Nevada Travel

Here are some highlights of my travels to Nevada:

Road Trips (PDFs)

Central Nevada Road Trip 2024

I headed to the Carson City/Reno area to check out mining towns Virginia City and Dayton, as well as to visit a few state museums in Carson City. Then I headed east to the Ely area for more sightseeing. I capped off the trip with a pair of rock art sites in the Basin and Range National Monument area.

Wet Death Valley Road Trip 2024

Heavy rain in August 2023 and February 2024 created a lake in the heart of Death Valley. So, I thought I'd check that out and do some hiking at other regional sites.

Nevada and Old Paria Road Trip 2023

I checked out some of the Extraterrestrial Highway and Basin and Range National Monument rock art sites before heading back to Old Paria for some colorful hiking.

Tri-State Getaway Road Trip 2023

For a short getaway, I targeted sites in and near Kanab, Utah, St. George, Utah and Mesquite, Nevada, including the Donkey History Museum. Although I didn't target any Arizona sites, I still had to pass through part of the state, thus the Tri in Tri-State.

California Gold Country and Great Basin Road Trip 2022

Surprisingly, I had never really toured California's Gold Country before. So, I targeted that region and tacked on a handful of other California sites before heading into remote northwestern Nevada in order to visit some more interesting Great Basin sites. Stops included the site of the first A&W, Nevada's oldest brothel and a trio of unusual Trump supporters.

California Deserts Road Trip 2022

After checking out the annual poppy bloom at Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, I explored Palm Springs and outdoor sites in the Mojave and Colorado Deserts in southeastern California.

A Nevada-Great Basin Region Road Trip 2021

I finally took another Great Basin road trip through central and northern Nevada, with stops in California, Oregon and Idaho, using an itinerary that I first put together a few years ago. In addition to my usual geology, pre-Columbian archaeology and paleontology sites, highlights included a handful of ghost towns and two nuclear test sites.

Sites Around St. George, Utah and Mesquite, Nevada Road Trip 2021

Mesquite, Nevada and St. George, Utah are close enough to Las Vegas that I could visit area sites through a series of day trips. But that just wasn't happening, and I had built up quite a list of places to see. So, I packaged several of these up into a 4-day road trip so that I could finally see what I had been missing.

Mojave Desert Road Trip 2020

I had planned on a more ambitious road trip through California's Mojave Desert sites last March, but COVID-19 pandemic closures cancelled those plans. For this road trip, I covered what I had planned to see on the Barstow stay portion of that earlier trip, including remote destinations just to the west and east of Death Valley National Park.

Southern Utah and Western Colorado Road Trip 2019

It was time for my annual Four Corners spring trip. I came up with a number of mostly new-to-me hikes and destinations around Page, Arizona, Blanding, Utah, Grand Junction, Colorado and Green River, Utah.

Death Valley and Goldfield Road Trip 2019

After returning from New Orleans, a relative and I took a 2-day road trip to introduce her to Death Valley and to check out some other sites in the area between Death Valley and Goldfield, Nevada.

Los Angeles, California Parks, Great Basin 2018

In September 2018 I headed to Los Angeles for a 4-day weekend getaway. On the way home I took the scenic route to Las Vegas, visiting some of California's famous national parks and then visiting some sites in the Great Basin as I made my way back home.

Great Unconformity Day Trip 2018

In May 2018 I took a day trip to some places on the eastern edge of Las Vegas. My primary target was an exposed segment of a geological feature known as the Great Unconformity, one of two intriguing geological features along the edges of Las Vegas. Other stops included the Rainbow Hills and Lake Mead's Wetlands Trail.

New Mexico and Southwest Texas 2017

In September 2017 I took a 2-week road trip around New Mexico and southwest Texas as I headed to Fort Worth, Texas to visit family.

Great Basin Sights 2017

In August 2017 I took a 9-day road trip around the Great Basin region, visiting sites in eastern California, northern Nevada, southeastern Oregon and eastern Oregon that I had dropped from a number of past trips due to time constraints (and last year's forest fire in one case).

Petroglyphs and Geology of Southeast Nevada and Southwest Utah 2017

In June 2017 I took a short road trip that included stays in Caliente, in southeast Nevada, and St. George, in southwest Utah, so that I could explore some petroglyph sites, geological sites and state parks in the region. This trip also included a stop at a museum focused on the westernmost known Ancestral Puebloan ruins site.

Great Basin Ghost Towns, Geology and Little Green Women 2017

In May 2017 I took a road trip that included three nights in the small town of Tonopah, Nevada; I had stopped there for the night on a handful of previous trips and had compiled a list of places to check out in the area; I took a California route back home that included some colorful geology and a place nicknamed Star Wars Canyon.

Desert Superbloom of California and Arizona 2017

In March 2017 I returned to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in southern California to check out a wildflower superbloom (result of the state's good winter rainfall), and then continued on to southwest Arizona to visit some sites there that I dropped from last fall's trip.

Exploring Nevada 2016

These are a couple summaries and photos sets from an August 2016 road trip I took around central and northern Nevada.

Slide Shows (YouTube)

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