Nye: Desert Wildlife, Starry Skies and History

Nye offers a range of very different experiences: wildlife watching at Ash Meadows, dunes and desert wildlife, dark night skies, and places where mining and local history come to life. When planning your trip, it’s worth deciding early whether your main interests are landscapes and wildlife, stargazing, or museums and historic sites.

Desert Wildlife and a Visit to Ash Meadows

The Ash Meadows Visitor Center combines information with practical facilities: it has interactive exhibits, regular film screenings, a bookstore and a picnic area. Visitors in cars and RVs are advised to reach the visitor center via the west entrance from Highway 373. Check road conditions and access information before setting out. The trails and boardwalks of Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge are open seven days a week from sunrise to sunset; as operating information may change, check the guidance again before your visit.

Individual sites in the refuge have their own distinctive features. Devils Hole is the only natural habitat of the Devils Hole pupfish. Point of Rocks offers good opportunities year-round to see roadrunners, Gambel’s quail, phainopeplas and other desert wildlife. Those especially interested in birdwatching will find a specific reason to make wildlife the focus of their visit.

Dunes, ATV Activities and Starry Skies

Big Dune covers five square miles and reaches a height of about 500 feet. Its area and approximate height describe different dimensions of the dune; it is considered an ideal recreation area for ATV activities. Big Dune and Lava Dune in Amargosa Valley are also the only places in the world where Giuliani’s Dune Scarab is found. The dune landscape is therefore both a destination for activities and home to a very distinctive species.

Up to 7,000 stars are visible at Tonopah Stargazing Park. On moonless nights, the Milky Way appears in great detail. Concrete pads for visitors’ telescopes and picnic tables are available for observing the night sky; weather can affect access. The event program includes monthly Star Parties from June to October and annual night photography workshops. Check current dates before traveling if you want to plan your visit around an event.

Mining History and Museums

Tonopah Historic Mining Park offers self-guided tours of original mining equipment, buildings and deep shafts. As tour operations may change, it is a good idea to check the latest visitor information before your trip. Exhibits at the Central Nevada Museum complement these topics with displays about mining, artifacts from Indigenous communities, fossils, wildlife, minerals, railroads, ranch life and military history. The museum also has a reconstructed Western town with miners’ cabins, a saloon and a blacksmith shop. Its collection includes the largest collection on the history of Tonopah Air Force Base.

Pahrump Valley Museum showcases a range of traces of local history: a house from the 1880s relocated from the Yount Homestead, the old Pahrump Store from 1902, an original one-room schoolhouse from 1944, two railroad-tie houses from 1946 and two redwood storage silos. Exhibits include fossils, the history of Indigenous communities, early pioneers and the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository project. The grounds also feature a cactus garden, outdoor exhibits and historic buildings that originally came from the valley or were relocated there.

The Beatty Museum & Historical Society preserves photographs, books, documents and artifacts relating to the Bullfrog Mining District, Rhyolite and Beatty. Preserved mining equipment and a picnic pavilion complement the museum outdoors. Goldwell Open Air Museum features outdoor art. Its large sculptures include a ghostly, life-size version of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper, a 25-foot-tall woman and a 24-foot-tall steel prospector with a penguin.

Explore Historic Sites

The ghost town of Berlin is 160 years old and lies on the western slope of the Shoshone Mountains. At the historic site, an extensive system of signs lets you explore the history and features of Berlin and the nearby Union mining camp on your own. Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park protects and showcases North America’s largest known concentration of the largest known ichthyosaur fossils.

Belmont Courthouse was the center of the historic mining town of Belmont, which later became the county seat. Friends of the Belmont Courthouse offer public tours by appointment. Check before your trip to see whether an appointment is possible. For a stay that includes several historic stops, museums, mining sites and historic town sites offer different perspectives, from collections and exhibits to exploring a historic town on your own.

When choosing a hotel in Nye, you can start by considering which of these themes matter most to your trip: nature and birdwatching, dunes, starry skies or history. If you’re planning around specific opening hours, tours or events, check the relevant visitor information and dates before setting out.

Discover More Destinations

Discover more destinations: Pahrump, Beatty, Tonopah, Amargosa Valley, Clark, Carson City, Storey County, White Pine County.

Go to the main travel overview: Nevada.