On Walkabout On: The Extraterrestrial Highway

After a couple of days of checking out Las Vegas with my Australian buddy and his wife, he decides to ask me if I would be willing to drive them out to Area 51.  I was a little bit surprised because I didn’t even know you can drive out to Area 51.  He tells me it can be done because he had a buddy that drove to the front gate of the secret military base during his vacation to Las Vegas.

At the first opportunity that night I got on the Internet and saw that it is indeed possible to get to Area 51 if you can believe it.  I call my buddy’s room and tell him that it is indeed possible to get to Area 51 and that I had directions.  However, it takes about three hours to get out there.  He and his wife were not deterred and wanted to head out there the next morning.

The next morning we met up in the lobby of the Imperial Palace and I took them to have breakfast for the first time a Denny’s.  Needless to say they were quite impressed with how good the food was, the service, and price.  I had successfully made two more Denny’s converts who became addicted to Denny’s breakfasts during their time in America.  Anyway after breakfast we packed into my truck and headed on out into the Nevada desert.

Area 51 is located about 160 miles northwest of Las Vegas in an isolated Nevada desert valley:

Once we were out of Las Vegas and heading North on Highway 93 the usually desolate Nevada desert looked starkly different from any other time I had ever seen it since it was covered in snow:

Around Las Vegas there was no snow, but you could see that the mountains were capped with snow and here driving towards Area 51 the elevation was high enough that snow had accumulated and not melted.

Here is an image of my Aussie buddy just amazed to be standing in so much snow in the middle of the desert:

In Australia, you would have to be in the Victorian high country or the Snowy Mountains to see such snow. I on the other hand being from Colorado am used to this snow and is one of the reasons why I continue to be a four wheel drive owner:

The car I bought in the US is the Ford Escape Hybrid 4×4 which was shuttling us around the Nevada desert at a clip of 32 miles to the gallon.  Highway 93 eventually intersects with Highway 375 which is infamously known as the Extraterrestrial Highway:

This highways begins simply enough in a large open ranching valley surrounded by beautiful snow covered desert mountains:

Eventually the Extraterrestrial Highway begins to ascend up and over Hancock Summit:

After descending down Hancock Summit the highway then enters another long mostly flat valley surrounded by even more impressive snow capped peaks such as this one that Area 51 lies right behind:

At the north end of this valley and after a total of three hour of driving, we finally reached the small town of Rachel, Nevada that would otherwise be a place no one would care or think twice about if it wasn’t for its fame of being located next to Area 51:

Next Posting: The Two Gates of Area 51