Head northwest on I-95 about 90 miles to Highway 160. Go south to Crystal and follow the signs to the 22,000-acre Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. At the Refuge office, pick up literature about the two dozen animal and plant species that live nowhere else on Earth.
Hike the Crystal Springs Boardwalk, where you can glimpse pupfish, one of the Refuge's four endangered species. The Refuge is still largely undeveloped, so bring plenty of water and drive with extreme caution in wet weather, because flash floods are a real threat.
Ash Meadows NWR
HCR 70, Box 610Z
Amargosa Valley, Nevada 89020
(775) 372-5435
http://www.fws.gov/desertcomplex/ashmeadows/
Beatty, about 120 miles northeast of Las Vegas, is only 8 miles east of Death Valley National Park along Route 374. Stop there to visit the Beatty Museum and Historical Society. Learn about the 1904 discovery of gold in Death Valley at what became the Bullfrog Mine, and soon made Beatty the railroad hub of the Bullfrog Mining District. The Museum is open Wednesdays to Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Beatty Museum and Historical Society
417 Main St.
Beatty, Nevada 89003
775-553-2303
http://www.beattymuseum.com/
Drive 2.5 miles west from Beatty along Route 374 to reach the Goldwell Open Air Museum. Stop at the Visitor Center to get a brochure for a self-guided tour of the seven sculptures in this park. At least one of them, Belgian sculptor Albert Szukalski's 1984 life-size interpretation of the Last Supper, is sure to haunt you with its subject matter. Appreciate the sculptures as they were meant to be in the vast spaces and changing light of the Amargosa Valley.
Follow the signs to Rhyolite, established on the heels of the Bullfrog Mine opening in 1904 and abandoned only 12 years later. Few of Nevada's ghost towns are in as good condition. The railway station, bank building, school and miner Tom Kelly's house built of about 50,000 adobe-embedded beer and liquor bottles all deserve a look.
You can visit Rhyolite any time, but there are no visitor facilities. Metal detectors are prohibited.
Goldwell Open Air Museum
Near the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada
(702) 870-9946
http://www.goldwellmuseum.org/index.html
Friends of Rhyolite
P.O. Box 247
Amargosa Valley, Nevada 89020
http://www.rhyolite.org/
Midway between Las Vegas and Reno is the former silver mining town of Tonopah. Visit the Tonopah Historic Mining Park to explore an actual mining tunnel if you aren't bothered at the thought of standing in a viewing cage 500 feet above the mine floor.
Keep Tonopah's 6,200-foot elevation in mind as you plan your activities.
Tonopah Historic Mining Park
520 McCulloch Ave.
Tonopah, Nevada 89049
(775) 482-9274
http://www.tonopahhistoricminingpark.com/
Continue on I-95 to Silver Springs, about 50 miles from Reno. Visit Fort Churchill State Historic Park, the site of Civil War-era Army fort built for the protection of Nevada settlers. Learn about the fort's history at the Visitor's Center, and take in nearby Buckland Station at Weeks. It's a well-preserved 19th-century ranch house that served as a Pony Express Remount Station.
Fort Churchill State Historic Park
1000 Highway 95A
Silver Springs, Nevada 89429
(775) 577-2345
Email: [email protected]
