Nevadas Extra Terrestrial Highway

A great day trip out from the lights of Las Vegas Is the Extra Terrestrial highway officially known as Nevada State Route 375. Starting from Crystal Springs around a hundred miles north of Las Vegas and running all the way up to Warm Springs.

The drive up from Las Vegas takes you along the Great Basin Highway, pretty much nothing but desert all the way. As you reach the turning from Great Basin Highway you will get the idea of what is to come. Opposite the junction you will see the E-T Fresh Jerky shop, a small souvenir shop selling various souvenirs and of course Jerky, but I'm not going to stick my neck out and say it actually comes from aliens! A little further on as you turn onto the 375 you will see a large sign for the Extra Terrestrial Highway and shortly after a large arched building with a giant alien outside. This is the Alien Research Center Gift Shop. Its worth a stop as it sells all sorts of alien based souvenirs and a great place to pick up a gift for a friend back home. 

We carried on through Crystal Springs and over the hills past Hancock Summit, then the road runs again through desert until you reach Rachel, a small outpost with a scattering of buildings and Little A'Le'inn Restauran, Bar and Motel. This Part of the road runs parallel with the Groom Lake secret airforce base better known as Area 51. We looked out for the road to the base but couldn't make out which one it was on the way through to Rachel.

We stopped off at the Little Aleinn Restaurant to have a look at their eclectic mix of alien ephemera, to have a bite to eat and to hope to get directions to Area 51 or at least where the road leaves the main highway out through the desert. The staff were really friendly and convinced us to try one of their alien burgers, they wouldn't be specific about the meat, they just said "it was out of this world"! The food was great, the staff gave us a detailed description of where to turn and we enjoyed looking at the alien related things scattered around outside.

Leaving Rachel, we retraced our route and kept our eyes peeled for a mailbox stuck out on its own at a dirt road junction off to the right. This we were told was around 20 miles back from Rachel. We found the mailbox and turned Right having a quick stop to look at what people had posted, mainly letters written to aliens. Then we continued along the dirt road known as Post Box Road until we came to a T junction, turning right again onto 51 Road until we came to the Groom Lake Airforce Base entrance, this was probably around 18 miles into the desert along the dirt roads.

Arriving at the entrance was a bit unnerving as there were signs saying this was a USAF restricted area, there was no photography or drones allowed and we were clearly being watched by a sophisticated CCTV system. There was also and SUV parked up on a ridge overlooking the entrance with what we assumed were USAF security guards poised to take us out if needed! We didn't linger, we turned around, but managed to grab a couple of photos as we did, then followed the dirt road back to the highway.

Finally we turned right at the end of the dirt road and returned back along the Extra Terrestrial Highway, back to Las Vegas for the night. What we didn't realise is that we had seemed to have picked up a couple of stowaways somewhere along the route!