Blog
8 posts. Long-form notes on the towns, ghost towns, and desert country behind the atlas. Browse every location or view the interactive map
- NEW:Up US-95 in a Passenger Car: Devils Hole, Bonnie Claire, and Rhyolite After DarkA passenger-car day up US-95 from Las Vegas: Devils Hole's fenced pool, Apache tears near Scotty's Junction, Bonnie Claire's last houses, and Rhyolite at dark.
- Frenchman Mountain: Standing on a Billion-Year Gap East of Las VegasA trailhead east of Las Vegas leads to a roughly 1.2-billion-year gap in the rock record, and the exposure that a 2023 paper used to name a new formation.
- Cathedral Gorge and Great Basin National Park: Two Nevada Trips Worth the PlanningCathedral Gorge's bentonite slots are a half-day out of Las Vegas; Great Basin's bristlecone pines sit above 10,000 feet. Fees, seasons, and access for both.
- The Nevada Glow-Stone That Could Rewrite the Future of HardwareA Nevada chalcedony specimen with a persistent green afterglow raises a testable question about defect traps, photoconductivity, and future memory hardware.
- Valley of the Gods, Utah: A Loop Road That Isn't Really a LoopValley of the Gods is free BLM land through sandstone towers near Mexican Hat, Utah — but the 'loop' is a through-road, and its monument status is unsettled.
- The Solar Project Is Called ‘Atomic.’ Area 25 Was Actually Atomic.NNSS is building a solar project called Atomic while historic Area 25 remains a designated renewable-energy zone. Before that land is committed to solar, advanced nuclear deserves a real comparison.
- Eldorado Canyon, Nevada: Nelson's Ghost Town and the Techatticup MineEldorado Canyon's unsettled origin story, vanished river landing, and surviving mine reveal how southern Nevada's oldest mining district became Nelson.
- Beatty, Nevada: The Gateway Town to Death ValleyBeatty, Nevada is the last full-service town before Death Valley's east side — how to use it as a basecamp for Rhyolite, the park, and open desert.