Ely

We had driven nearly three hours on Highway 50 without passing another vehicle, just sagebrush basins and lonely mountain passes repeating themselves, when Ely’s casino signs finally flickered into view against the dusk. Life Magazine dubbed this stretch of Highway 50 “the loneliest road in America” back in 1986, intending it as a warning, and the state of Nevada promptly turned it into a badge of honor. Ely sits near its eastern end, a old copper and railroad town that feels like a mirage of civilization in the middle of the Great Basin.

Downtown and the mining murals

Ely’s compact downtown centers on the Hotel Nevada, a 1929 six-story building that was once the tallest in the state, its facade now hand-painted with murals depicting the town’s mining and railroad history. We wandered past storefronts still bearing ghost signs from the copper boom years and ducked into the casino for a drink beneath photographs of Wayne Newton and other celebrities who’d apparently passed through decades ago. Ely’s fortunes rose and fell with the White Pine copper district, and the whole downtown carries a faded, resilient charm that feels distinct from anywhere else in Nevada.

The Nevada Northern Railway

The real reason to detour to Ely is the Nevada Northern Railway, a beautifully preserved 1906 shortline that once hauled copper ore and now runs steam and diesel excursions out of its original depot and rail yard — one of the most intact historic railroad complexes in the country. Lia and I rode a coal-fired steam engine up through Robinson Canyon, cinders drifting past the open windows, and afterward toured the roundhouse where volunteers were elbow-deep in a locomotive rebuild. It felt less like a museum than a working time capsule that simply never stopped operating.

Great Basin National Park

An hour east of town, Great Basin National Park rewards the detour with alpine lakes, ancient bristlecone pines older than the pyramids, and Lehman Caves threading beneath Wheeler Peak. We hiked partway up toward the peak’s glacier, the only one in Nevada, through stands of gnarled bristlecones that a ranger estimated at over four thousand years old — some of the oldest living organisms on Earth, growing in what looked like barely any soil at all.

Getting There

Ely Airport (ELY) has limited commercial service, so most visitors reach the town by car via Highway 50 or Highway 93. It’s about a four-hour drive from Salt Lake City and roughly a five-hour drive from Las Vegas, both routes crossing long stretches of open Great Basin desert with few services in between — worth fueling up and stocking water before setting out.