Motorhome travel: A road trip around Nevada

Words and photos: Liz Gay

When we first visited the US we’d looked in awe at the motorhomes and knew that, one day, we’d have to do the same. Now, over 20 years later we were going to drive the Nevada section of Highway 50 – aka the Loneliest Road – in a motorhome having flown direct from the UK to Las Vegas.

To get to Highway 50, we travelled halfway up the state. For us, there was only one way to go: how could we not visit a 90-mile section of State Route 375 known as The Extraterrestrial Highway? If you’re of a certain age you’ll know that The Truth is Out There, even though the US Government didn’t officially acknowledge Area 51 until 2013.

The trip had already been surreal in the 90°F (32°C) heat of Las Vegas to see Mount Charleston (11,916 ft/3,632m) covered in snow. We’d passed the Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge with its lakes, climbed over 5,000ft (1,524m) and into the 25-mile wide (40.23km) Sands Spring Valley. We thought that if we could experience all that contrast in just a few hours it was certainly going to be a varied trip!

We headed for Ely and realised that we’d seen it before – in those 50s movies where the hero (or baddie) drives along the small-town main street. But it’s worth visiting for the 11 blocks that make up an outdoor art trail with murals and sculptures that tell the story of the mix of folk who journeyed here to become part of the mining community. We stayed overnight, visiting the restored Art Deco cinema and the Nevada Northern Railway (a National Historic Landmark).

Leaving Ely we headed into the heart of Nevada’s scenic wonderland. Before us lay a dozen mountain ranges to cross, valleys, hot springs, historic sites and recreation areas. There was such a sense of space in the land between the Wasatch mountains and the Sierra Nevada. Eureka is another mining town that, in the late 1880s, had a population of over 10,000. Now the population is less than 1,000, but the courthouse and opera house have been fully restored. 

That night we stayed behind a gravel heap, as recommended by the tourism lady in Ely whose relatives were ‘RV folk’. The gravel heaps are on Bureau of Land Management land; most of BLM’s lands are available for recreational use without a fee. Yes, a government department that welcomes camping! 

The Harley Davidson riders love the road to Austin. Austin was once the second largest city in Nevada, but now it has a population of 192 and 11 buildings and sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its courthouse, still in use, is beautifully restored. Just outside Austin is Stokes Castle, built in the late nineteenth century by a New York mine owner who had seen similar towers in Italy and who decided to build a summer retreat. 

Both north and south of Highway 50 are opportunities for side trips. If you want to walk, cycle, visit ghost towns, see wild horses (as we did), kayak, fish, swim outdoors, play golf, visit historical sites or hunt, it can be done.

After Austin we left Highway 50 via the Reese River Valley Scenic Drive to head for Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park. It was a fabulous valley drive with the amazing Shoshone Mountains rising steeply off the western edge and the snow-covered Toiyabe Mountains at the eastern edge, then over the Ione Summit down to the valley spread before us. The road goes through Ione, which bills itself as the Town That Refused To Die. Technically, Ione is a ghost town as its population is now between 30 and 40, having been over 600. 

Berlin is another mining town; it sprang up in 1896 and had gone by 1912, but those few years were very profitable. The giant ore mill still remains, as well as some of the shops, houses and associated buildings. The greatest concentration of ichthyosaurs – an ancient marine reptile that swam in the waters that once covered Nevada – are here. We revelled in the views and the glorious sunsets.

We swung back to Highway 50 via Highways 844 and 361, rejoining at Middlegate Station, a place of just 19 people. Middlegate hung in there when the highway was rerouted and now there’s a bar, restaurant, motel and RV parking, with a celebration of the Pony Express that used to gallop along roughly where the road is now. It’s the only place for fuel for 112 miles

Between Middlegate and the town of Fallon, there were two things we’d wanted to see. Sand Mountain is a ‘singing’ sand dune, two miles long and 600ft (183m) high. The guidebooks say that it can ‘sound’ as high as 105 decibels, but decades of bashing from off-highway vehicles means it seems to have been silent for years. The second of our ‘musts’ was Grimes Point Archeological Site, with its outstanding petroglyphs, just at the side of Highway 50. 

The route splits into Highway 50 – which runs to Carson City – and the Alternate 50, which goes via Fernley to get to Reno and the end of the Loneliest Road. We needed the latter for the last stamp in our Loneliest Road passport. We’d driven through both high and low desert as we crossed Nevada, but the run into Reno was rather special, with rolling green fields and the Truckee River to one side.

Sparks Marina RV Park was our base for a couple of nights, chosen because it advertised local transport. Sparks Marina has a huge mall, park, lake, fishing, play area and jogging track within walking distance and is a good place to relax for a few days. We also made a detour to Virginia City and strolled the wooden sidewalks, visited the saloons and paid homage to the 60s TV show, Bonanza, that was filmed there. We didn’t have to worry about parking because, as seems usual in this part of the world, the longer vehicle is expected and welcomed.

Seeing Lake Tahoe, with its ice blue clarity, was a real ‘wow’. After a fabulous 2.5 hour cruise aboard the paddle steamer, MS Dixie, we drove the 70 miles around Lake Tahoe. One minute we were in Stateline, with the casinos and shops; the next we were admiring Emerald Bay with its unbelievable colouring.

In a journey of surprises, the 207 out of Tahoe gave one of the biggest. The Carson Valley and Gardnerville were a revelation. Behind us were harsh mountains; in front it could have been Kansas. Further down the 95, Tonopah Historic Mining Park is a must-see.

During our Nevada road trip, we’d come across the unexpected and the unusual – and we’d had fabulous fun!