Welcome to Nevada

Everyone pictures the neon of the Las Vegas Strip, but drive past the lights and Nevada becomes the emptiest, strangest, starriest state in the country. Highway 50 crosses the middle of it and is nicknamed the Loneliest Road in America, running for hundreds of miles past silver-mining ghost towns — and Nevada actually has more ghost towns than living towns. The desert is dotted with wonderfully weird sights: day-glo boulder towers called Seven Magic Mountains, a field of cars planted nose-first in the dirt, and Fly Geyser, a rainbow-colored geyser born from a drilling accident. Out east, Great Basin National Park hides caves and some of the oldest trees on Earth, and the skies here are so dark they are among the best stargazing on the planet. There is even an Extraterrestrial Highway near Area 51. Below you will find every Nevada map, trip, guide, and hidden gem we have.

• Nickname: The Silver State
• State metal: Silver
• State animal: Desert bighorn sheep
• State tree: Bristlecone pine
• State flower: Sagebrush
• State fossil: Ichthyosaur