from Death Valley to Las Vegas - Wild Wild West - USA 2022 - 3
26.02 - from Death Valley to Las Vegas
I had several options planned for today. In general, the goal was to drive to Las Vegas. If you go direct, it's about a two-hour drive. But that's not the idea of a road trip, is it? One option was to drive to a more remote sand dune and the other was to drive north toward Gold Field, where I had been before 4 years ago. At that time I missed the turnoff to Gold Point [↗] because my Garmin had a different idea of where it was. So finding Gold Point is the first task of the day.
If you know where to go, it's pretty easy. You have to leave the US-60 at the turnoff to Lida Airport, drive a few miles on the NV-266, and then turn left on the, still paved, NV-774. However, my Garmin indicates that I am now driving offroad. No wonder it didn't find the right way last time.
But on this early Saturday morning, I don't see anyone. I only hear some music coming from one house.
The settlement is great. I leave my car at the village border and stroll around. It is freezing cold, but dry, the sky is blue and it is not too windy. There are old fire trucks, rusty wrecked cars, and beautiful old wooden houses - some in good condition, others falling apart. I spend quite a while here before turning around and heading back onto the US-60 and north.
Before you enter downtown Gold Field, you can turn right and come to the "First international carforest of the last church". I was here 4 years ago and back then you had to know where you were going. In the meantime, the city has realized that the exhibition is an asset. So now there is a sign and a visitor center (well, something like that - don't expect a fancy building).
With my Jeep, driving to the exhibit is no problem, but if you have a low clearance car, you have to be careful as the road has some steep climbs and descents. If it is wet or you are unsure, better leave the car near the main road and walk. It's not too far.
I am not sure if they removed some cars. In my memory, there were more. But what is definitely different are the paintings on the cars. There are still a lot of high-quality paintings and the concept is very different from Cadillac Ranch in Texas where everyone is invited to spray on the cars. I walk around for a while and take pictures of the most interesting pieces before continuing on to downtown Gold Field.
It's still pretty cold and I even find patches of snow here and there. As I walk down the main street, a car stops and the lady inside tells me to stop at the visitor center. She wants to give me a brochure about the history and the remarkable buildings of the city. Sure enough, she parks her car, opens the visitor center, which is actually locked, and gives me the brochure. She also tells me where I can find more old cars and an old train. What a great service!
The place with the train is almost a mile off the main road, so I drive there. I'm not quite sure what this is. The train looks like an exhibit, but the rest looks more like a scrapyard.
While I'm taking pictures, my camera tells me that my SD card is full. I did take quite some pictures this morning, but nowhere near enough to fill the card. Apparently, I forgot to format it yesterday. My usual routine is to copy the pictures to a hard drive and make a backup on a second hard drive. When those tell me the copy was successful, I format my card(s) and start with fresh ones the next day.
Now it's time to fill up again (the range of the Jeep Compass is anything but impressive), but the gas station that my Garmin indicates is no longer there. The next one is in Tonopah, which is further north. But if I go there, the logical way to Las Vegas would be via the Extraterrestrial Highway. That's exactly what I did 4 years ago and decided not to do it again because it's one of the most boring drives I've ever done. But there aren't many alternatives. Driving all the way back to Beatty isn't an option either. So let's do it.
Of course, I stop at the Little A'Le'Inn in Rachel and since it's later noon, I stay for a burger (you can forget the fries, but the burger was tasty). Now I'm ready for the rest of the drive to the hotel in Las Vegas.
