Tuesday August 18, 2015 Diamond A Desert just past the Cowan Homestead
This morning we got up and broke camp to head out to the Jarbidge River Canyon out on the Diamond A Desert, about fifteen miles to go.
We took a different road out then the one we came in on through this area. A little pond were the cattle and wild animals come for a drink. 
We went out the road at the Jones ranch, about seven miles to the Cowan Homestead which we would go by.
We are going by the Jones ranch here.
We stopped here and shortly a truck pulling a big horse trailer came down the road behind us, so we had to pull off the road to let them by. They looked like they might be from the Diamond A Ranch so I stepped to the side of the road indicating I wanted them to stop and talk and they did.
Diamond A Ranch guys
It turned out they were from the Diamond A Ranch, so I informed them about the spring and told them how to find it and what to do with it. These were newer guys on this ranch so they didn’t know where the spring was located.
We chatted some, then I told them were we were going tomorrow down in the canyon. They were interested in that information also as they’d only heard there was a way down there and the fishing was supposed to be great. It was interesting to hear the old stories about the place are still alive and circulating. :O)
They were headed out to check on a bull, so we let them go first and followed a bit later after the dust settled a bit.
Low gear low speed
The road out here isn’t traveled much. It’s a bit rocky in places and one has to be real careful where one places their tires if they don’t want a hole in their tire sidewalls. It’s low gear, low speed all the way out to the end of the road.
Here’s what the road looks like almost to the end. It’s never been graded, just driven on over the years.
As far as we could go
Eventually we ran into the wilderness study area and this sign that says no tires beyond this point. In my younger days I might have destroyed the sign and driven right in as there’s not likely to be anyone out this way, but I didn’t do that at this older age.
I was expecting that sign. I measured the distance down to the river from this sign on my GPS map. About 1.5 miles down to where the road ends and then about another half mile down to the river through my secret passage.
That meant we’d have to walk about two miles in to get to the river which we can do.
We made camp by the sign and spent the day resting and keeping out of the sun. There’s a good breeze blowing so it’s not too hot. Maybe even a bit windy, but better than hot.
Tonight’s camp spot.
We’re set up
We are now set up to go down into the river gorge tomorrow morning, hiking the two miles down. We plan to spend most of the day down there, exploring and come out later in the day after the sun gets lower in the sky.