Rhyolite
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
5 reviews for Rhyolite
Rhyolite: an igneous rock composed of light-colored silicates, usually buff to pink and occasionally light gray.
Come here and envision the past: 49ers, conmen, the gold rush, western expansion, saloons, "the old west", cowboys, miners, boom & bust.
This is the past. This is a ghost town. Rhyolite once housed thousands of people, up to possibly 8,000.
This is amazing to visit & experience. When in Death Valley, take California 190 north and turn to the Beatty cutoff road and after about driving 25 miles through the mountains, you will get here.
Tons of old remnants of this old western town. Paramount Pictures also started filming here in the 90's, so there are some cool added ghost like statues. I love the one where the ghost is holding a bike!
The preserved building of the bottle house, Mercantile building, and train station are amazing! There is also the school, saloon, and some other somewhat preserved buildings!
If you are in Death Valley make sure to come to Rhyolite!
The old train station and the bottle house is worth the trip itself.
The old bank buildings are pretty cool too. The whole town looks so eerie out there in the Desert surrounded by expanse. I think it is definitely worth the trip out.
Watch out for rattlers!
If you spend enough time in Death Valley, you can't help but take a side trip to the outskirts of Beatty, Nevada, to see the Rhyolite ghost town. It's certainly one of the most elegant and well-known ruins in the United States and the scene is especially striking when the sun bathes the bleached structures in a warm glow. Look out for the lizards and watch out for the snakes, but don't rush your time here: let your camera lead you in and around the buildings. You probably won't get a sense of what life was like as you walk the main street but these skeletons have their own life in the 21st century and your camera will certainly kiss you in gratitude on the trip home.
The story doesn't end at Rhyolite, though. Beatty is just a short ride away and you'll be tempted to stock up on supplies and, maybe, find a slot machine. That's all well and good, but be forewarned: Beatty is a well-known and active speed trap -- as are many other towns in Nevada -- and the rapidly changing succession of speed limit signs will cause your downfall eventually if you don't heed them literally. My introduction to Beatty had the local police stop me for going 26mph in a 25mph zone. (Some folks get stopped for going slower than 25mph.) Your movements are at the whim of the folks in the blue uniforms who are on a mission to top off their municipality's coffers. Nevada has some amazing sights but it still retains a hard edge and a wild west spirit, so don't expect to find welcome mats even though you're just stopping to get gas and a cold Klondike Bar.
While Beatty holds on by a few casinos and the act of trapping cars with excuses of motion sickness, I expect the folks in Rhyolite had the integrity and common sense to just abandon the place when they ran out of options. Don't forget now: look out for those lizards, watch out for those snakes, and tread carefully.
The buildings are well preserved, since the weather in this area isn't all that damp. It's interesting and not a little spooky to venture about where people haven't really lived for 80 or more years. Walk around, take some photos, and enjoy the sights. While we were there we pretty much had the place to ourselves, which made it a better experience.
I did notice some private property signs though, and a few trailers. I couldn't help but thinking that Rhyolite has a few inhabitants after all, probably just people that want to live off the grid. Also, when we were there it looked like the store building was up for sale.
This turn of the century ghost town is about 3-4 outside Beatty on way to Death Valley National Park. There's a bunch of old hallowed out buildings for trendy, skinny arty kids in their VW's to take interesting pictures of weird metal objects and half torn down walls, and a house made out of bottles. You can't tell what a lot of buildings were, but there are signs to let you know the library, the school, the brothel... etc. Best preserved is the train depot although you can't go exploring inside . There's also an outdoor sculpture garden right on the outskirts which is a little.... Yeah makes you think that being in the desert for so long really begins to mess with people's heads.