It’s 170 miles from Tonopah to Ely, all on US 6. US 6 used to run from Long Beach, CA to Provincetown, MA; at that time, it was the longest US highway in the country. Now it officially starts in Bishop, CA and is only the 2nd longest (after US 20).

US 6 does not serve a major transcontinental corridor, unlike other highways. George R. Stewart, author of U.S. 40: Cross Section of the United States of America, initially considered US 6, but realized that “Route 6 runs uncertainly from nowhere to nowhere, scarcely to be followed from one end to the other, except by some devoted eccentric”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_6

I think it would be fun to be the “eccentric” referred to!

US 50, which meets up with US 6 in Ely, was called “The Loneliest Road in America” by Life magazine in 1986 for the section running through Nevada. Let me tell you, US 6 feels even lonelier as it seems to have even less traffic than I remember from the times I’ve driven US 50. I was passed by two cars shortly after leaving Tonopah and then didn’t see another car on my side of the road until I hit the junction with NV 318 not far from Ely. As for cars coming the other way, they were scarce: at one point it was 17 minutes between vehicles.

One of the things Ely is known for is a great number of outdoor murals. I had planned on walking around town following the map I had downloaded, but the entire main street of town was torn up, making it very difficult to get around. And my next day there was my only day of wet, drizzly, and/or rainy weather. I’ll just have to hit the murals next time, because I enjoyed Ely enough to go back.

My first stop, then, was the Northern Nevada Railway Museum:

There’s not much to the museum exhibits; the fun is in seeing all the actual locomotives and rail cars. The two women in the gift shop were really nice and after chatting for a bit I asked them where I should have dinner. They both suggested “Margaritas”. Turns out that restaurant was in the hotel I was staying at and it was very good. Before leaving, I bought a ticket for a train ride the next day.

My hotel was the Prospector Hotel and Casino for the two nights I was in Ely and I loved it. Besides a good restaurant and friendly staff, they also gave out bags of popcorn at 4 pm every evening! The room was large and had all the amenities. It also had two bottles of Wolfgang Puck wine (one red and one white) to purchase with part of the proceeds going to charity. I had the white.

I had the afternoon to go exploring and the woman at the front desk suggested that Cave Lake State Park might have some fall colors to enjoy. The area around Ely is mostly sagebrush, pinyon pine, and juniper, so not much color there, but all the creek beds were full of bright yellow willows.

Next up was Ward Charcoal Ovens. I have been to some other charcoal ovens, but these were in really fine shape. They were built in the 1870s to produce charcoal for a nearby smelter. This means the area is just beginning to recover from being deforested. Fortunately for the rest of the trees in the area, the newly built railroads started bringing in coal for the smelter to use.

A note about the color of the sky in most of these photos. The pictures were all taken with my iPhone 13 mini. The only adjustments I made to them was cropping and maybe lightening up some shadows. I don’t adjust the color or tint at all. The sky really is that intense blue that I associate with my visits to the Southwest in my childhood and that I so rarely see any more.

Tomorrow will be trains and a short-faced bear fossil.