The clouds went away overnight and left today to be another blue sky sunshine day of 82 degrees. Our mission today was to visit Rhyolite, an historic townsite in Nevada, just outside the Death Valley boundary. Just prior to Rhyolite is Goldwell Open Air Museum. The office was closed but we were free to wander the grounds and take pictures.
The Last Supper
Then just up the hill from there is the old ghost town of Rhyolite. In 1904 some prospectors found gold here. A town quickly popped up and grew to about 8,000 people. Then around 1908 the mines began to fail and the people moved out. The population in 1920 was only 14.
The Bank
Tom Kelly’s Bottle House, Erected in 1906. He built the three room bottle house to raffle it off. It served as a private residence for many years.
Tom Kelly’s Bottle House
Train Depot
After exploring the town we drove to nearby Beatty for lunch and filled up with gas at the low low price of $3.19, way better than the $4.35 at Furnace Creek! We spotted three burros going into town.
On the return trip we took the road to Titus Canyon. Wow, what a trip! We were warned that we needed a 4×4 high clearance vehicle and they were so right. Parts of it were certainly a challenge for our little Jeep Cherokee, a bigger Jeep with heavy-duty tires would have been better, but we made it through! And so glad we did…it was a gorgeous drive! Here are just a few of the 200 pictures I took today:
And finished up the day with another nice sunset.
Sunset at Furnace Creek
- Gasoline: $30 @ $3.19
- Lodging: $6
The Nomadic Life 
Thanks for the pictures and another great blog! We are headed west come January and are really looking forward to visiting some of the same places.
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Great! I hope you have has much fun as we are 🙂
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Fantastic Photos! You sure are having the adventure of a life time Enjoy!!!!
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And the pictures don’t even do justice to what we actually saw, it was so beautiful. Thank you for the comment.
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Lightning destroyed a building or two last year @ Rhyolite. Really is a neat place to visit, Have you done Scotty’s Castle yet? Also, Titus is an awesome road as well – better on two wheels tho 😉
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Did Scotty’s Castle yesterday, took the tour, that was very interesting, loved it. We did see the remains of a burned building at Rhyolite, wondered what had happened. Hate to see historic buildings go like that. Glad it wasn’t vandalism. Cant imagine driving to Titus Canyon on two wheels!! No way! -Marsha
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You really outdid yourself today – the pictures are tremendous. Can’t imagine how they could build a road through there, really liked the burros and Bernie’s couch. What are those statues made of? Are they just out in the open?? Such an interesting day that you had !
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Not sure what the statues are made of. Bernie thinks some kind of plastic resin or maybe fiberglass. They are within a open fenced yard with a parking lot. There was a little museum building there but all locked up.
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We are enjoying you daily blog very much. We feel like we are traveling with you. Thank you for sharing your travels with us. Verlyn and Carol
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Thanks! Great to hear from you. Hope you are keeping warm and cozy up there. We know you got snow!
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