Stargazing
Two-thirds of Americans can't see the Milky Way from home; out here you can see fifteen thousand stars on a moonless night. That's the draw. The desert's dry, high, empty air makes the West one of the last easy places to meet a truly dark sky, and it asks almost nothing of you — pick a night near the new moon, bring a red light to save your eyes, let them adjust for twenty minutes, and look up. The show has been running the whole time. You just have to leave the lights behind.
Scenic Byway 121
Scenic Byway 12 / UT-631
UT-241
I-40 / I-171
US-501
SR-641
I-701
US-932
Cathedral Gorge State Park
A drained ancient lakebed eroded into buff-colored spires and narrow slot "caves" — one of Nevada's first state parks, and the gentle, otherworldly counterweight to the Silver Trails' ghost towns.
Pioche
The silver camp that, by legend, out-killed the Old West — Boot Hill's boots-on graves, the graft-ridden Million-Dollar Courthouse, and an aerial tramway still slung over Main Street.