What’s the first thought that comes to your head when you think of Nevada? Las Vegas! Glitz! Glamour! Hot! Crowded! Sometimes, we think of Reno, too, and we associate Nevada with a vast desert landscape. All of this is true, but that’s only the surface. There is a rich mining history and a feeling that it’s still the Wild, Wild West. While there are alpine mountains, Nevada mostly consists of high (elevation) desert. It is barren, beautiful and wonderfully lonely. It’s a place that can take your breath away and where you can clear your head. It’s a rugged, sometimes freezing place that you can’t imagine how people forge out a lifestyle; but somehow you can see yourself spending time there. It’s a place that, at first, seems to be a land of misfits, but, strangely, it somehow beckons you . . .
Come on the road with me as I explore the rich mining history in the foothills east of Reno, then continue south on highway 95, where the White Mountains straddle Nevada’s border with California. On this route, we just scratch the surface of the true heart of Nevada on our way to Death Valley in California. There are no borders. Just magical desert for as far as the eye can see.