Location: US Route 50, Nevada – also known, thanks to a 1986 Life Magazine article, as "The loneliest Road in America"
Day 1
09:30 Sand Mountain Recreation Area – 2 miles long, 600 ft high dune open for off road vehicles
09:45 Hills
10:45 On the road
10:45 On the road
11:15 Bluffs
Noon The town of Austin, once Nevada's second largest city with a population of 10,000, now a high country town of 300. Very steep Main St.
13:40 Stopped for a nice walk and lunch at Hickison Petroglyph Park
15:17 Walked around Eureka and visited the only grocery store, Raines Market.
The upper walls were covered in taxidermy.
If they don't sell it you don't need it!
Several great old buildings in town, including a still running Opera house
15:45 Still on the road
16:30 Camped for the night in a free Bureau of Land Management (BLM) campground
Day 2
8:45 On the road again, drizzly cloudy day
9:00 stopped to check out the Robinson Nevada Copper mine in Ruth - in operation off and on since 1907. Currently owned by a Polish Company.
Colourful mine tailings in Ruth.
10:00 Saw a steam train coming towards us right next to the road. Totally surprised, we stopped and took pictures and a movie.
11:00 Stopped at the town of Ely where we toured Nevada Northern Railway National Historic Landmark. The NNR first came to Ely in 1906 to transport copper and other ores. We were just finishing our tour when the steam train we had seen earlier returned. We managed to tag along with the paying passengers for a tour of the maintenance shops and engine house. Very, very cool. We were thrilled to have happened across this gem.
13:30 Snow on the mountain!?!
16:00 Camped in another free BLM campground - this one had a great 2 mile trail which we thoroughly enjoyed.
We have added the time lines so you can see how much this 300 mile stretch of road is the same yet so different. Highway 50 follows much of the original Pony Express route across Nevada. We spent the 2 days mostly on long straight stretches of desert basin road, interspersed by winding up and down 17 mountain passes ranging in altitudes up to 6,800 ft. We didn't feel lonely, just awestruck at the amazing, varied, and beautiful scenery. We'd much rather travel like this – you get to see and experience so much more than driving on the Interstate!
Colourful mine tailings in Ruth.
