The Loneliest Road in America

When Bear heard about “The Loneliest Road in America”, US-50 across Nevada, he decided he had to drive it. And so we did. Since it is billed as the loneliest road we decided to count oncoming traffic to see if it really was. We started counting when we left Ely. The next stop on the road is Eureka. Between Ely and Eureka, 78 miles, we saw 59 vehicles. This included a 9 vehicle convoy transporting some really big round stuff. This makes about ¾ vehicle per mile. The next stop is Austin. Between Eureka and Austin, 70 miles, we saw 66 vehicles and one bike. This is .94 vehicles per mile. Next stop Fallon, 111 miles and 98 vehicles or .88 vehicles per mile. Pretty lonely, especially since many of the vehicles came in groups. I have to mention the stops along the way. Let me quote from the little book we got from the State of Nevada about Hwy 50. “EUREKA Few Nevada mining towns have survived the ravages of time as well as Eureka, a mid-19th century silver mining center. Visitors will find dozens of historic sites in one of Nevada’s best preserved mining towns.” It then goes on to list 4 “must see” attractions. The reality: 2 streets wide including Hwy 50. 8 blocks long, 3 of every 4 buildings boarded over with for sale or for lease signs. How ghastly. Then there is Austin: “Once one of Nevada’s most prosperous mining camps, Austin has managed to retain its 19th century character.” If what is there now is as good as it got at the town’s hey day, I feel for the poor folks who lived there. It is in a pass with 3 gas stations, 2 terrible looking cafes and many boarded up buildings.

One of the wonderful things we did find was the air. There is a shrub that grows all over the valleys mixed in with the sage brush. I think it was Nevada City Buckwheat (Eriogonum prattenianum for those of you into latin). It blooms with yellow flowers but this time of year the flowers are all going to seed and it smells wonderful! We got out of the car and I immediately started looking for the source of the wonderful smell. What a treat! We stopped at a couple of Pony Express way stations (now just piles of rocks). US 50 used to be the route of the Pony Express as well as the Overland Stage.

We stumbled upon Grimes Point/Hidden Cave archaeological site. There were rocks with petroglyphs dating between 7000 BC and 1000BC. They were wonderful and it was so much fun to run between them “Did you see this one?” or “How about this one!”. We got to drive by Fallon NAS, the home of the Top Gun School for Navy flyers and watch some guys out playing with their “toys”. The sound of freedom is very loud in Fallon.

We spent the night at our condo at Lake Tahoe. Did you know that Lake Tahoe has more water than Mead Lake behind Hoover Dam?