A panorama from a random stop along the road. Click for a bigger version.

After a brief stop to get some much needed ZZZs in Redding we piled into the car early Wednesday morning and headed for the hills – literally. Whereas Google Maps claimed the I-5 route down the coast through Sacramento and then up again to Las Vegas was the quickest by several hours, Jill, our intrepid Garmin personality, had other ideas. She said the route across the mountains was slightly faster and honestly, we didn’t need much convincing: The prospect of driving 13 hours on a highway was not very enticing. Fortunately for us, Jill turned out to be right and the trip across the mountains was truly spectacular – so much in fact I would consider doing it again, though not in one day.

The trip took us along CA-44 to Reno before heading down I-95 to Sin City passing through numerous tiny towns on the way. We shared the driving load so each person only drove for about 2.5 to 3 hours total and had frequent stops along the way to take pictures and get food. Our original idea was to stop in Reno for a bite to eat, but honestly, Reno looks like it has been pretty much abandoned maintenance wise since the mid-80s and was very unappealing so after some driving around in circles we moved on to Fernley and got $4.99 cheeseburger baskets instead. On the way we passed several weird flat areas that our map claimed were “lakes” and “reservoirs” though there was no water and they were either overgrown with grass or covered in sand or salt. I guess that’s the result of the extreme drought California has been experiencing for the last several years.

A lake in the desert

Water, desert, mountains and snow by Walker Lake

It wasn’t until we came to Walker Lake that we actually saw some water – and here there was plenty of it. The vista was spectacular if bizarre: On the bottom to the left of the road was the huge and bright blue lake. All around were the brown sandy mountains and to the right was a massive snow-capped mountain more akin to the British Columbia interior than the Nevada Mountains. After a short break to take some photos we drove on and hit an area called Hawthorne. I say “area” because although it looks like a town, it’s almost completely deserted. On the left you have the tiny town of Hawthorne while on the right and further down the highway there is an enormous army depot and hundreds of bunkers (you can see them on Google Maps).

Saved by the Hard-Rock Market in Mina

From Hawthorne we drove onwards along the Veterans’ Memorial Highway when after about half an hour we discovered that we were very quickly running out of gas. Not cool. What do you do when you’re in the middle of a mountain desert with no cell reception, the sun quickly fading, few cars passing and no clue how far it is to the next town? Do you turn around and drive for another half hour hoping you won’t run out or do you continue onward in the hopes there is a town somewhere close by? We asked Jill (the Garmin GPS system) who told us to go a couple of kilometers up the road and then turn around back to Hawthorne – a ride that was estimated at a full 45 minutes. Considering how long we had driven with only one bar left on the fuel meter there was no way in hell we’d make it back to Hawthorne. Scary stuff. But a closer look at Jill’s map showed that the turning point up ahead was a tiny town called Mina. We crossed our fingers and hoped that Mina would have a gas station. And 10 minutes later it turned out it did – one called “Hard-Rock Market”. Can’t tell you what a relief it was to find that place.

With a full tank and fuel for ourselves as well we left Mina (and its curious onlookers) behind as the sun started to set. Unfortunately we were going eastward so the spectacular sunset was behind us and we had to stop to truly appreciate it. The low sun threw crazy shades along the mountains and desert formations and Kim and I kept gawking out the window instead of paying attention to the road. Which was fine, because we were pretty much the only car on the road and the road is as straight as if someone laid it down with a ruler.

Tonopah – a true frontier town in the middle of nowhere

Just as the sun was dipping below the horizon we came up on a row of mountains that looked like a big dragon had taken pieces out of it with its giant claws. As we climbed in between the hills another small town started to appear with a new settlement on the left side and an old and close to abandoned mining town on the right. The very first thing that met us as we entered the town was a huge sign saying “Clown Motel”… not exactly a good first impression. But as with many other things the first impression is not necessarily the correct one. Driving further into the town, which has the weird name Tonopah it turned out to be a true and well preserved frontier town with buildings dating back to the late 19th century. Though many of them are obviously abandoned the majority of the town looks not only inhabited but well kept. There are several museums covering the towns mining history, the old railroad and the frontier life and just from what I saw driving through I can say there is a lot to see and I wish we had time to stop and stay for a day or two just to explore everything. There were several major motels and I saw camper vans parked along the road and in lots throughout so Tonopah is obviously a well hidden tourist gem. If ever we find ourselves in a car around Las Vegas and we have a few days to spare I’m definitely driving back to Tonopah to see what’s there.

Dark road, starry skies

The Milky Way in all its glory (click image to see a bigger version)

Leaving Tonopah the sky quickly transitioned through deeper and deeper shades of blue until it hit the blackest of black. And with the dark came the light – the brightest starry sky I have ever seen anywhere outside of Svalbard close to the North Pole. No moon meant that every little star popped out like a tiny hole in a black canvas and after driving through this wonder of nature for a few hours Kim and I decided we really couldn’t get the full experience while blasting down the highway at 75mph. So we stopped at a humongous rest area, woke the girls, got out and turned off all the lights in the car. What met us was a truly spectacular starscape that gave us a clear view of not only the major constellations but also the Milky Way going straight up from the south west and crossing right over our heads and down on the other side. I shot a series of long exposures with my 5DMKII on a Gorillapod on top of the car. Unfortunately I forgot to set the ISO manually so all of them were shot at 3200 which meant a lot of grains. Even so the photos show the crazy starry sky in most of its spectacular beauty. As we stood there all I could think was how much we are missing by living in cities that outshine the starry skies.

From our rest stop it was pretty much straight (literally) driving all the way to Las Vegas. I know we passed by a bunch of other interesting towns and sights, but since there were no lights there really was nothing to see. It’s actually quite creepy driving through the night like that because the road is straight like and arrow and you have no reference points to tell you how far away you are from the cars that are coming toward you in the opposite lane. At one point I started checking how long it took from I first saw a pair of headlights till I actually passed the car. I got to about 10 minutes which means if we both were going around 75mph it was well over 30 km away when I spotted it. That’s pretty impressive but there really is no way of knowing how far away the car is until it gets scary close which means passing other slower cars is a truly harrowing experience. Bottom line is if you don’t have years of experience driving in the dark like Kim and I do and you don’t know how to use your high-beams properly you really shouldn’t do this drive in the dark: Better stay in Tonopah or one of the other old mining towns along the way and take the long stretches during the day. But like I said, Kim and I were born, bred and learned how to drive in Norway where the sun goes down at 4pm and comes up past 10am for 3 months of the year and “Dark Driving” is a mandatory class to get your driver’s licence so we have our night driving down pat.

From quiet desert to Vegas hell

The entire trip from Redding to the outskirts of Las Vegas was quite enjoyable, if long. But entering the roads around Sin City and trying to find our way, even with Jills help, was pure hell. Holy crap there are a lot of cars in Vegas even at 11pm on a Wednesday. And they are all driven by demolition derby wannabes. Even the Strip itself is packed with maniacs that remind me of Goofy’s Mr. Wheeler. But eventually we found our way to our chosen destination, TI (formerly Treasure Island). Unfortunately it turns out TI has “flexible rates” that go up progressively during the night so because I was stupid enough to not book the rooms in advance online they were a full $20 more expensive than a few hours earlier. Checking the internet we found alternative accommodation at the Luxor for $50 per night so we jumped back in the car and drove there instead. But at the desk they gave us a price of $79.99 per night so while the clerk stared at us in dismay we pulled out our laptop and booked $50 rooms from Expedia right there at the desk. Take that stupid Las Vegas hotel people! With the room booked and keys picked up we spent about 10 minutes finding the parking area, which is well hidden in a separate building behind the Luxor before we all collapsed into the room at around midnight.

It may sound like we had a horrible run but it was actually quite enjoyable and something that will live in memory for quite some time. Although I would recommend doing the crossing in more than one day and I would have liked to stop at Tonopah and a couple of the other places we passed by I highly recommend taking the trip if you’re coming down from Oregon on your way to Las Vegas. With one major caveat that is: This drive is not recommended during the mid-summer and mid-winter season. The summers up there are supposedly unbearably hot and unpleasant. Likewise the winters are biting cold and the entire mountain region is prone to high winds (which we experienced), dense fog and snow – none of which are ideal conditions for a safe crossing.

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