8 Uncommon Curiosities Beyond Nevada’s Big-City Limits

Anyone with the good fortune to explore Nevada beyond its casinos and cityscapes will discover a unique meeting of equals: a landscape studded with otherworldly geographic features, and people who have made that landscape their creative canvas. Indeed, visitors will find many of the state’s natural and cultural wonders just a short trip away from the city lights and throngs of tourists. 

Nevada is known for its stunning night skies, and awe-inspiring views of the Milky Way can be enjoyed from dark sky sanctuaries, such as at Massacre Rim in the state’s northeast corner and Great Basin National Park. Nevada’s only national park is also home to the stocky, twisted silhouettes of bristlecone pines—some of which have survived nearly 5,000 years and are as much sculptural marvels as they are natural miracles. The same can be said of Bonsai Rock, rising from the waters of Lake Tahoe like a fantastical still from a science-fiction movie.

Nevada’s otherworldliness is echoed in its arts and culture, like at the International Car Forest of the Last Church in Goldfield, an installation of upturned cars planted in the desert sand and stacked atop each other like building blocks. Likewise, Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone’s Seven Magic Mountains just 10 miles beyond the Las Vegas city limits is a day-glo Stonehenge for an age of excess. 

And in a state with no shortage of ghost towns, Rhyolite remains a standout attraction, thanks to its eerie population of fiberglass apparitions and a giant cinderblock woman—art installations you’ll find at the Goldwell Open Air Museum.