When most people think of Nevada their mind instantly goes to Las Vegas, but there’s a lot more to Nevada than just Vegas. Nevada is actually the 7th largest state in the country, so literally there’s a lot more than Vegas. Outside the main tourist areas, Nevada is very rural with lots of wide open spaces. We recently got a chance to explore the less visited parts of the state on a road trip that took us to Northern Nevada.
This part of the state is so less visited that the major road that runs through it has been dubbed “The Loneliest Road in America”. Back in the day, Life Magazine gave the stretch of road this dubious title.
This part of the state is the complete opposite of Vegas actually. In Vegas, you’d be hard-pressed to find a place in the city where you don’t see another person. On Nevada’s HWY 50, you could easily go an hour and maybe see a handful of other cars. You also trade in the over the top buildings for small towns with populations in the hundreds.
To some, it might seem too quiet, to small, not enough action, but maybe those people aren’t looking hard enough. The highlights in northern Nevada aren’t going to slap you in the face like walking down the Vegas strip. The beauty here is in the details and in the stories of the past. There is plenty of natural beauty for those that want to find it.
ATVs climb the steep Sand Mountain – Shot from a drone
One of the biggest highlights, figuratively and literally on this road trip was Sand Mountain outside of Fallon. In this area, the desert is super flat for miles and miles, and then all of a sudden this 600-foot pile of sand just shows up. This recreation area is popular with off-road enthusiasts and dirt bikes and ATVs carve up and down this massive pile of sand.
There is so much to see just a short trip off the road you could easily fill a long HWY 50 road trip itinerary. There’s just a ton of cool stuff to see and do in this part of Nevada. Some of the best things we saw and did were the random and interesting things we saw along the way. Like any good road trip, the stuff that you quick slam on the breaks for always ends up being the best parts of the trip.
One of those moments on our northern Nevada road trip was when we saw a train barreling down this section of straight tracks alongside the road. We had our driver punch it and get far enough ahead of the train that we could get our drones quickly thrown together and shoot the train chugging down the tracks. After the train was gone we had improv photo shoots on the old wooden tracks. The scenery in northern Nevada is just hard to find anywhere else in the country.
We had a great group of other travelers with us as we explored the wide open road in northern Nevada. Just road trip company is another important element to a good trip. Thanks to Travel Nevada for showing us Northern Nevada and the Loneliest Road in America!
We explored HWY 50 and northern Nevada with:
- Siya from Hopscotch the Globe check out his videos he made on the trip on his popular YouTube Channel
- Spencer from Whiskey Tango Globetrot
- Carlos from David’s Been There
- Shane from Color Earth TV
- Ramona from Ramona Robbins Photography
- Taylor from OC Daily, Who was a great model for us see her shots on Instagram @hellcathamby something
A FEW RESOURCES TO PLAN YOUR TRIP DOWN HWY 50 IN NEVADA:
Thanks to Travel Nevada for inviting us on such an epic road trip! Like always all opinions are our own.