RonnieAdventure #0139 - The "Extraterrestrial Highway," Lincoln County, Nevada

Traveling westward on the “Extraterrestrial Highway” was a nice, quiet trip with almost no other traffic in either direction. The pavement was in good condition and the road ran in a straight line for miles-and-miles. This is open range country, so we saw range cattle along the road and a few large birds flying overhead. With the exception of some Joshua Trees in various locations along the road, the area is similar to other northern Nevada locations.

After about 40 miles we came to the small community of Rachel, which consists of a few mobile homes, a bar/restaurant, and the Little A’Le’Inn. The bar is famous and has been featured in a number of movies, but I can’t say the same for the Inn. (Just outside of the bar is a time capsule that was encapsulated to commemorate filming of the movie Independence Day.) 

Even though they did not have valet parking, there was a nice welcome mat at the front door of the bar and a large locator beacon in the front yard that was so bright you could not look directly at the structure. They also had some fossils on display that were discovered just a few miles down the road.

The area around Rachel is restricted air space because the community of Rachel is located just north of the Federal Government's Top Secret facility known as Area 51. (Until 2013 the US Government denied that there was such a facility named Area 51, but then the Russians published satellite photographs of the facility which proved otherwise.) 

(Source: Google Earth)

There have been a number of plane crashes in this area, including a military F-16 that crashed less than 100 feet from one of the mobile homes in Rachel. There is some speculation that some of the sophisticated equipment used at Area 51 has something to do with the crashes. 

Just before we arrived, a small craft crashed outside of Rachel and the tow truck had just carried the wreckage back to town for repairs. The pilot and his family were in the bar/restaurant, but they were not very talkative. I think they were still in shock because they just kept standing against the wall staring at the floor. One of the older individuals that had been on the craft just kept standing at the window looking for someone or something. Apparently, they were on their way home from a family reunion in Wyoming when they crash landed. 

Anyway, we had an uneventful day in Rachel and on the way home we were treated to beautiful golden sunset that was highlighted with some large birds that followed us for a number of miles.