June 2020 camping trip - Cave Lake State Park, Nevada

Cave Lake State Park, located in eastern Nevada, is "off the charts" for total enjoyment, including fishing, camping, hiking, nature, four wheeling and so much more!

Photo: Cave Lake State Park, in eastern Nevada is a beautiful place! It's a reservoir, and the lake offers some of the best fishing known to mankind.

In the spirit of fishing, you need to know the technique and the method, and it's not my mission to publish that sort of information.

It's Wednesday, June 24, 2020, and my family and friends have arrived to enjoy several nights at this beautiful Nevada State Park.

Photo: My friend of nearly 25 years, Robert Kipperman, catches rainbow trout at Cave Lake. If you know the technique and the lake, Cave Lake offers some of the best fishing that you can imagine.

Don't you love the beautiful rugged mountains, and the pinyon pines? In my opinion, the scenery of eastern Nevada is simply spectacular.

Photo: We set up camp at Space 15, at the Elk Flat Campground of Cave Lake State Park. Michael, Dan and Robert are making dinner for tonight, as Brent didn't arrive until the next day.

It's Wednesday, June 24, 2020, late afternoon, and all is well at our camp.

Photo: Robert cooks his amazing chili on Dan's propane-fired wok. If that looks like a lot of chili... it is a lot of chili, but we ate it all, as Robert knows how to make delicious chili.

Photo: Robert's amazing chili... in a bowl. Such a great side dish for this Wednesday evening dinner.

Photo: My contribution to dinner was chicken, grilled on my small and very portable charcoal grill. My grill is always welcome on family camping trips.

Photo: In addition to Robert's fine chili, we enjoyed grilled chicken and corn. Today there were only four of us, as Brent wasn't going to arrive until tomorrow.

I cooked the chicken and corn using charcoal along with oak wood for seasoning. I used both the "direct" and "indirect" grilling techniques; if you're a "griller," you know what I'm talking about. When the chicken was seared, I moved it over the "indirect" side of the grill, and seared the corn. Using these techniques, the chicken and corn was ready to the same time.

Photo: It's Thursday morning, June 25, 2020 and Robert is cooking a great breakfast of bacon and chorizo tacos, as his little dog, Buddy, looks on.

Photo: Robert toasts corn tortillas on the wok. The wok and the stove belongs to Dan, who always bring the combination on camping trips. Note the wok is made from a disc blade, and features handles made of rebar.

Photo: Great breakfast taco of bacon, chorizo, shredded Mexican cheese, with hot sauce for added flavor.

Photo: Brent arrived shortly after breakfast, and we immediately headed over to the lake to do some fishing. Brent is an "expert" when it comes to fishing, he "knows" the lake, what techniques to use, and what bait combination. Sorry, as I'm not at liberty to discuss his bait combination!

Here he shows a very fine rainbow trout he just caught.

Photo: Like Brent, Dan is also an "expert" when it comes to catching fish, and after getting a short tutorial on the lake from Brent, and baiting his hook, Dan started pulling fish from the lake.

We'll be enjoying fish for dinner tonight!!

Photo: Robert is less experienced in fishing than Brent or Dan, but throughout the trip, he caught his share of fish!

Neither Michael or I did any fishing, as we didn't have Nevada fishing licenses.

Photo: Cave Lake has a handy fish cleaning station near the dam, which makes it convenient to clean the catch after a day on the lake. Brent and Dan are filleting trout, and we're planning to enjoy fish and chips for dinner tonight.

Photo: Back at camp, Michael looks on as Dan fries fish and chips in his wok.

Photo: Dan breaded the fish fillets and fried them in his wok for a delicious dinner.

Photo: Brent brought along a venison heart that he had acquired during one of his recent deer hunts. We were still hungry, so we decided to enjoy a snack of fried venison heart along with more chips.

While Dan was cutting up the heart, and removing muscle and excess fatty tissue, I whipped up a mix of flour, salt and pepper to bread the heart. Like almost everything else, the heart and chips were deep fried in Dan's wok.

Photo: A plate of deep fried venison heart and chips is ready to enjoy! The heart was delicious, tender, and Dan fried it, along with the chips, to perfection. The heart had a slight "organ" taste, but made it even better!

Photo: It's Friday morning, June 26, 2020, and we're all in a good mood and laughing, as Dan and I prepare breakfast. Dan cooked most of the meals, as per his request.

Photo: Another view of our camp. Robert and I camped in Space 15, and Michael and Dan camped across the road in Space 14. Brent camped by himself in Space 12. Each space is only big enough for two tents and one or two trucks, so we all had separate, but nearby camp sites. We did all the socializing and eating at Robert and my camp.

Photo: A great view of our camp on this Friday morning, with the beautiful mountains in the background.

Photo: Dan is cooking his colorful breakfast hash, which will be used for burritos. This yummy dish included red and yellow bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, bacon, chorizo and diced potatoes. Eggs will be stirred in last, and shredded cheese will be added to the burritos.

Photo: My burrito is open, before I fold it, so all the goodness can be seen. Today, we used toasted flour tortillas, which makes for a large burrito. I was hungry so ate two of them!

Photo: After breakfast, it was time to hit the lake and catch some fish. Brent is using his float, and a fly rod. As usual, he caught his limit.

Photo: Robert paddles in the lake, with Buddy on his lap. Today was Robert's first time fly fishing, and he caught fish! It looks like he may be having a little trouble with his line...

Photo: Today was a little different, as of noon, we took a break from fishing, headed back to camp, and deep fried fish for lunch.

Photo: My lunch today of breaded deep fried trout, along with chips. The fish had been caught less than two hours ago, so it was a fresh as it gets! Dan is an outstanding camp chef!

Photo: Earlier in the day, we had set out four crawdad traps, baited with two of the smaller trout we'd caught the day before, each fish cut in half. Late in the afternoon, we went to retrieve the traps, and we were rewarded with what looked to be around 50 crawdads. Crawdad for dinner tonight!

Photo: Camp chef Dan stirs the wok full of crawdads, as I have corn and potatoes boiling on the stove. Tonight, we were looking forward to a "crawdad boil." Not exactly, as the crawdads were deep fried in butter and olive oil.

Photo: Deep fried crawdads, ready to be shelled. Check it out how the started out gray, and after frying, turned to a delicious golden-red color.

Photo: Dan shells crawdads after deep frying them. The job is very labor-intensive - I offered to lend a hand - but he wanted to do the job by himself.

Photo: Nearby neighbor Nancy comes visits our camp to chat about fishing, crawdads, and camping in general.

Photo: Deep fried crawdads, ready to enjoy. I bit into the claws to crack them in order to get the meat. The crawdads were amazing, but didn't provide much meat, so we used them mostly as appetisers.

Photo: We had leftover carne asada, so after enjoying the crawdads, the main meal turned out to be carne asana tacos, along with the corn and potatoes. The red cabbage salsa is Brent's own recipe, and it's delicious, as it tastes like a cross between salsa and kim chee. I've never had anything like it before!

Photo: After dinner, Brent got out his cornhole game, and he and Robert enjoyed a game of cornhole.

Photo: That evening, we were treated to an amazing sunset. Such a great end to another wonderful day at Cave Lake State Park.

Photo: After another day of fishing, dinner for Saturday, June 27, 2020 was fish tacos, along with camp-made guacamole. Delicious!

Photo: Sunday morning, June 28, 2020, Robert made breakfast for Brent and I. Unfortunately, Michael and Dan had obligations for Sunday, so they left the day before.

Photo: Robert's delicious breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs, corn tortillas, with lots of hot sauce on the side.

Photo: It seems that we had leftover carnitas from a previous meal, so we enjoyed them for tonight's dinner. Brent and I clown around as we share cooking duties.

Photo: Carnitas tacos, topped with shredded Mexican cheese, my guacamole, along with Brent's amazing salsa/kim chee. This made for a fitting and delicious dinner for our last night at camp.

Such an amazing time enjoying the fine company of family and friends! Not to mention the amazing Nevada scenery, four wheeling, and most likely the best fishing that I've ever experienced.

Cave Lake State Park
US Highway 93
Ely, NV 89301