US-95 — The Free-Range Art Highway
Ninety-nine miles of US-95 from Tonopah to the Death Valley line — four mining towns, the International Car Forest and the Goldwell sculptures, and some of the darkest skies in Nevada.
The Route at a Glance
This is the spine of the Silver Trails — ninety-nine miles of US-95 running south from the high desert toward the Death Valley line, threading the four mining towns the boom built and the bust emptied. Nevada brands it the Free-Range Art Highway, and the name fits: strung along this lonely two-lane are some of the strangest outdoor sculptures in the West, set against ghost towns, open range, and skies dark enough to count as a destination in their own right. It is boom-and-bust history and free-range desert art on the same tank of gas.
Start in Tonopah, the silver camp that refused to die, where the mine sits in the middle of town and the Clown Motel keeps its two thousand clowns beside the old cemetery. Twenty-six miles south, Goldfield was once the largest city in Nevada and is now a half-empty marvel — a castle courthouse still in use, a grand hotel dark since the war, and just outside town the International Car Forest, where dozens of cars and buses stand planted on end in the sage.
From Goldfield the highway runs long and empty for nearly seventy miles, a stark and beautiful stretch of creosote and distance, before dropping into Beatty — the town water saved, now Nevada's gateway to Death Valley, with wild burros wandering Main Street. Four miles west the road ends at Rhyolite, the most photographed ghost town in the state, its stone bank and depot standing where a city died inside a decade. Below the ruins wait the Goldwell sculptures: plaster ghosts arranged in the open desert, the last and strangest stop on the art highway.
Plan on two hours of driving and a full day of stopping. Fuel is reliable only in Tonopah, Goldfield, and Beatty, so top off when you can — the stretch between Goldfield and Beatty has no services at all. Spring and fall are the seasons; the southern end runs dangerously hot in summer this close to Death Valley. Drive it north to south and the land drops away the whole way, from mile-high silver country to the edge of the lowest, hottest place on the continent, with art and ruins and dark skies the length of the road.
The Drive, Stop by Stop
4 stops along the route, in driving order from Tonopah to Rhyolite.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
That's the drive. Take your time, pull over often, and let US-95 — The Free-Range Art Highway do what it does best.
← Explore more of Open Road Guide