Adventures on the Loneliest Road in Nevada

Highway 50 or the Lincoln Highway in Nevada is also known as The Loneliest Road. Highway 50 crosses, the country, but in Nevada, the western end starts in Carson City and goes nearly straight east across the middle of the state to the Utah border near Baker, NV.

We connected with highway 50 in Austin, driving south from Oregon. Stokes Castle is high on the hill above the small town, overlooking the desert, and is hard to miss. It was built in 1897 during the mining boom, but was barely ever lived in. There’s also a small scenic downtown.

Toquima Cave is about 30 miles southeast from Austin, part of that is on unpaved road. The short 1/2 mile trail to the cave starts at Toquima Cave Campground.

The cave is entirely closed off, but the view of the paintings is still very good.

On our way back to Highway 50 from the cave, we ran into some wild burros and scenic trash.

Hickison Petroglyph Recreation Area is about 25 miles to the east of Austin, right on highway 50. The site is run by the BLM and there is a campground. There’s a short .6 mile loop hike that connects 3 small petroglyph sites along with a couple scenic overlooks.

Illipah Campground is a free BLM run campground on Illipah Reservoir. It’s about halfway between Eureka and Ely.

Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Park, not too far from Ely, are a remnant of the silver mining boom in the late 1800’s. They were only used for about 3 years for making charcoal.

And right at the east end of Nevada, just before the Utah border is Great Basin NP. There’s a couple beautiful campgrounds, lots of hiking, really old trees, and even a glacier.