Saturday, March 10, 2012

Rhyolite, Nevada - Ghost Town At Night



I didn't really want to break from the Las Vegas theme of this blog, but this is close enough.

Rhyolite Nevada is a ghost town a few hours from Las Vegas.  Maybe 2 hours driving.  A few years ago I went there at night.  Coming upon the remains of the Cook Bank Building (top photo) especially at night, was mind blowing

Rhyolite has only a few lights, and at night is very dark.  Driving in the darkness, and seeing nothing except the road, and then suddenly seeing the standing remains of a building abandoned a hundred years is an experience.

The top photo is the Cook Bank Building.  Wikipedia has a photo of it from when the bank was still open.  Just search for Rhyolite Nevada.

I put flood lights on the building and left the shutter open a few seconds to get the photo.  It is scary standing there in the dark in front of the remains of that building.

The other photo is the Rhyolite Rail Road Station.  The tracks do not exist anymore.  It's like a Twilight Zone episode, a train station, but no tracks.  There is even a train signal remaining standing there as well.

The train station became a casino and bar (you can see the CASINO sign on the building).  I has also served as a museum.  It is fenced in, and supposedly in good shape, and owned by someone.

IMPORTANT:  If you choose to visit Rhyolite, make sure that everything is in order.  Police patrol the roads and small towns.  Speed limits might vary from 75 mph to 25 mph.  Real slow in Beatty, slow down in advance of the signs.  A police check point might pop up as well.  You do not want to be on vacation, take a side trip, and wind up in trouble out in the middle of nowhere.  Make it a clean safe trip, or do not make it.  Also, make sure you and your car are up to the drive.  Bring frozen bottles of water.  Be safe.


This concludes my deviation from the normal theme of this blog.

Thank you for visiting http://RoyVegas.blogspot.com

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