Nevada roadtrip

Take it all in| Only in Nevada| Driving to extremes

From Pioche, jump back on the Great Basin Highway, and drive to Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Park, where the beehive-shaped ovens used to process silver ore are still open today, or go swimming on the turquoise reservoir at Cave Lake State Park. Before spending the night in Ely, stop in Garnet Hill, a designated rock hounding area where you can take a turn as a miner and search for the ruby red gems. On day five of your drive, you will arrive at Great Basin National Park. Start with a guided tour (book in advance!) of Lehman Caves, then take the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive up to the top of Wheeler Peak (10,000 feet above sea-level) or check out the world’s oldest trees on the Bristlecone Trail. Plan to stay after sunset: in this remote location, away from light pollution, the stargazing is truly awe-inspiring. On Saturday nights during the high season, the national park puts on astronomy programs; check their calendar to see if you can catch one!

On the road again

There’s nowhere like Nevada. It’s the seventh-largest U.S. state in size, and has nearly 30,000 square kilometres of land dedicated to parks and wildlife. With over 800,000 kilometres of paved roads, a national park, and dozens of state parks, there’s a lot to discover in Nevada beyond the flashy neon lights of Las Vegas. Here, we cover some of the highlights of this must-see destination, which is less than a three-hour flight from Vancouver (or five hours from Toronto) but a world away from Canada.

Gorgeous geology

Weird is wonderful

Nevada’s Highway 50 from Reno to the Great Basin Park is nicknamed “the loneliest road in America” for its relative lack of settlements (ghost towns don’t count). But this route through the state’s unique desert landscape is actually full of things for adventurous road-trippers to see and do. Pack a swimsuit and head to the free, publicly accessible Spencer Hot Springs in the Big Smoky Valley, where you can soak in spring-fed hot water while taking in the panoramic view and starry skies. And don’t miss Rhyolite Ghost Town, the stunning ruins of a mining camp, or the many Sagebrush Saloons – historic watering holes where you can raise a glass to the miners and boomtown bystanders who’ve frequented these atmospheric bars over the years.

One of Nevada's hidden geological gems is the state’s slot canyons, deep, narrow (but hikeable) crevices formed by ancient floods and notable for their colour gradations. Check out the Pastel Canyon in the Valley of Fire State Park or head to Cathedral Gorge State Park, where the Miller Point Trail takes you from a viewpoint overlooking the gorge to the bottom of the canyon. And by the way, names like “Valley of Fire” or “Red Rock Canyon” reflect the orange and red hues resulting from iron oxidization of the region’s Aztec Sandstone. Aim to see them when the sunrise or sunset add their own rosy hues.

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Take it all in

Nevada has more ghost towns (600+) than actual, populated cities and towns. Deserted settlements started springing up in the 1860s – when caches of silver, gold and copper were discovered – and many survive today, thanks to Nevada’s dry climate. Old West aficionados are spoiled for choice, but this list of 26 must-sees is a good place to start. On the road to Great Basin National Park, options include Pioche, where, from your seat at the Silver Café (founded 1907), you can easily imagine the shootouts that led to a Murderer’s Row of headstones at Boot Hill Cemetery. (Sample inscription: “feared by some, detested by others…shot in the back five times.”) Put the ghost in ghost town by spending the night at the Overland Hotel & Saloon, a former gambling house and saloon notorious for its haunted rooms.

Ghost town state

Road trips are the best way to experience Nevada’s eclectic landscape – from city skyscrapers to red rock canyons to ghost towns and marsh trails. One of the state’s most famed routes is The Great Basin Highway. This trip takes about five days if you do the entire itinerary from Las Vegas to Great Basin National Park (recommended!), but it can be shortened into segments to suit your schedule. Day one sees you leaving Las Vegas bound for the hiking paradise of Valley of Fire State Park (with plenty of wild horse sightings along the way); Day two passes through the Pahranhagat National Wildlife Refuge (home to songbirds and waterfowl galore) and ends in Caliente, where you can check into the Caliente Hot Springs Motel and soak away your hiking sore spots. Day three, you’ll have your choice of stunning state parks, or you can devote your day to more haunting pursuits…

Nevada

So much to discover

Driving to extremes

Nevada’s Death Valley Rally road trip from Las Vegas to the iconic Death Valley National Park takes three to four days but will earn you a lifetime of stories. Your destination is a study in extremes: Death Valley has the lowest point in North America (the salt flats of Badwater Basin is 86 metres below sea level), and it has mountains like Telescope Peak that reach 3368 metres in elevation. It’s considered the hottest and driest place on the continent, with summer temperatures of 49 degrees Celsius in the shade, but on cold winter nights, temperatures can dip below freezing. Ice, in fact, is now known to be the cause of a long-mysterious phenomenon of rocks that appeared to move on their own on Death Valley’s Racetrack Playa. Endless landscapes of sand dunes give way to hills and valleys carpeted in spring wildflowers, not to mention petroglyphs and deserted mining relics.

Legendary landscape

Nevada’s Area 51 has featured in productions including The X-Files and Independence Day, and maybe it should feature in your road trip, too. This top-secret military installation is rumoured to be the headquarters of government research into UFOs. While the military base itself is off limits, a road trip along Nevada’s Extraterrestrial Highway will delight anyone who’s wondered if we’re really, really alone in the galaxy. This two-day itinerary along Route 375 heads out of Las Vegas toward Tonopah, taking in sites like the ancient petroglyphs in Mt. Irish Wilderness Area as well as many tongue-in-cheek homages to the otherworldly. Visitor favourites include E.T. Fresh Jerky, where you can take your photo with life-size alien murals, and the Alien Research Center near Alamo, where you can stock up on souvenirs and tall-tales from the locals. Don’t miss the stargazing opportunities afforded by the region’s pitch-black skies; the view is wonderous even without any unexplained flying objects.

Finally, let’s say you’re vacationing in Las Vegas, and while you don’t have time for a major road trip, you’d like to discover more of Nevada with a day trip or quick overnighter. No problem: jump on Highway 93 South and less than 50 kilometres later, you’ll arrive at Boulder City, home to the largest manmade lake in the U.S. – Lake Mead – and one of the engineering marvels of the world. Completed in 1936, the Hoover Dam is an art-deco masterpiece as well as an essential hydroelectric powerplant. Give yourself a few hours to tour the world’s tallest concrete arch bridge and take in design details like the bronze angel sculptures (gamblers rub their toes for luck), soaring modernist flooring and Navajo motifs. Other day trips from Las Vegas include the journey to Red Rock Canyon or the Valley of Fire State Park.

Day trips: neon to nature

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Nevada’s man-made wonders are the roadside attractions and quirky establishments summarized under the catch-all “Weird Nevada.” We’re talking about Instagram-ready sights like the Big Bovine – a two-story cow statue that welcomes visitors to the retro Longstreet Inn outside Death Valley National Park, or the Clown Motel in Tonopah, home to an unabashedly creepy collection of over 2,000 clown figurines (plus, reportedly, ghostly silver miners who haunt certain rooms). And all those wide-open spaces have inspired some wildly eccentric art installations, many of which are grouped on Route 95 between Las Vegas and Reno (nicknamed the Free-Range Art Highway). Check out the colourful stacked boulders of Seven Magic Mountains near Las Vegas, the mammoth sculptures of the Goldwell Open Air Museum or the spray-painted junked vehicles at the nearby International Car Forest of the Last Church.

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X-files and ETs

Not so lonely

En route to Grand Basin

Sydney Martinez / Travel Nevada

Travel Nevada

Sydney Martinez / Travel Nevada