Today was our next to last day on this little vacation road trip and it was all Nevada, all the time, along US-395. We started in Beatty which is currently the only entrance to Death Valley National Park on this side, and ended up in Carson City, the state’s capitol. In between was pretty much nothing but beautiful desert scenery pretty similar to what is pictured above.
When traveling this route you had better be cognizant of you level of gas, because there are two spots where there is no gas for around a hundred miles, between Beatty and Tonopah is 93 miles and Tonopah to Hawthorne is 103.
The best thing we did today wasn’t even on our true route. After breakfast at Mel’s Dinner in Beatty we crossed the street to check out a small park and found a brochure on a display about something called the Goldwell Open Air Museum that was less than 10 miles in the opposite direction we were supposed to head.
The last time we were here we passed right by this spot in the evening to visit Rhyolite, which are ruins of 1905 gold-mining town, Hollywood movie set & now a historic site. That time it was fast approaching dark, so we either didn’t notice the artwork or we scoffed at the hand-painted sign that said ‘Art Museum’ on that same dirt road.
Anyway, if you are a fan of Roadside America stuff or off-the-wall art, the Goldwell Open Air Museum is worth a visit if you are ever that way. And it’s FREE!
