South down US-93, then west along the back fence of Area 51.
9:00 AM – 11:45 AM(On the road)· 2h 45m
Great Basin National Park, NV → Rachel, NVCommuting & Travel
South on US-93 through Pioche and Caliente — old mining towns with opera houses and not much else — then west at Crystal Springs onto NV-375, which the state of Nevada officially named the Extraterrestrial Highway in 1996 and signposted accordingly. Fill the tank before you turn.
2:30 PM – 4:30 PM· 2h
The Area 51 back gateQuirky Americana & Roadside OdditiesAnchor
Thirteen miles of graded dirt off NV-375 to a cattle gate, an orange post line, and a sign warning that the use of deadly force is authorised. That sign is as far as anyone goes — the photograph of it is the souvenir. White pickups watch from the ridge and will not talk to you. The base sat officially unacknowledged until 2013, and the airfield eight miles beyond that gate is still not on any public map.
Bring: a full tank · water · do not cross the line — the arrests are real and expensive
Groom Lake Rd, Rachel, NV5:00 PM – 7:00 PM· 2h
Rachel & the Little A'Le'InnQuirky Americana & Roadside OdditiesAnchor
Population about fifty, elevation 4,970, and the only business for sixty miles in either direction. The bar is papered in dollar bills and grainy photographs, there is a tow truck out front dangling a flying saucer, and the people drinking in it are a mix of tourists, ranchers and men who work somewhere they won't name. In 2019 two million people signed up online to storm the base from here; about a hundred and fifty turned up, and the town coped.
1 Old Mill St, Rachel, NVfrom 9:00 PM(Night)· unscheduled
The darkest sky you will see all tripFree / Rest Days
There is no light out here and no reason to go inside. Whatever else Groom Lake is, this is a genuinely extraordinary place to look up from — the Milky Way throws shadows. If something crosses it at an odd angle and an odd speed, that is the other reason people come, and the Air Force has been testing aircraft over this valley since 1955.
Worth pulling over for
On the way, if the timing suits.
Cathedral Gorge State Park
A canyon of soft bentonite clay eroded into cathedral spires and slot-thin caves you can walk into sideways. Almost nobody stops.
Open in MapsThe black mailbox
The famous UFO-watchers' landmark on NV-375, which was never black, never marked the base turn-off, and belonged to a rancher who got so tired of it that he took it away. People still pull over at the spot.
Open in Maps