Lately I’ve been interested in capturing space, emptiness, and solitude in my photographs, so when a friend told me about Highway 50 across Nevada, also known as The Loneliest Road, I knew I had to go.
It was a whole lot of both, which for this traveler was heaven. It was also a lot of moody clouds and only a handful of towns. So few I had to watch my gas gauge so I wouldn’t have yet another blog post in the mishap category.
This is some great driving, perfect for quiet contemplation or vigorous singalongs to the ’80s channel. Both of which I had plenty of time for.
Lord of the Rings geek alert: Nevada’s own Misty Mountains!
I’ll be sad when power lines go the way of rotary phones.
As usual, I found an obsession: this fence. So solid, marching its way toward the mountain.
And this: whose mailbox is it? Where’s the house? How often does the owner check it?
And, lastly, this: salt flats with all those sexy curves. Gorgeous.
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I don’t think you’ll need to worry about power lines disappearing anytime soon. It’s prohibitively expensive to put them underground. They do it with new construction because they’re digging trenches to bury other stuff, so they put everything down there at the same time, but digging up the street to put them underground in old neighborhoods when they’re already strung overhead is $$$$.
Deborah – Whew!
Beautiful Pix. The fence is particularly thought provoking.
Thank you, Jim! That is a great fence, isn’t it?
Went on US 50 last summer and am going again this June. Love this palce.
Ron – Lucky you! Enjoy.
I haven’t been on that road but we did travel on 375 also known as the “Extraterrestrial Highway” which also took right along the borders of Area 51. It was quite the ride and we saw noone on that road. We stopped into Rachel, Nevada for an alien burger at the Alien Inn which was covered by photos of UFOs. Dave actually saw a photo of the UFO he saw as a kid out the back of his parents’ station wagon on a trip to Arizona. He said that noone believed him until all the reports came through on the radio the next day. It was wild to see the photo decades later! Also the burgers were good!
I love lonely roads but lately I’ve been watching too many survival shows and realized we are never prepared for survival whether on a lonely road or a lonely hike. Do you ever think about this? Being stranded somewhere?
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Manisha – I haven’t driven the ET highway, but it sounds like fun! Interesting that Dave has seen one – I’m a firm believer that earth can’t possibly be the only place with intelligent life in the universe.
I can’t say I worry about getting stranded. I try to be prepared for trouble, and I almost always have cell service (and AAA), so in theory help wouldn’t be too far off if something happened. I also always have plenty of water and some warm clothes in the car if I did get stuck, although Sam would be a great heater, ha. My one big concession to caution is I don’t hike where there’s no cell service if there aren’t other people around.