It IS a creepy drive, though. Lots of dead bodies and dead dogs all up and down the 666 (Now the 491). :,( I had to drive by myself through there once a month for about a year. It makes you wonder how many missing people are buried out there in the lonely desert.
I love driving the Great Basin Highway--beautiful scenery, some quaint towns, and zero traffic. Just stay away from the brothels and slot machines and you'll be fine!
Yeah, I love that road, too! If you drive US-50 from Carson City to Ely, you can get "passports" at some of the small towns and a letter from the governor at the end congratulating you on driving the loneliest road in America.
I like it because it's the way the West was before all the people, development, and smog. The landscape is dry, but there's also pine forests in the higher elevations and things to stop and do along the road.
In many parts, there isn't cell service, but get your vehicle checked and let folks know you'll be on the road. Most important, enjoy! The Boner.
Without air conditioning, at least, which is how our family got to travel across Nevada back when, I thought it was hot, dry, and boring. Some people see beauty and love it. Not creepy.
Highway 666---beautiful scenery. Lots of fatalities due to drinking; it's illegal to have alcohol on the Rez; there at least used to be bars along the edge; people would get drunk, and in cold weather, then go lie down on the warm asphalt and get run over. There's poverty evident, too. But the scenery is beautiful.
Tony Hillerman, who has received a reward from the Navajo Nation for his accurate portrayal of Navajo culture, wrote a beautiful thing in one of his novels (re what I think of as poverty vs what someone else might)
There's a home that's been abandoned because supposedly someone died in it, and that's Navajo traditional culture. This is the key to the mystery being solved---because they would have built a brush arbor for the person to die in outside; the location of the home (Hogan) was too good to lose; It has a beautiful view AND easy access to water. I just love that! =)
Well I innocently rode up 666 on my Honda 305 back in 67 in the middle of summer.
I was headinging to Provo from Lordsburg NM and wouldn't ya know it, a bit further up the road just outside of Moab my engine had a heat sizure and died.
After it cooled down I restarted and made my way onward with wheezing pistons and finally made it to Provo after dark.
I absolutley knew the Lard was with me all the way.
Shummy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Well I innocently rode up 666 on my Honda 305 back > in 67 in the middle of summer.
Oh, yeah. My family always carried a full five-gallon container of water on those trips across Nevada. And you never pass a town without buying gas; the towns are too far apart to skip one!
It's about 70 miles southward to the next town. South of Ely, there are some very long stretches before the town of Panaca. From Panaca (a really nice small town) there are two other small towns to get gas. Afterwards, it's a long (but desert-pretty) stretch until US-93 merges with I-15 about 20 miles north of Las Vegas. The wind-in-his-hair Boner.