellent here, but severe 4WD high clearance back near the top of the Canyon.	Back on Sarcobatus flat we continue across the endless expanse. This photo is taken standing on the well-rounded and overgrown LV&T berm, looking north towards Bonnie Claire. The dry lakebed is at distant upper right.

Sarcobatus Flat is truly awesome -- it just goes on and on, for maybe thirty miles. Joshua trees, lush desert vegetation and lizards are some of the impressions one gets on the journey. This is lonely country, obviously not traveled by more than a handful of vehicles a year, if that.  Highway 95 is somewhere over to the east but too far away to see. Somewhere along here is the site of Midway, a name that loomed large on LV&T maps but, as a siding in the middle of nowhere, was probably never a burg of significant size.

Part way across Sarcobatus flat, we turned west and headed up Phinney Canyon into the mountains to the west, which separate the flat from Death Valley. The Canyon winds many miles up into the mountains, and the road deteriorates severely near the top. At the summit (around 7,500 feet) we had a pleasant afternoon tea before dropping to 6700 feet and stopping for the night at an old deer hunting camp for the night. Returning down Phinney Canyon the next morning, the wildflowers were on display and we got an excellent view of the glacial moraine lining the canyon for a long distance -- resembling a huge railroad berm but created by rocks and other material thrust aside by the pleistocene ice flows.
 

Modern inhabitant of Sarcobatus Flat -- he finds it peaceful now that the trains have gone. The lizard population density on this flat is unbelievable.	Author at the Happy Days mine in the Lida District -- a branch line was projected here from the LV&T but never built.

Returning to Sarcobatus Flat, we continued north across the seemingly endless expanse. After many miles we finally approached the former site of Bonnie Claire, where the LV&T route bypasses the dry lakebed which lies to the northeast and heads straight for "town".  A few scattered remains of various milling operations remain, as well as the odd dilapidated wooden building. The grade meets up here with the modern-day paved Grapevine Canyon highway joining Scotty's Castle (at the north end of Death Valley) to Scotty's Junction on Highway 95.

Leaving Bonnie Claire behind, we left the grade and headed into the hills on dirt roads towards Gold Point, immediately receiving our traditional flat tire. Our destination was the Lida district, just west of Gold Point, where we checked out the old Happy Days mine. Railroad lines were projected (but never built) west from the LV&T near Lida Junction to this district, which has been intermittently active since the earliest mining days. Who knows -- such a branch may have stimulated business on the LV&T and extended its life. Unfortunately, this will ha ve to remain one of the "what if's" of western railroading history.

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