"An Oasis in the Desert": Kershaw-Ryan State Park [251007]

(Posted 260208) After having spent the past few days in some traditional desert-like conditions, we took a short break visiting a small oasis.

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Tom woke up around 7 a.m. and started doing "camera research" in bed. Back in 2019 when his old trusty Canon T4i developed stuck pixels on the image sensor, he had decided to switch to the Nikon platform instead of upgrading to another Canon - buying his current D7500. He's been complaining for almost as long as he's owned the Nikon that the images "don't look as good" as the old Canon images did - threatening to ditch it and go back to Canon - but 5+ years later he's still shooting on the Nikon (and complaining about it 😉). However, it occurred to him on yesterday's hike that he's been shooting in JPEG (like he always did on the Canon) and that shooting in RAW might yield better results. He had tried shooting in RAW many moons ago when he bought his first Canon, but the extra storage space required on the card as well as the (then manual) time required afterwards to process the images wasn't worth the minor difference in the end result at the time. But memory card prices have dropped greatly since then, and he realized that he also already owns the tools to bulk process Nikon RAW - so he decided to start shooting in RAW+JPEG so he could compare the processed results to see how they would compare.

We got up around 8:30 and started our morning routine. The overnight lows were 36 degrees outside, 55 inside, and the mouse deterrent lights continued to work fine in white-strand-only mode. We departed the campsite for the last time around 10:30, stopping at the sanitation station first for a dump and fill before heading to the parking area by the Moon Slots for some photos of the T42 with the slot canyons as the start of our RAW image tests.

We headed 17 miles southwest down the road to the city of Caliente for gas, before continuing the final 3 miles to our destination for the day: Kershaw Ryan State Park, which nv.gov describes as "an oasis in the desert". After checking out our campsite, we drove up the road to the main area where we got out to get the lay of the land.

Kershaw Ryan more than lived up to its "oasis" claim. Fed by natural springs and seeps, the area was already well populated with wild grapevines, roses, cottonwood, willow, and oak when the Kershaws planted an orchard and garden in the late 1800's. The Ryans bought the land in 1904, and donated it for use as a public park in 1934. A major flood in 1984 destroyed most of the park structures and facilities, but after years of redesign and rebuilding the park re-opened in 1997 in its current form - which includes (nestled within the park-like trees, lawns, and gardens) a large covered group picnic table area, a spring-fed wading pool (which unfortunately is drained in the off-season), and an artificial waterfall that cascades into a koi pond.

After lunch in the T42, we geared up and set out on our hike - stopping on the way out for another "Nevada Waterfall Photo" for our brother-in-law . . .

. . . as well as a quick peek into the old CCC stone restrooms.

Our hiking plans for the day were to take the Overlook Loop Trail, with a side detour up to the top of the Canyon View Trail to get the best view possible. As the Overlook Loop Trail started threading back into the canyon, the lush trees and greenery quickly gave way to high rock canyon walls, scrubby brush, and more traditional looking desert flora.

The view from the top of the Canyon View Trail included the canyon we had just hiked through, all the way back to the "oasis" portion, and beyond to the campground and valley . . .

. . . and also provided a bird's eye view of some of the interesting rock formations we had seen on the way into the park.

The Overlook Loop Trail eventually took us around the backside of the oasis area, where we caught a glimpse of the T42 through the trees.

The trail ended by the restrooms, which had one of the coldest water fill stations we have come across in all our travels. The total hike was 1.26 miles, with an elevation gain of 265 feet.

We hopped back in to the T42 and drove back down to the campground, stopping to take photos of some of those interesting rock formations we had seen on the way up.

Back at camp, we had showers in the T42 and then worked on the fourth Nevada blog post until it was time to cook dinner - which was fajitas (grilled peppers and onions, refried beans, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and guacamole). After dinner we did dishes and then continued to work on the blog until heading to bed at 10:45.