Bodie — California’s most authentic ghost town — is preserved as a state historic park and a national historic landmark. Annually, thousands of visitors explore the former gold and silver boomtown. Maintained in a state of “arrested decay,” Bodie appears much as it did when the last residents left more than 50 years ago.
Roos-N-More, near Moapa, offers a hands-on zoo experience with more than 160 animals.
This spring, new facilities open for visitors to the 2,900-acre Clark County Wetlands Park on the eastern edge of the Las Vegas Valley.
Spring Mountain Ranch State Park boasts a superb setting at the base of beautiful cliffs within the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
One of Nevada’s best-kept secrets, the 65-mile Success Summit Loop near Ely offers some of the most beautiful scenery in the Silver State. The route skirts the rugged peaks of the Schell Creek Range, climbs a forested summit with splendid views that is closed in winter, and traverses popular Cave Lake State Park. Despite offering camping, picnicking, fishing, hiking, wildlife watching and plenty of photo opportunities, the loop remains lightly utilized.
The rugged Bitter Springs Trail lies not far from the sprawl of urban Las Vegas, but seems a world away. Designated a scenic back country byway by Congress in 1989, the 30-mile route south of Valley of Fire State Park connects old mining roads, a mountain pass and desert washes between Interstate 15 and the Northshore Road in Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Allow at least two hours just to drive the route, more if you stop to explore.
A chance discovery of ore rich in silver in 1900 by Central Nevada rancher Jim Butler sparked a mining boom to rival the fabulous days of the Comstock Lode decades earlier in Virginia City. When word of Butler’s find got out, a boom started that drew Nevada out of a deep depression. Soon, a camp called Butler grew near the site of Jim Butler’s original strike near Tonopah Spring.
