April 20th, 2024 - Travel to Tonopah, Nevada

(Note: Picture intensive blog!)

We left our little spot in Rachel (Smitty even stopped by to say goodbye - just love these small towns) and headed west/northwest.  We are still on the Extraterrestrial Highway.  We did not see any aliens but the views - OH MY!

We did quite a few summits:

And down the other side:

This valley was 33 miles long - amazing!  The altitude here is about 5200 feet.

Cows - free range:

A dry lake in the distance:

And a farm - check out that view:

The remoteness is mind boggling to me.  This farm is about 100 miles in either direction to a grocery store.  WOW!

And a lake with water!

There was a lot of water in this area and the cattle were loving it.

Another farm:

Interesting colors:

The town of Warm Springs that did not make it.

The white is coming from one of the mines.

Because of the many geological events in this area of Nevada, there are many gems and minerals to be found.  There are also many mines here - most are abandoned.  The story I read was that many of these gems and minerals were found when the miners were on the hunt for silver and gold.  In those days, silver and gold were king - the other stuff was not.

In doing some of my research, those geological events created many springs and hot springs (but I could not find the locations of them - YET!)

Up to another summit:

(Sorry for the smudges - bugs on the windshield.)

And down into the valley below:

OMG - A mailbox!

Beautiful horse:

Another farm:

Another summit:

Coming over each of these summits and seeing the valleys below is just breathtaking.  It is always a surprise.

WOW!

This is another entrance into the Nevada Testing Site:

Our last summit for today was over 6000 feet and that is where Tonopah is located:

We made our way to Tonopah RV Park and set up.  We had some lunch and explored some of the town (as well as a much needed stop at the grocery store).

Tonopah is an old western town that was really started as a mining camp in 1900.  It quickly became known as the Queen of the Silver Camps. At one time there were over 100 mines just in this area.  When the mining stopped, the Tonopah district produced 175 million ounces of silver and 1.86 million ounces of gold from 8.8 million tons of rock.  (In today's prices, it was a few billion dollars - WOW!

There is so much to see and do here so tomorrow we are going to play tourist so stay tuned and enjoy today.

Miles Traveled: 111 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Nevada: SR-375; US-6  (Yes, this is the same US-6 that crosses the country); US-95

April 19th, 2024 - Rachel Nevada

We have heard so much about Area 51 and the "Back Gate" so we decided to check it out.  We were warned to not touch any signs nor cross the boundary because there could be fines and jail time - it is a military installation after all.

So away we went:

And here we are:

Yes, we took pictures - LOL!.  But I have to say that I was very disappointed.  I expected all kinds of signs and warnings, etc.  But no, we traveled along a dirt road, then a badly paved road and BOOM!, we saw the gates.

Now all those pictures from the internet make me wonder - WHERE DID THEY TAKE THEM?!

We do know from talking with the folks from Rachel.. if we touched anything or crossed that border we would have been detained.  So we were good.

Oh well, the scenery was AWESOME - to and from.

Saw this and had to stop - it is a Tumbleweed Farm - LOL!  (Not really.)

Look closely - all those tan bushes are tumbleweeds that got caught up in the other bushes.  Strong winds will keep them rolling.

More views on our way back:

Our next journey was to try to find the Old Tempiute Mine.  We found the directions on the internet and away we went.

Not a really good road:

When we came to the Y in the road, we decided to turn back.  Our creed is if we are traveling alone, we will only go as far as we can walk out, if there is an emergency.  At the Y, we were 1.5 miles from the main highway and 5.5 miles from Rachel.  Had we been traveling with another vehicle, we would have pushed on.

The pictures do not do this justice and show you the grandness of what we are experiencing.  If you enlarge this picture and see the highway that cuts thru the middle... the point where the highway disappears is 17 miles away.  WOW!  Now think about that!.   For those of you from my hometown who follow this, that is the mileage from my house to the Walmart in Hamburg. (So on a pretend mode, I get up one morning, see the Walmart in the distance and decide to go there.  And I can see it in the distance.  WOW!)

We made our way back to Rachel:

This wonderful marker was located at the gas station:

The gas station is a store, little market and gift shop and also has all these roadside attractions:

There are aliens in the car:

Inside the store we met Donna - what a great gal:

Another great alien:

We loved talking to Donna and finding out more things about the area and about the store.

Right across the highway is the rock splitting mill.  I could not find much information on it but it was cool to explore:

Now, this was interesting...not sure what it held but...

Here is what is here now....

Makes one wonder???

We made our way back to the park and I took a walk around to take pictures.  Here is our site.  Not much to write home about but it works:

Looks like they were trying to put two pieces of a flying saucer together:

Scenes around Little A Le Inn:

Time capsule place by the producers of "Independence Day":

https://independenceday.fandom.com/wiki/ID4_Monument

What is E Clampus Vitus?:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Clampus_Vitus

Rachel's Fire Truck.  The story goes that there were a bunch of bikers that came thru - all were fire fighters.  They could not believe that they had no fire truck.  Well a few months later, a fire truck showed up.  Sadly since then, it has fallen into disrepair.

If you want to know about the inn or Rachel:

https://www.rachel-nevada.com/rachel_history.html

https://littlealeinn.com/

https://independenceday.fandom.com/wiki/ID4_Monument

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel,_Nevada

We did a few things around the RV and went to the Inn for Happy Hour and a wonderful Fish Fry.  We met a few more of the locals and had a great time.

We have had a wonderful time here in Rachel and the local folk we met made it that way.  We truly admire folks who can live so remotely.  Someone asked me once about living in the middle of nowhere and my response was "How far to a Walmart?" 

I did ask Judea and Mike how did they get their supplies.  Their answer: Amazon.  Amazing.  They also use Schwan's Foods.

When I talk about remoteness here, I really mean remote.  There is a small grocery store in Alamo - 46 miles away.  There is a small grocery story in Tonopah - over 100 miles away.  If you really need anything else, it is a trip to Las Vegas that is over 150 miles away.  Nope! Not for me.  (Now if it was 50 miles away, I might consider it - LOL!)

As much as I want to say that I can live "in the boonies", I know that I cannot.  Don't like cities either so I am this in between person...  Interesting!

Tomorrow we head to Tonopah so stay tuned and enjoy today.