Goldwell Museum & Rhyolite

There were two more stops on my way back to Las Vegas: Goldwell open air museum and Rhyolite, a ghost town.  Both were located in the same area right outside of Beatty, NV.

Goldwell Museum was totally deserted except for me.  The silence and the weird ghost statues were a bit creepy.

I have never been at any public place in my life that was as quiet as Goldwell and Rhyolite.  I could see the highway in the distance, but I could not hear anything.  Just eerie silence.

above: the old schoolhouse and below: the main street

The Cook Bank Building – it was 3 stories tall and cost $90,000 to build.

The old train depot:

This was the Porter Brothers store.  The angle is weird because I was driving past.

The cemetery was an interesting experience…and I thought the actual town was creepy!  Totally silent, me trying to keep an eye out for rattlesnakes and other predators.  There was one other group of tourists that were coming in right as I was driving out of the town.  Otherwise I was at Goldwell, the town, and then the cemetery the whole time by myself.

I didn’t take a picture, but when I got back to the car there was a dusty handprint on one of the back windows.  It scared me!  I’m sure that someone must have done it on accident at Death Valley but I just never noticed.  How eerie to see after leaving the cemetery of a ghost town in the middle of the desert!

And then I drove through Beatty and back towards the strip.  On the way I had to take a picture of this:

A wild burro!  This was just one.  There was another one running around with him.

So that concludes my awesome day of sightseeing!  On the way back in I saw Big Dune and another ghost town from the road, but didn’t visit.  It is so overwhelming…there is so much to see!  Maybe one day we will go back and spend a longer time.  I was very proud of myself for driving myself around all day…and I made it back to Las Vegas and self-parked at Caesars Palace just fine!

Death Valley, Part IV: Scotty’s Castle

Scotty’s Castle is on every single list of things you MUST do at Death Valley, but I really didn’t get what all the hype was about until I actually visited.  There is a pretty interesting story behind the house.  From the NPS website:

“Hidden in the green oasis of Grapevine Canyon in far northern Death Valley, the Death Valley Ranch, or Scotty's Castle as it is more commonly known, is a window into the life and times of the Roaring 20's and Depression 30's. It was and is an engineer's dream home, a wealthy matron's vacation home and a man-of-mystery's  hideout and getaway. Walter Scott, Death Valley Scotty, convinced everyone that he had built the castle with money from his rich secret mines in the area. Albert Mussey Johnson actually built the house as a vacation getaway for himself and his wife Bessie. Scotty was the mystery, the cowboy, and the entertainer, but he was also a friend. Albert was the brains and the money. Two men as different as night and day, from different worlds and with different visions - who shared a dream.”

I got to the castle at about 2:55 pm.  It just so happens that the only way you can see inside is to take a 1-hour guided tour and it just so happened that the last tour of the day started at 3 pm.  Perfect timing!  Even though I wasn’t thrilled about having to take a guided tour initially, I quickly changed my mind because the tour guide was so great.  He was a fantastic storyteller and made the whole thing much more interesting than it would have been otherwise.

It was truly a beautiful house!

Scotty’s grave!

This concluded my trip to Death Valley, but my day of sightseeing wasn’t over yet!  Next stop: Beatty, NV to visit a ghost town!!