Loneliest Road in America Road Trip: 3 Days Driving Highway 50 Through Nevada

In 1986, Life magazine said that Highway 50 through northern Nevada was the

loneliest

road

in the United States, they announced that the route was not traveled and said that if you have to travel it, make sure you know how to use your survival equipment , since Highway 50 has since become a tourist. attraction with many homeless people who wanted to drive on the

loneliest

road

in the United States. My dad and I were two of them and we took a

trip

down Highway 50 in the fall of 2020. It was a fantastic

trip

through a beautiful part of Nevada with lots of pony express. history cowboy history ghost towns and other incredible natural attractions to see like Great Basin National Park.

This video shows our three

days

driving

along the route and be sure to let me know if you've done it or if you have any suggestions we missed. comments a note before you head out on your trip, i definitely recommend going to the travel

nevada

website and ordering a stamp book, they will mail it to you and it's a great souvenir to take with you while you're on the road if you get more than five stamps, You can send them for an "I survived Highway 50" souvenir anyway and continue what we explored in our three

days

on Highway 50.

Hi everyone, Josh from Throughmylens.com, I'm here with my dad, who maybe you remember. the route 66 video today we begin another road trip on

highway

50, the loneliest road in Nevada. Our road trip began with our arrival in Carson City for a few stops before leaving the next morning. Carson City is the capital of Nevada and a major city. In the development of the state, it is located right near the California and Nevada border and has two museums that are definitely worth visiting on your road trip. This is our first stop in Carson City at the Nevada State Railroad Museum.

The first is the Nevada State Railroad. museum featuring dozens of trains in pristine condition and examining the railroad's impact on Carson City and Nevada. Here are a couple of unique train cars that are only found in this museum and nowhere else, plus they had a great display about the completion of the transcontinental railroad. After exploring the main museum, be sure to head to the depot where they are actively working on restoring trains and you can even ride some of them if you like trains. It's definitely something you'll want to stop and see before exiting Highway 50. From there we headed about five minutes north through downtown Carson City over the Nevada State Museum.

This museum is especially impressive because it is located inside what was formerly the Carson. City Mint the route we were following was a Pony Express route, so I think there are a lot of these markers along the route. I think there are a lot of these Lincoln Highway markers too and now we're headed to the Nevada State Museum. This museum features exhibits about Nevada's Native American heritage, as well as an underground mine that you can still explore. Check it. There was a big foot of the big basin. The highlight for me was the underground mining exhibit, which was interactive and had many different windows. about what the mine workers would have done while you were exploring the underground area the cubs are abandoning the Mayan exhibit because it's too claustrophobic definitely a little cramped up here there's a fossilized Colombian mammoth and some other exhibits about the history of the state of Nevada, damn, This beaver has like blood on its teeth, be careful when we are on Highway 50 because there is a human-eating beaver.

Lastly, if you go on the right day you can still see the old press in action and they will actually print coins that you can buy there if you want a souvenir. It was amazing to see as I have never seen a historic press working like this. We returned to our hotel after spending the afternoon in Carson City. Tomorrow is the official start of our trip down Highway 50. We start the day early. Since we had a long way to go and made a quick stop at comma coffee for coffee and breakfast, which is a great place in Carson City, from there we officially began our journey east on Highway 50, leaving Carson City towards the city from Dayton While There is not much to see in Dayton, there is a sign that shows that it is where the first gold was discovered in the state, so when we drive down Highway 50, we are actually following the old route of the Pony Express, so that there is a lot of Pony Express.

There's history along the way too, the Pony Express was a mail delivery service that ran from 1860 to 1861. It was only in service for a year and was then replaced by the telegraph, but it remains an iconic part of the western expansion of the United States. Along this route, you'll notice that we stopped at many Pony Express historic sites and Nevada historical markers. This is the site where the first recorded dance occurred in 1853, while in Dayton you can drive up to the Dayton Water Tower for a great view of the city and a historic cemetery Dayton Cemetery was founded in 1851 and is one of the oldest continuously maintained cemeteries in the state of Nevada.

I didn't spend much time here, but I imagine for some this is a great stop from Dayton. We retreated. a bit because I wanted to go to Virginia City, one of the best preserved old towns on Highway 50. Virginia City is about 15 minutes off Highway 50, but it's worth the short detour as it's a really fun city to explore the first thing you do. Driving into Virginia City, you'll notice the famous 19th century schoolhouse. The school was built in 1875. It has 14 classrooms, two study rooms and accommodated a thousand students. This is how you can tell how big this area was at any given time.

There is also a museum here, but it is only open during the summer, so we can't go in today. That's Highway 50 in the distance. We are in the mountains in Virginia City. The city of Virginia went through a great boom in the world. In the late 1850s, with the discovery of Comstock Load, a huge deposit of silver ore beneath the city, it was one of the first major silver deposits found in the United States and people from all over the country traveled to try to find his fortune. one reporter in town at any given time and the entire city feels like a living history museum.

One thing you have to do while you are there is visit the Silver Queen Hotel, which is a hotel that is over 130 years old inside the hall. what is known as the silver queen, which is a 15 foot high painting that has over 3,000 silver coins, of course you can also walk around, immerse yourself in history and visit one of the famous halls. You're the only person in Virginia City. On our way out of town we saw a museum called what it was and stopped to look at it. The museum is small but has many cool artifacts and antiques from the history of Virginia City.

Hey, dad, I don't think you. I'm going to fit in uh that's Surrey. This is an exact scale model of the underground workings of all the tunnels in Virginia City. That's crazy. The main thing I learned here is that the city is basically hollow and I wouldn't want to be here if there was. It was an earthquake in Virginia City, Nevada, riding the mine cart, this is pretty crazy. The first pipes they had were made of wood wrapped with wire. The roasting house is a great place to drink coffee. Plus, they have a cool outdoor seating area to have your coffee. see what you think about uh virginia city i love virginia city this would be every cowboy's dream to come visit here you're a cowboy i'm a wannabe cowboy the drive back up

highway

50 from virginia city it was windy and beautiful we found fall colors on our way through Nevada beautiful fall colors love it we found our first roadside stop on the trip down highway 50 it's a cactus building that I assume was for this old cactus market right here luckily the oasis restaurant it was connected to the cactus is already in its prime, but you can imagine it must have attracted a lot of visitors in the past, thanks, adventurous guy, pop says the cactus building looks like a damn octopus, i don't want to criticize what it's like That doesn't look like a cactus afterwards.

Debating whether it was a cactus or an octopus for longer than I'd like to admit, we got back on the road and headed to our next stop at Fort Churchill State Historic Park, which is also about 10 minutes south of Highway 50. We arrived at the remains of Fort Churchill, which is in the distance, there are all kinds of old buildings from the fort that was built in the 1860s. The fort was built in 1860 and provided protection for immigrants and Pony Express passengers while They were traveling west. It was used for nine years and then abandoned in 1869. You can walk a short trail through the fort grounds and see the adobe construction of the buildings that still remain in place.

Dad is reliving his life as a Nevada cowboy right now. He really feels like the old west here. Do you really think you could survive in the old west? I'd like to think I could, but I'm not sure I can. This area is also part of the California Trail, which was a wagon and foot path that took over 200,000 people west in In the mid-1800s, as my father and I were leaving, we saw a picnic area with colorful fall, so we had to go out and we found this cool picnic area that leads to Carson Creek, but look at all this fall color, it's amazing right now.

That's not a big river, to me it looks more like a stream, it's probably the time of year we don't get much fall color in Southern California so we took the time to soak in it every time we saw it in this road trip. You think puppies have absolutely beautiful fall colors. It's hard to want to leave this place, but we have a long trip ahead of us, so we must continue from Fort Churchill to return to Highway 50 and continue towards the town of Fallon. Fallon is probably the largest city. on Highway 50 and has everything from grocery stores to restaurants so be sure to stop if you need anything.

The city was founded in 1908 and be sure to drive through the well-preserved city center. We were in the town of Fallon and went to the Churchill County Museum, which is supposedly the best little museum on the loneliest road in America. Several people told us to stop at this museum while

driving

down Highway 50 and I can easily say that it does a great job of preserving the history of the area. and having fun, interactive exhibits to experience one of my favorite things was the photography collection they had in the old building, but there are so many other things and you could easily spend a few hours exploring.

This is the original shoe that used to be on Highway 50. We're going to look at a new one today, but here are some of the shoes they took from that tree. Check it out. Crown lice, can you eradicate them? I'm sick of this corona virus. Oh, you're doing your part. do your part to end greed 19. There is also another 4,000 square feet of space in the museum's west annex building that had some of the most interesting exhibits. It is called the annexed part of the museum. It's actually the best part because there are all kinds of cool old cars and things about the telegraph and the pony express all back here, it's a 1909 steamroller, that's really cool, this is a touring car from the page of 1919, what was the touring car on the travel page?

There's the Fallon public school bus, so they have a lot of jokes on the spot for kids, Dad, he'll tell us one. You're probably wondering why melons always have big weddings because they can't alert. After exploring the rest of the museum exhibits, we stamped our passport and then headed to the museum, we learned that this shoe tree is still alive and well, so we're going to stop at one of these thrift stores, buy some shoes To add to it, we did get some shoes for a couple of dollars at the thrift store, but in hindsight, it's definitely not necessary to do this since there are thousands of shoes under the tree that you can pick up and throw away on your way out of Fallon City. and head to our next stop.

Grimes Point. Fallon is also home to a large naval air base, so keep your eyes peeled, as you may see planes flying training runs above you. We are about 10 miles from the town of Fallon and are about to see some petroglyphs at Grimes Point. Grimes Point is one of the largest and most accessible petroglyph sites in Northern Nevada, I don't know if you can see it, but there are all kinds of planes flying around here. There is a naval base, so it's cool to see them flying through the air. There are some petroglyphs, at least I think they are old.

I have no idea they don't know what these petroglyphs mean, but this is probably one of the best we've seen here. ThisIt is a fun and family hike. It's fun trying to find them all on the different rocks. This sign says that. This whole area in the distance was beachfront property because it was a lake about 10,000 years ago it's no longer a lake. I think this is the biggest one we've seen so far. Oh, I don't want to touch it. The size of my hand compared to the fact that there are now four jets going through here.

This trail is less than a quarter mile, but we spent a good 20-30 minutes walking to see what we could find, so yeah, this is like a Thanksgiving wishbone. This was a great stop, especially if you have a family. There are tons of petroglyphs to see and it's fun to just look at the rocks and try to identify them for our next stop. I don't remember what Fallon is about. Quite remote, so be sure to stock up on gas before you set off. Our next stop was the sand mountain area. This is a cool little idea we just saw.

It's called random acts of art, art abandonment, so people paint these little works of art on these rocks and then you can take one with you Sand Mountain is a popular off-roading area about 20 miles east of Fallon. The sand dunes here are about 2 miles long and 600 feet high. I didn't get a chance to explore them much, but it seemed like. It was a pretty interesting area and there were a lot of people there. This area is also home to the Sand Springs Station and the former Pony Express station, which is one of the best preserved along the route.

We took a short detour down a dirt road to drive and see it. that's the Sand Spring station or what's left of it right there and there's a little trail out of the parking area. It's about a quarter mile across the sand to Sandspring Station, although it may not seem like much at first, these ruins are well preserved and give you a great insight into the life of a Pony Express rider. The site of the Pony Express station. This station was built in 1860 for the Pony Express and then a year later the telegraph arrived until 1861. I stopped using the station.

This little room I'm in now is where the Pony Express employees stayed and the quote says it was unforgiving, no chairs, disgusting and miserable and a smoldering fire in the corner doesn't sound like a very fun place to be. Walk through all the ruins and there are information plaques telling you about each of the rooms and the history. Time for a late lunch of a monster burger at Middlegate Station. You're going to go down it, no, from Sand Springs to Middlegate, it's about 20 minutes. Drive around, there's basically nothing here, but there are a few plaques designating historical points of interest.

This sign states: uh Fairview, which was a major town that had 27 bars during the mining boom, but now there's nothing. This is our lunch spot at the old Middlegate station. They have this crazy thing here called Monster Burger, so I'm going to check it out if you drive this route. I highly recommend that you plan to have lunch at Middlegate Station. Definitely call ahead to see what their hours are and make sure they're open and you basically have no choice between Fallon and Austin anyway, but luckily Middlegate Station makes a pretty bad burger, plus it's a cool restaurant to explore that really It's got that Highway 50 vibe ready for your monster burger.

So this is the monster burger we have here. Wow, it's amazing. You can order it and if you eat it whole, they'll give you a t-shirt, but we're going to split it, so go ahead and cut up the monster. God, now you have to hold on, you have to try to take a bite, though, are you kidding me? Yes, you have to try it. Ready oh man, the monster burger is a pound and a half of beef on a sourdough bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, cheese and fries. monster burger, so we didn't know what we were going to think about that burger since it's so big and gimmicky, but it was absolutely amazing that you guys have to eat that if it's going wonderful, very, very good, good burger, okay, we're leaving of Middlegate.

We have at least two and a half hours of driving before we reach our hotel, so I think the sun will set when we get there, but we headed to the shoe tree now as Middlegate station was easily a highlight for my dad. and for me, it's also only 10 minutes from the shoe tree. It looks like there are some shoes on that tree. I bought my shoes from the thrift store for the shoe tree. Well, Dad, he's got some new Nike golf shoes. New Nike leather golf. shoes look at that so I hope someone comes and finds them and takes them home 250 at the thrift store.

I think dad is a lot smarter in the way he tied his shoes compared to mine, it will be a lot easier to get to the top area of ​​the tree, okay, you better back off, you're ready, there's at least a 50 of Chances are you will miss the tree at least 50. This is the walk of shame, try to throw your shoes into the shoe tree, okay, pop, it's round two, round three. time is the charm, okay, great talk, let's see what you got, technically it took you three tries, I only have to do it in two oh, oh, yeah, it's not that easy, you want to talk about a walk of shame, I lost my brown shoes somewhere in uh this pile, oh, let's hang them on that branch right there where you can reach it, oh, success, success, so if you want to throw the shoes on the tree you don't need to bring your own, there are enough here, hops are trying to point out how.

He is excited that his shoes are on the tree. The beautiful Nikes, come get it if you are a golfer. The shoe tree is a fun little stop on Highway 50, but it's a lot harder than you think to put on your shoes. Tree Rock Creek's Cold Spring Station was an important part of the Pony Express. It's right there. We have to go back a little to see it. We were chasing the sunset on the way to Austin, but luckily there isn't much to see on this stretch. off Highway 50 anyway, there are only a few historical plaques along the road, so apparently for this station they don't want you to go in and disturb the ruins, so that's the best there is for this one, the highway The two lane road is really desolate and we passed very few cars as we drove through this section, it is beautiful and I can see why this road has become a tourist attraction.

As we walked up one of the 17 passes, there was another Pony Express station, this one was also behind barbed wire, so you couldn't go in and see the ruins. I'm not sure why some of them are protected with barbed wire while others can be visited freely. The sun was heading behind the hills providing a beautiful desert sunset as we headed to our last spot of the day, so at the top of this pass right here we go to our next city, which is austin

nevada

, There is definitely no cafe in Austin because I looked but I'm not sure what else is there as you get closer to Austin you can see a building Sitting in the distance among the trees this is Stokes Castle which is the main tourist attraction here and where We were hoping to spend the sunset.

We arrived at our last stop of the day under the light. This is Stoke Castle. Not a bad place to observe. Sunset Stokes Castle is a three-story stone building that was built in 1897 for a mining developer and banker who lived in the area, they only lived in the castle for a few months and is now run by the Austin Historical Society with the one we hang out with. here for about 45 minutes and we were the only people here, that's the road we've been driving on highway 50 the whole time, right around sunset to end the first day, we have an hour drive to eureka where we'll check in in the haunted hotel.

We will stay in tonight. Note that if you drive this, the only thing I saw open in the entire city of Austin was a gas station on the way out of town. There is an old store from the 1860s and we saw some deer wandering around. street, the next town after Austin is Eureka, which is about an hour away, so be sure to get gas in Austin if you need it. We made the rest of this trip in the dark and arrived at the Jackson House Hotel, a haunted hotel we were passing through. the night at this is the historic jackson house hotel in eureka in nevada it's supposedly haunted oh we see it so let's do some exploring pretty interesting the jackson house hotel was built in eureka's mining heyday in 1877 and definitely retains that spooky vibe , beautiful, there is like an open-air balcony on the corner of what was a 19th century hotel.

Once you check in at the hotel, you have a key to walk around the entire upstairs area. Also note that you have to call to make a reservation and it's only open seasonally check out this creepy kid's bed people were upset when you slept in the route 66 bed you're going to sleep in the kid's bed tonight we walked around for a bit the hotel at night just exploring but we didn't see any ghosts while we were there, let us know if you have a ghost story from this hotel in the comments. That's it for the first day of our loneliest road trip on Highway 50.

One thing to note is that on the drive from Austin to Eureka there is absolutely nothing. there is nothing to stop so get gas in austin if you need it see you tomorrow morning if the ghosts don't get us we survived the jackson house hotel and today we are heading to finish highway 50 which ends in utah and then heading to the park Great Basin National Park, it's a cool sign for the Lincoln Highway we're driving on right now. Also check out this Lincoln Highway sign, which is pretty cool. Before leaving Eureka, we took some time to explore the downtown area, which has some interesting things. murals and old buildings, plus there are three main things you'll want to see while you're here: the museum, the courthouse, and the opera house.

Our first stop was the museum, which is housed in the former Eureka Sentinel Building that housed a newspaper that ran out of the lower floor for most of the last century, the entire lower floor representing what the newsroom would have looked like in the 19th century and even has posters that were printed during that time on the walls. I have to say it was one of the highlights of our trip down Highway 50 and you should definitely stop and see it if it's open. A two minute walk from the museum takes you to the Eureka Courthouse, it was built in 1876 and renovated in 1995 and you can still walk to it.

We went up to the second floor and saw the courthouse. Our last stop in Eureka was across the street from the courthouse, near the Jackson House Hotel, and that was the Eureka Opera House. I didn't do the research beforehand but this was easily the highlight for me as this opera house was built in 1880 and it's amazing to see in person the structure was restored in 1993 and you can still walk backstage and see signatures from over a hundred years old from different artists. Admission was free when we were there and we were allowed to walk behind the stage and see the signings and climb the stairs and see the theater from above.

It was definitely a highlight for me in the town of Eureka and be sure to check it out if it's open when you're there from Eureka. It's another long and desolate one. An hour drive to Ely we passed several passes and passed very few cars during this section of the road. There were a few historical markers and Lincoln Highway plaques that we were able to see, but believe me when I say this is a desolate, windy road with very few places to stop due to limited cell phone reception and not much to see other than the sheer natural beauty of the northern Nevada.

We finally arrived in the town of Ely, probably the largest town outside of Fallon. On this road, in this city you will find hotels with casinos. multiple museums and restaurants our first stop was the Nevada Northern Railroad museum this museum is in the East Ely depot and has a lot of offices that have been preserved upstairs Hello sir, I would like a ticket, please put to my dad on the next train. Get out of here, don't give him anything, he's not trustworthy, new best friends, where's his mask? Sir, just outside the main museum is the railway yard.

The railroad yard here has been called one of the best preserved in the country and served passengers and businesses until 1983. After receiving a safety briefing from one of the museum workers, you can walk through the railroad yard and see the vintage trains exploring the northern nevada railroad museum. The railroad yard area is really cool, but it is very windy. Look, the tumbleweed is coming for me. Dad, he's going to attack him, look for tumbleweed, we head to what is supposedly the best part of this museum, the locomotive workshop, safety first, walking a quarter mile from the railroad or just driving allows youenter the old locomotive workshop, the locomotive.

The shop is still used to this day and there are people working on the trains while we were there. It's really awesome that they keep it open and allow you to walk around, see the work in progress, and see a lot of the cool trains. Look at everyone. These old trains we are exploring in this area are really cool. My dad and I took some time to explore this area and even got to talk to some of the workers who were working on the trains. Do you know what is it? the snowplow has never seen anything like that, that's really cool, what do you think?

It shows up and I guess a couple of these are functional. Wow, when it's the season, they can run around a little for the people. It's great, okay? We're getting out of this crazy wind. I'm going to get something to eat and then I'll go to another museum. We decided to drive back to downtown Ely and spend a little time walking the streets and seeing what the city had to offer. To offer, one of the things I noticed almost immediately is that there are a lot of really interesting murals around the city. Another Lincoln Highway sign in Ely.

This is the sculpture park of the Ely Renaissance Society, so all these different sculptures have an explanation right here, the sculpture in the center. The park was especially fun to explore, with some really cool art and lots of information about the Lincoln Highway. There are the bristlecone pines that we will look at today. Hopefully, if the wind is not so strong, we will find more murals on the way to the hotel. Nevada and we wanted to see the hotel during the day because that's where we would spend the night, so outside the Nevada hotel there are stars showing people who actually stayed here, like Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart, Ingrid Bergman, Wayne Newton, Pat Nixon, President Lyndon B.

Johnson. The Nevada Hotel, where the Walk of Fame is located, is the main point of interest in Ely. This hotel and arcade was built in 1929 and has become a popular spot over the years, even if you don't stay and play there be sure to do so. Poke your head into the nevada hotel as there are some interesting exhibits to see, there is also information nearby and a mural dedicated to all the mining history that happened outside of ely, plus there is a thrift store called the thrift store plus America's lonesome in Ely there is a steakhouse in the jail where you actually eat in old cell blocks, if that's something you like too, get our coffee fix in the mug if you need a coffee break in Ely, this is it a good place to have a cuppa in the center, from the center of our city.

The last stop in Ely was at the White Pine Museum established in 1959 this museum has a lot of history about the pony express and the area, plus it had the last stamp we needed for our book. We just received our last stamps from the trip. I survived the loneliest road. Now yes, we have not done it. I came back, this museum is quite overwhelming as it has a lot of things to see in a very small area. If you like the history of Northern Nevada, I'm sure you'll want to spend a lot of time here, but don't forget it. to see the cave bear, which is their claim to fame, this skeleton here is really cool, normally I'd have you put on one of these things for a photo, but we're in the middle of a pandemic so it would probably be nice to pick them up, say cheese, oh scary, wow, this is a horse drawn hearse from the 1870s, it looks like they're restoring it, but that's pretty crazy.

I had never seen anything like it before finding the outlaw in the last photo I put him in. jailbreak jailbreak Don't forget to visit the outside of the museum, which has some old train cars and other automobiles that you can see, as well as actual historical buildings that have been transplanted here. This is like a washing machine. What is this? If that is. washing machine and then and then you take the things that you wash and you run them through that and it runs them so it squeezes out all the water, you can hang them on the line or whatever that brings back the old days for you, seriously, when you had your washing machine like that, seriously, I can remember one day when my grandmother was all in a basement, she didn't really use it much.

This cabin was built in the 1880s. Along with the horse, we spent about 45 minutes exploring. this museum before leaving Ely and heading to our next stop, as I said before the drive from Ely is quite remote on a two lane road with only historical markers here and there, about 30 minutes south of Ely we decided leave Highway 50. Again to visit Ward Charbon Oven State Historic Park, don't forget to bring five dollars in cash to visit the park. We took a slight detour off Highway 50, this is about 10 or 15 minutes up the road, but these are really great charcoal. ovens they have here says these ovens were actually used as a bandit hideout at times this is what it would have looked like when they were in use these charcoal ovens look like bee hives and were used from 1876 to 1879 I can see how people he could have lived here, yeah, I mean, he's pretty giant, look how big my dad is, six and seven, and this is a pretty big area.

I've seen some of these ovens before in Death Valley but they're probably the best preserved I've ever seen, they said bandits used to hide here and you could see why they would like it, there are some of these little holes that you could go through. you could potentially shoot or something around it that you go in each one in each one, this mud between them almost feels like concrete on the outside, but on the inside it almost feels like just clay or just mud, that's crazy , things are gigantic at our next place as we leave the charcoal kilns on our way to the The state line in the national park was sad because our road trip was starting to come to an end so I think there are 17 steps in the route and this is Conor Pass which is the highest pass on Loneliest Highway 7722 in case you were wondering.

This is what the road trip looks like most of the time with the two singing along to old bands like The Eagles. Fortunately, I can't play ours singing one because it's bad and two because I'll get a copyright warning that will leave Conor Pass into Great Basin, this is one of the most beautiful areas of the trail, so we approach the Utah and Nevada border. That gas station is the official border. The end of the loneliest road in Nevada. This is the only thing on the Utah, Nevada border. there's gas and that's it, the next gas in that direction is about 80 miles, so know that as we enter we officially arrive in Utah ending our time on the loneliest highway in Nevada, but we will still head to Great Basin National Park.

It's very windy but this is definitely the only road I've seen where you can walk down the middle and there's no one driving after you reach the Utah, Nevada state line and finish the loneliest road we backtracked to Great Basin National . park, which is one of the main attractions in this part of Nevada, since it was during the pandemic in 2020, the visitor center was closed and the caves had been closed all year, which is one of the main attractions, no We didn't know if the road to the old Bristol Cones would be open because it was late in the season, but we were lucky enough to be able to drive the entire scenic highway on the last day it was open before it snowed the next day.

This 12 mile scenic drive is incredible as it goes. The road climbs up to 10,000 feet and you can see great views of the desert below you. Speed ​​Demon right here, almost at 9,000 feet. Baby pubs love these types of trips too. This is like his favorite thing, at least I'm inside the inside. It's just that my dad hates driving with big drops on the side, so we headed as slowly as we could toward Wheeler Peak in the Bristlecone Pine parking lot. We reached 10,000 feet in Great Basin National Park and headed out. On the Briscon Trail before the lights go out, expect the unexpected ancient bristlecone pines found in only a few places around the world.

You can see my dad and I's road trip down highway 395 in California to see another grove of trees in the description, it's only 2 45 right now, but it gets dark around 4 45 this time of year, so we try to hurry up here to see if we can get to the bristle cones and then head back down. Be sure to note the elevation if you climb here. We're at ten thousand feet and it can be quite difficult to catch your breath on the three-mile troop loop trail. This cave trail is the two most popular things in the park. The caves have been closed throughout 2020 due to Cobid.

That's why we're hiking this trail, first view of Wheeler Peak right there, point seven miles to the bristlecone pines, there's a nice bench to relax here too halfway there, that's where we start there now, we're up to here, something epic Viewed in the distance, Wheeler Peak is a towering presence on this hike at over 13,000 feet. I had planned to hike the next day, but the snow canceled those plans. I think that might be the beginning of some bristlecone pines, the old ones. It's not 100 down there, but we're almost there, this trail is beautiful and remote and my dad and I were the only people on it the entire time we got to the first safe old bristlecone pines, right there we arrived at the official site. bristlecone pine interpretive trailhead this interpretive trail is the point of interest here as it is a short little loop that takes you through all the ancient bristlecone pines and has information about them if you haven't seen these trees before they are quite incredible.

They are all gnarled and worn and are really great for photographs. Pops is demonstrating how you can find a good place to rest while you're in Bristlecones. I learned a lot about the trees from the plaques on the interpretive trail and how they only live at this certain elevation and on certain sides of the mountain, plus these trees are some of the oldest in the world. That's it for the little interpretive trail we're on. You can actually go out on the glacier, but it's too late. on the day for that for us so we will come back with incredible views on this trail that was an amazing little interpretive trail a great collection of trees this is one of the three areas in the world where these types of trees grow you can see my dad , nice visit to another one here in the corner and hopefully we'll get to the third one at some point in the future.

Look how epic this view is. I bet the trail to the glacier is amazing from there, it was 1.5 miles back to the car. To start the trip out of Great Basin National Park and return to Ely on the way down, we stopped at the Mather Point overlook and got great views of Wheeler Peak as well as a bit of a sunset with the clouds rolling in, we ran against the storm. We left Great Basin National Park and headed back to the town of Ely for our last night on Highway 50. My dad and I decided what better way to spend your last night on the loneliest highway in America than by staying in a historic hotel .

We chose the nevada and ely hotel as it was a good distance from the great basin national park and they allowed us to drive back to reno the next day so we checked into the nevada hotel suite it was less than 100 at this moment of the entire year, but we thought we'd treat ourselves, why not, that's it for our time on Highway 50. I hope you enjoyed this road trip with us. Visit Throughmylens.com for more information and see you in the next video.