4x4tographer 2,712 Posted April 8, 2021 No, this isn't the latest title in your favorite series of books in the wizarding world - its a collection of interesting information I stumbled across and thought might be interesting to some of you! This post has no particular point other than to share what I found, and walk you some strange series of "one thing led to another" as I was browsing for "dream trip ideas". As some of you know, I'm an astronomy and astrophotography junkie, so this type of stuff had me pretty excited. The Loneliest Road in America Starting off - here is a great article I read on Nevada leg of the US-50 which was dubbed "the Loneliest Road in America" back in the 80's - the premise being that there was literally nothing along this 280+ mile stretch of tarmac. The Dark Rangers & The Great Basin I then ended up on this amazing article about the Dark Rangers who are experienced Forest Rangers who specialize in dark sky astronomy. There are apparently a number of them at Great Basin National Park, one of our newer National Parks. Great Basin is in Bortle Class 1 skies and ranked as the BEST dark sky park in the USA. Link to Great Basin's astronomy program Great map for finding a dark sky site near you What is the Bortle scale? Nevada Offroad Trails So finally, as I unwrap this stream of consciousnesses, I found this fantastic map of trails in Nevada. It honestly reminded me a lot of TrailsOffroad.com, but state sponsored. Nevada has really pulled out all of the stops when it comes to OHV travel on state lands. Every trail has a description, tracks, PDF downloads of maps, directions and more. All of their information ties back in to responsible off-road recreation, safety, and other related information. It's pretty genius, and thats coming from someone commonly critical of government. This particular set of tracks is just north of the Great Basin NP and is noted for some excellent views of the mountains, like Wheeler Peak. Another great thing about Nevada's OHV site is that you can click on any of their tracks to see updated information regarding status, trails width, vehicle types, etc... 2 1 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shellback91 1,733 Posted April 8, 2021 That is some good info Ryan. Nevada is is one those weird states where no civilization is not a bad thing. Once you get out of Las Vegas & Reno it is pretty desolate but awesome. When I drove truck I used to love driving through the remote areas. No light pollution at night really brought out the stars and it was peaceful for lack of a better word. New Mexico is another state that's is sparsely populated similar to Nevada & Utah. Driving through new Mexico at night during electrical storms was a pretty trippy experience. 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dzJeepChic 2,435 Posted April 8, 2021 Nice finds, @4x4tographer! I've also been interested in the bevvy of trails and areas to explore in Nevada. We drove through Nevada on the way to Northern CA several times, and Shellback is right - there is some serious desolation in that state! We're excited to have closer access to Nevada and California trails after we move, and hope to lead some adventures up there. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
