A fair amount of trouble getting here, but Shoshone is actually a pretty nice little roadside stop.
Stayed at the pricey ($150) motel last night but it is not a ripoff. The rooms are nice and well maintained and the staff is friendly. There is a group of geologists that had bought the place out but had a last minute cancellation which is how I got a room.
This morning I moved over to the RV park which has shaded tent sites, a warm spring pool, community room, laundry and showers. All also nicely maintained. Plus the manager agreed to give me a ride to the trailhead tomorrow.
There is also a desert spring restoration project immediately adjacent, and it is a refuge for the Shoshone Pupfish, another one of those endemic fishes that live only in a single isolated spring system.
And there is also a pretty decent museum that covers the natural history, geology and human (well, mostly European humans) history of the area.
The general store mostly had snacks, canned food and drinks – if you are thinking of hiking the Desert Trail, don’t plan on doing a resupply here. The restaurant was just ok, but just ok is pretty good for an isolated outpost like this. Also they are open every day, which is not the case for the eateries in Tecopa.
The biggest issue with Shoshone was getting here. My camp was only a mile from Tecopa and the bakery was open so I stopped in for breakfast and enjoyed some baked goods, juice and a latte.
My shoes got pretty salty from crossing the Amargosa repeatedly.
The prospects for hitching to Shoshone looked good: there was a road junction where people would have to slow down and it was a Sunday when there should be a fair amount of traffic. But no luck. There were not many cars and none of them stopped.
Spent way too much time here
After a couple of hours I gave up and started walking the road toward Shoshone, 8 miles away. Stopped at a brewery in upper Tecopa for a beer and to cadge a ride. I had good luck with the first, none with the second and resumed walking.
Finally got a ride from a hiker couple, making it to town in about the same amount of time it would have taken me to walk the entire way.
But I made it and that’s all that really matters. It’s not like I had more important things to do.