The Loneliest Road  – and Beyond

The thin light line bisecting the valley floor and reaching towards New Pass Summit is US Highway 50, labeled the Loneliest Road in America. The route spans from the shores of Lake Tahoe across central Nevada to Ely and the Utah state line. Heavy commercial traffic traverses the state on I-80 further to the north. A series of towns and settlements line the first 60 miles from Carson City to Fallon. Then the traveler begins to understand the lonely label. Services, habitation and bathrooms are few and far between. I’m sure I wasn’t the first traveler to be desperate at the first mini-market in Austin.

Since our lodging reservations were in Elko on I-80 we left the Loneliest Road and headed north on State Route 305 – even lonelier. We saw not a single car the first ten miles so decided to wager how many we would see on the entire 86-mile length. Bob said 10, I estimated 12. The total was 22 (plus I passed 2 vehicles). Most of the traffic was the last 15 miles near Battle Mountain because of active mining operations.

As we left our hotel to go to dinner we caught the shades of sunset in the wispy clouds. A not so lonely end to the day.