Day 4: Nevada Desert Days

Waking up after a fairly mediocre night’s sleep (although better than the previous two nights), I realized that the vehicles next to us were 2 large, expensive RVs from folks who were clearly traveling together. No, they weren’t crazy folks, but I certainly need to get used to people parking near us to sleep!

Tonopah Historic Mining Park

I had a client call at 10.30am, which gave us enough time to visit Tonopah Historic Mining Park, the site of a no longer operational mine, where you can see old mine shafts, tunnels, buildings, artifacts spread over 113 acres. The visitor center has a 20-minute video to give an overview of the place, and there’s an interesting mineral exhibit. The lady in the visitor center was lovely and I’d consider it a must-see for anyone going to Tonopah. 

Extraterrestrial Highway

The roads leading up to the Extraterrestrial Highway – and this highway itself – are long, straight and uneventful. It made it easy for me to believe that people could see apparent UFOs and aliens – when a road is that boring, anything could happen! We had a quick pit stop in the town of Rachel (population approximately 48), which was in the middle of absolutely nowhere. The only people we did see, however, weren’t residents, but 5 tourists there to also take photos of the alien-themed items. These included a truck pulling a UFO, a blinking UFO, and a mural with aliens plastered all over it. There’s also a small motel called the Little A'le'inn (geddit), and a time capsule buried by the producers of the Independence Day movie, set to be opened in 2050.

Getting back on the road, we passed Alamo (a tiny town initially settled by Mormons), a number of “open range” cattle ranches (no gates, and one cow was crossing the road as we approached it!) before finally arriving at ET Fresh Jerky, a souvenir shop that not only sells different flavors of jerky (mostly beef, but I also saw bison and venison), but also ice creams, candy and other alien merch. 

RyanHenge

For me, however, the highlight of the day was not all the extraterrestrial-themed stuff, but stopping by a place that was mentioned to have a Stonehenge Replica (called RyanHenge, named after the creator, the CEO of Western Elite Landfill). That was what drew us in, but we soon learned that it had So. Much. More. As we drove in we met Ron (Ryan’s dad), who totally downplayed the attractions on the massive block of land–including exotic animals (a camel, zonkey, brahman bulls, alpacas), old school trains (including Teddy Roosevelt and Buffalo Bill’s carriages), wooden cabins, a sundial, a herd of cattle–and plenty of room to add more. They’d clearly had a Christmas-themed festival for families recently, and I’m sure it would be the place to be in the area each year. It was fascinating to see all of this when there wasn’t much else for miles, and I’d definitely recommend it as a stop (it’s free!) if you ever drive through. 

Overton

We arrived in the town of Overton–got a few more groceries and made dinner once again in the parking lot (use the rice cooker for the first time for tuna bowls with canned tuna, sauteed broccoli, mayo and furikake). Called both parents before driving to where we’d sleep for the night. Because we drove in the dark it didn’t take long to realize that we had to take the eBikes down to properly see the road. Luckily we pulled over to do this, because once we got back in the RV, a donkey was standing in the middle of the road and we could have easily hit it! 

We parked in an open spot, quiet and where we could see the night sky clearly. Finally, the night isn’t freezing like it has been for the trip so far. Rather than feeling cold, I end up shedding some layers and wake up to a beautiful and warm sunny day.

Route Map