US Highway 95—Part 4, Vegas and Beyond. On to Hoover Dam.

Leaving Goldfield’s snow behind, we eat cheese and crackers in shirt sleeves at the turnoff to Death Valley Junction. By mid-afternoon we’re sailing past North Vegas’ overflowing suburbs and into Las Vegas itself. From the beltway we don’t see The Strip, but we do see buildings on that over-the-top scale Vegas is famous for. Stan [...]

Read Full Post »

US Highway 95—Part 3, Goldfield, NV

On Friday morning we leave Tonopah and continue south on Highway 95. Joshua trees dot the landscape. Twenty five miles later we come to the edge of the tumbledown, almost ghost town of Goldfield. As 95 doglegs east we begin to see signs of life. A curio shop, a convenience store/gas station, a closed restaurant, [...]

Read Full Post »

US Highway 95—Part 2, Tonopah, NV

Today’s trip ends at dusk, in Tonopah, elevation 6030 feet, the piles of snow along very steep Main Street melting into what promises to become black ice tonight. Tonopah’s original 1900 boom came as the result of silver strikes, some of the largest in Nevada history. For forty years, the “Queen of the Silver Camps” [...]

Read Full Post »

US Highway 95—Part 1, Walker Lake NV

Getting from Albuquerque to the Curry County coast is always a straight shot: across Arizona on I-40, CA-58 at Barstow to Bakersfield, up the San Joaquin valley on I-5, around the Bay Area to Clear Lake, and from there up US 101 to Nesika. It’s a long 1400 mile four day trip. Coming back is [...]

Read Full Post »