A Colorado State of Mind: Day 1- Aliens, Ghosts, and Cows, Oh My!

“A forest is mystery but the desert is truth. Life pared to the bone.”

— Keith Miller

Day 1- Extraterrestrial Highway to Tonopah

For weeks August had been telling his preschool teachers that he was headed “to the desert” for spring break. We would fly to Sin City late Friday night, hit up the Extraterrestrial Highway in the morning and follow it to Tonopah, smack dab in the Great Basin desert, and then drop way down in elevation in Death Valley National Park before looping back for our return flight. It was a new road trip that I was pretty excited for- I had first considered road tripping through Nevada years ago, and finally was making it happen. Routes had been traced out on my new Nevada recreational map, Moon travel books read and packed, and many spooky alien and ghost story podcasts downloaded. Friday evening of spring break week arrived, and we were off!

We were lucky to find cheap flights to Vegas out of Colorado Springs airport, which is basically like a huge sigh of relief after battling DIA one too many times. From the start, this trip felt easier than any other since traveling with two little kids. The boys are still little, but getting to the age where not every second on vacation is completely exhausting and chaotic. I never even ended up feeling like breaking into tears trying to check out of our hotel rooms (I’m thinking back to one incredibly stressful incident two years ago, in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, after a snowstorm, loss of power, and all of us oversleeping with only 20 minutes until check-out, as August was having a meltdown and Remy crawled out of the room and almost got taken out by a room service cart). Yeah, those were the good old days, now replaced by physical fighting and lots of shouting. Actually, the boys are, for the most part, pretty good on road trips, which is why we continue to put ourselves through a little bit of ~~hell~~ discomfort for some unique adventures and memories in return.

The excitement was palpable as we sat down for dinner awaiting our departure, and for the first time at the airport since having kids I was able to seriously relax with a drink (disrupted by immediate shock when we got the bill- $17 for one Moscow mule- cripes!). We arrived in Las Vegas without incident, and immediately headed north out of town for our first night’s stay- Aliante Hotel and Casino. Being a good 20 minutes north of the strip, our room was a great value for a Friday night in March and made it easy for us to get out of town the following morning. We were able to get up early, thanks to the additional hour from the time change, and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and late morning spent at the luxurious and perfectly heated pool and hot tub under breezy palm trees and sunny skies.

For $17 this Moscow Mule could be yours at COS.

Hotel Aliante's luxurious pool

Just the right amount of swanky

Leaving our hotel we stocked up on drinks, snacks, and lunch items before heading out into no man’s land. Last time I visited Death Valley, when August was one, I made the mistake of forgetting to stock up on diapers, and had to fork over $36 in the park for a not-so-large package. This time, we came prepared.

Leaving Las Vegas we drove through large expanses of Joshua trees and barren landscapes, and left any remaining traffic behind as we turned north on NV-375, the start of the Extraterrestrial Highway, named so for the reported sightings and the famously top-secret Area 51 military base. Immediately we took a pit stop at the quirky E.T. Fresh Jerky store (actually, it was more like a trailer) and bought some seriously good jerky, and a few fun alien themed souvenirs (one little stuffed alien that Remy would adoringly refer to as “baby” for the rest of the trip). I think part of the excitement of this stretch of road is its remoteness. Other than a handful of free range cattle, there was really not much of anything else on the horizon to see, as we listened to a handful of eerie podcasts like The Message, Spooked, and Monsters Among Us, to add to the ambiance. We decided against making the turn for the entrance of Area 51- 12 miles of dusty, unpaved road in the middle of nowhere, after seeing a very dead cow along the side of the road just prior to the turnoff (seemed like a bad omen at the time). I mean, what was really strange was that this cow looked like it just keeled over from a heart attack (can cows do that??). There was no sign of impact from what we could tell… it was just lying there, dead, on its side, and making me feel all guilty for the jerky I had just consumed.

Showing off our treasures from the E.T. Jerky store.

I chose a pretty great alien mug and jerky

Extraterrestrial cows.

Extraterrestrial Highway traffic

Just outside Area 51

The weather turned a bit nasty the closer we got to Tonopah, an old mining town with some neat history. Our stop for the night would be the Mizpah Hotel- voted the “most haunted hotel in the US” a few years back (podcast playing was promptly changed from aliens to ghost stories as we got closer). Driving over a few modest mountain passes a driving rain switched to blowing snow and all of a sudden I felt worlds away from our morning at the palm tree lined pool. We arrived at our haunted stop in the early evening and ran through the cold rain to reach the door to the main lobby. Immediately I was so thankful I had opted for this amazing historic hotel over the Best Western we had just passed. It just felt so authentic, for lack of a better word, and we were excited to find our room and explore the creaking hallways. Adding to the atmosphere was a perfectly spooky howling wind that could be heard in our massive room, boasting high ceilings, chandeliers, and a claw foot tub. We read about the hotel’s most famous ghost- the lady in red, a sort of “soiled dove” who died in the hotel during its heyday, and is said to whisper “hey you” in guest’s ears (I know, creepy, right?) and take rides with men who are alone in the elevator (I may have forgotten to mention this to Jerry when I sent him out to the car late at night for snacks). We spent the rest of our evening walking across the street for some fantastic pizza, and returning to explore the hotel a bit more before settling in for the night. We didn't see anything, but August was adamant on not going anywhere near the Jack Dempsey room, a small dining area and bar tucked away in a dark corner of the basement, as he seemed pretty convinced that was where the ghosts were hiding.