Up to 7,000 stars are visible at Tonopah Stargazing Park; on moonless nights, the Milky Way appears in remarkable detail. This is one of several special discoveries in Nye: Alongside nature viewing and dunes, you’ll find fossils, mining history, museums and outdoor art. You can decide which of these themes will shape your trip based on your interests.
Desert Habitats and Nature Viewing
At the Ash Meadows Visitor Center, you’ll find interactive exhibits, regular film screenings, a bookstore and a picnic area. Visitors traveling by car or RV are advised to reach the visitor center via the west entrance from Highway 373. The trails and boardwalks at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge are open seven days a week, from sunrise to sunset. Visitor services and operating details may change; check the latest information, road conditions and entrance guidance before your visit.
The nature sites offer very different wildlife-viewing opportunities. Devils Hole is the only natural habitat of the Devils Hole pupfish. Point of Rocks offers good year-round opportunities to observe roadrunners, Gambel’s quail, phainopeplas and other desert dwellers. For those interested in habitats, Devils Hole offers a special connection between a place and a species; at Point of Rocks, the focus is on birdwatching and the many desert dwellers found there.
Big Dune also brings together landscape and wildlife in a distinctive way: The dune spans five square miles and reaches approximately 500 feet in height. It offers an ideal recreation area for ATV activities. Big Dune and Lava Dune in Amargosa Valley are also the only places in the world where the Giuliani’s Dune Scarab is found. These two dunes are notable not only as landforms but also for this rare beetle.
Dunes and Night Skies
At Tonopah Stargazing Park, look up from the desert floor: Up to 7,000 stars are visible, and the Milky Way stands out in especially fine detail on moonless nights. Concrete pads for visitor telescopes and picnic tables add to the opportunities for observing the night sky. Monthly Star Parties take place from June through October, along with annual night photography workshops. Check current event dates before your trip; weather can also affect access.
Explore Mining History
At Tonopah Historic Mining Park, self-guided walks take you to original mining equipment, buildings and deep shafts. The various stops make a visit an opportunity to explore mining history through specific sites and objects. Check whether the walks are available before your visit.
The Central Nevada Museum has a different focus: Its exhibits cover mining, Indigenous artifacts, fossils, wildlife, minerals, railroads, ranch life and military history. The museum also has the largest collection on the history of Tonopah Air Force Base. A recreated Western town, complete with miners’ cabins, a saloon and a blacksmith shop, adds an evocative backdrop to the collections.
The Pahrump Valley Museum brings together a wealth of historical objects and topics. Historic buildings include a house relocated from the 1880s Yount Homestead, the old Pahrump Store from 1902, an original one-room schoolhouse from 1944, two houses built from railroad ties in 1946 and two redwood storage silos. The museum also presents fossils, the history of Indigenous peoples, early pioneers and the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository project. A cactus garden, outdoor exhibits and historic buildings originally from the valley or relocated there are also part of the museum grounds.
The Beatty Museum & Historical Society preserves photographs, books, documents and artifacts relating to the Bullfrog Mining District, Rhyolite and Beatty. Preserved mining equipment adds to the outdoor exhibits; there is also a picnic pavilion.
Fossils, Local History and Outdoor Art
Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park protects and presents North America’s largest known concentration of the largest known ichthyosaur fossils. At the historic Berlin site, an extensive system of signs lets you explore the history and features of Berlin and nearby Union mining camp on your own. Fossils and local history offer two distinct ways to explore the past.
Large outdoor sculptures take center stage at Goldwell Open Air Museum. They include a ghostly, life-size version of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” a 25-foot-tall woman and a 24-foot-tall steel prospector with a penguin. Their different sizes and subjects give your visit a very different character from the historic collections or nature sites.
Discover more destinations: Pahrump, Beatty, Tonopah, Amargosa Valley, Carson City, Churchill County, Storey County, Lyon County.
For the broader travel overview: Nevada.
