Big Dune Recreational Area

Wander towering sand dunes in Nevada's western Desert between Las Vegas and Death Valley National Park in Big Dune Recreational Area.
Wander towering sand dunes in Nevada's western Desert between Las Vegas and Death Valley National Park in Big Dune Recreational Area.
Strange things happen in the desert. It is a place of extreme temperatures and temperaments. It is a place of rugged self-sufficiency and creative invention born of necessity. Those that survive here are the outliers. And in the remote outskirts of the Nevada desert, along the border of Death Valley National Park, is one of the strangest destinations we have encountered: the Goldwell Open Air Museum.
Looking out the window while driving Nevada Highway 374, the land seems desolate. Sparse, dry shrubs dot the flat desert landscape, ringed it by mountains. Yet, drive two miles northwest on Rhyolite Road and there are the remains of a once-thriving boom town. There may not be much left standing in Rhyolite Ghost Town, but what remains bears witness to what was a rich and active town during the launch of the twentieth century.