Nellis Range Tour

Nevada outback road trip 2009.11.16

I couldn't go to Las Vegas without going out to see the various military locations around the Nellis Range.  Besides wanting to bring to life some of the remotest areas and the "loneliest roads," there is something captivating about the historical uniqueness of this area.  The isolation, the potential secrets - the mystique.  All of it waiting "out there".  Here are the dark, hidden inner workings of the Cold War, and the who-knows-what activities that are surely still conducted.  So, with a large supply of water and a small but precise survival kit, one that would let Bear Grylls live comfortably, we set off at first light to circumnavigate this immense area.

After leaving Las Vegas the first point of interest was Creech AFB, There were a few C-17s parked, and a few Predators were being worked on out on the ramp.

One thing that becomes quite clear by the time one leaves Indian Springs is how perfect this place is for covert activities. The mountains seem to become a giant natural wall that seals off the NTTR on the south, west, most of the north and the east.

The next waypoint was passing the "town' of Mercury. If one could, taking Mercury Road into the NTS would lead past a nuclear wasteland of hundreds of Cold War explosions, and as the road turned into Groom Lake Road would go through Station 700 into Area 51 and out to Highway 375 by Rachel.

After a detour into Death Valley we passed some of the visible radar stations of the Tolicha Peak Electronic Combat Range.  Despite a Green Flag in progress, there were no aircraft out at his point.  With the exception of Goldfield, an extremely aged and run-down gas-less town, there is nothing between Beatty and Tonopah.  Well, except a few brothels (some shut down), some radar domes, a strange hillside construct,  and a gas station abandoned eons ago about 25 miles north of Beatty.  After six hours, we reached Tonopah, where we stopped for lunch and to gas up for the remote leg of the trip.

We then set out on Highway 6, the "Grand Army of the Republic Highway" (a name which makes me hear the voice of Emperor Palpatine). This highway runs along the north side of the Nellis Range and through the heart of the flight operations, as the Desert and Reveille MOAs extend far beyond the NTTS.  Coming out of the Tonopah mountains into the Ralston Valley really gives an introduction into the type of terrain in this region. One can see for twenty miles to the next range, but in that visual space there is nothing.  Eventually, as one seems to be making no progress to the other side, roads begin to pop up.  After passing the derelict Tonopah Airport, we came to the entrance of the Tonopah Test Range, the original and final home of the F-117.  Unfortunately there were no B-2s (or anything else) flying weapons tests.

Looking down AR502 to the Tonopah Test Range

Upon reaching Warm Springs - which is one abandoned building: The Warm Springs Bar & Cafe (apparently built in the late 70s and probably shut down in the late 80s), we turned on to the "Extraterrestrial Highway".  Although one could continue on to see other interesting things: the Base Camp airfield a few miles up and the nuclear test sites of Project Faultless and Halligan Mesa. At this point we had passed approximately nine cars since leaving Tonopah.

The first thing one sees past Warm Springs are signs warning of "Low Flying Aircraft", the one here being to changed to "Cow Flying Aircraft". Despite these signs in the valleys of Reveille, Sand Spring, Tikaboo, and Pahranagat, there were no indications of any aircraft.  After progressing through the first valley, the road begins to turn through the mountains and into open range farms.  This stretch of road gets really long, and attention is required to avoid the cows in the road.  The only objects of interest is the occasional body of water, some of it iced over.  As expected, the most treacherous part of the journey was between Tonopah and Rachel, particularly after Warm Springs.  Finally, after about half an hour without any signs of humanity, a truck passed near the Twin Springs Ranch.  From here there were about four cars before Rachel.  After passing the Cedar Gate turnoff and entering Queen City Summit Pass, the Sand Spring Valley finally opened.  The first thing that was noticeable was a truck moving behind The Farms, possibly to the Area 51 back gate. Secondly the white dots of Rachel were visible, although still twenty miles away, as Rachel sits at the south end of a massive bowl, north of the highway is twenty-five miles of nothing.

After stopping to look down the road to the back gate of Area 51, we headed up to Mailbox Road.  Here we stopped at the infamous black mailbox.  Some pictures I've seen showed it sporting a KQRS sticker, but this seems to have been removed by 2008.  As I photographed it, I noticed that truck parked here was an Area 51 security vehicle, with a Camo Dude listening to the radio (which is apparently an unusual occurrence).

Moving on, we came to Groom Lake Road after a nine hour drive.  A fast moving vehicle could be seen approaching Groom Road from Mailbox Road.  As this was my first excursion to the area, everything felt intense, and I didn't feel like waiting for whomever it was to show up. 

Once again, the sky was silent.  There were no exotic, uber-secret flight tests coming from over the mountains.  And there were no B-1s, B-52s or A-10s making bombing runs on Range 61.  The day was beginning to fade, and after a few brief moments it was time to move on from the surreal, serene isolation back to the hyper-real kinetics of The Strip.  Making our way back into mountains, the terrain seemed less isolating.  We passed the new Alien Research Center and the shell of the original Alien Jerky building as we moved on to Crystal Springs, a wonderful shaded lake, where there were a large number of vehicles parked without anyone in sight (possibly a commuter lot for clandestine contractors?  As it has been reported that cars parked here are unusual, it would seem to indicate extra activity in the area.)

Driving down through the peaceful Pahranagat Valley, the sun began to slowly set, casting a red light. The calmness was unbroken as no Red Force aggressors were coming in from Caliente. At Alamo, 170 miles from the last gas station, we filled up.  Once dark, the drive seemed to feel long, this stretch didn't really have much to see.  Finally the darkness was broken by the intensity of the Las Vegas lights.