Rhyolite.
Although little more than a spot in the sagebrush, this stop captured our fascination.
This Nye County ghost town is about 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas near the eastern edge of Death Valley. The community dates back to 1905 as one of several mining camps that sprang up after a prospecting discovery in the surrounding hills. During an ensuing gold rush, thousands of gold seekers, developers and miners flocked to the site and many settled in Rhyolite (pronounced rhy...as in wry).
After 1920, the community and its ruins became a tourist attraction and a setting for motion pictures. Most of its crumbling buildings were salvaged for building materials or were moved to nearby Beatty or other towns. Visitors today can see the old railway depot and a house made chiefly of empty bottles. Other interesting oddities dot the landscape.
Picture this: You’re in the middle of the desert on your way to visit the area’s premiere ghost town (Rhyolite). Suddenly off to the left you see a towering woman and a series of "odd" forms. This is the 15-acre Goldwell Open Air Art Museum featuring the Painted Lady, a ghostly representation of the Last Supper, an equally-ghostly bike rider, a “desert flower”, a colorful sofa and other "oddities.". While you might think this a strange location for a modern art sculpture display, each unique piece has a tie with the history of the area—even the penguin following a miner!
It's worth the short detour off the main highway to explore this unusual desert landmark (enroute to Death Valley near Rhyolite, about 4 miles west of Beatty off State Route 374).
This Nye County ghost town is about 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas near the eastern edge of Death Valley. The community dates back to 1905 as one of several mining camps that sprang up after a prospecting discovery in the surrounding hills. During an ensuing gold rush, thousands of gold seekers, developers and miners flocked to the site and many settled in Rhyolite (pronounced rhy...as in wry).
After 1920, the community and its ruins became a tourist attraction and a setting for motion pictures. Most of its crumbling buildings were salvaged for building materials or were moved to nearby Beatty or other towns. Visitors today can see the old railway depot and a house made chiefly of empty bottles. Other interesting oddities dot the landscape.
Picture this: You’re in the middle of the desert on your way to visit the area’s premiere ghost town (Rhyolite). Suddenly off to the left you see a towering woman and a series of "odd" forms. This is the 15-acre Goldwell Open Air Art Museum featuring the Painted Lady, a ghostly representation of the Last Supper, an equally-ghostly bike rider, a “desert flower”, a colorful sofa and other "oddities.". While you might think this a strange location for a modern art sculpture display, each unique piece has a tie with the history of the area—even the penguin following a miner!
It's worth the short detour off the main highway to explore this unusual desert landmark (enroute to Death Valley near Rhyolite, about 4 miles west of Beatty off State Route 374).
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Death Valley!
It's a land of extremes in a below-sea-level basin, steady drought and record summer heat. Towering peaks are frosted with winter snow. Rare rainstorms bring vast fields or wildflowers. Lush oases harbor tiny fish and refuge for wildlife and human.
This National Park protects the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and contains a diverse desert environment of salt-flats, sand dunes, badlands, valleys, canyons and mountains. Death Valley is the hottest and driest of the national parks in the U.S, with its highest recorded temperature being 134 degrees in 1913.
It's the largest national park in the "lower 48" and is designated an International Biosphere Reserve. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the second-lowest point in the western hemisphere at 282 feet below sea level.
The park is home to many species of plants and animals, including creosote bush, bighorn sheep, coyote and the Death Valley pupfish, a survivor of much wetter times. The area has been the subject of books, radio programs, TV series and movies. Tourism blossomed in the 1920s when resorts were built around Stovepipe Wells and Furnace Creek.
Lastly: the name! It received its forbidding moniker by a group of pioneers lost in the winter ot 1849-50. Although one of the party died there, they all assumed the valley would be their grave. They were rescued, however, by two scouts. As the party climbed out of the valley, one of the men turned, looked back, and said "Goodbye, Death Valley." The name and tale of The Lost '49ers have become part of western lore.
This National Park protects the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and contains a diverse desert environment of salt-flats, sand dunes, badlands, valleys, canyons and mountains. Death Valley is the hottest and driest of the national parks in the U.S, with its highest recorded temperature being 134 degrees in 1913.
It's the largest national park in the "lower 48" and is designated an International Biosphere Reserve. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the second-lowest point in the western hemisphere at 282 feet below sea level.
The park is home to many species of plants and animals, including creosote bush, bighorn sheep, coyote and the Death Valley pupfish, a survivor of much wetter times. The area has been the subject of books, radio programs, TV series and movies. Tourism blossomed in the 1920s when resorts were built around Stovepipe Wells and Furnace Creek.
Lastly: the name! It received its forbidding moniker by a group of pioneers lost in the winter ot 1849-50. Although one of the party died there, they all assumed the valley would be their grave. They were rescued, however, by two scouts. As the party climbed out of the valley, one of the men turned, looked back, and said "Goodbye, Death Valley." The name and tale of The Lost '49ers have become part of western lore.
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