Hey.

I spent years disconnected from nature and all that came with it.
Luckily, there was a shift somewhere along the way and I haven’t looked back.

I created this blog so I could tell *you* all about it. ♡

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The Extraterrestrial Highway: My case of road trip inception

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Caitlyn

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In January of this year (2024), we headed back to the western part of the US to satisfy some unfinished business we had with Death Valley National Park (more on that another time).

On that quest, we also drove all around California, Nevada, and Utah to cross some things off of both of our lists. We landed in Las Vegas from Baltimore, picked up the rental car and some last minute essentials, and made our way to my priority #1, making it a road trip within a road trip:

The Extraterrestrial Highway

which is basically a bunch of cute Area 51-themed roadside attractions in the middle of desert-nowhere, Nevada.

The Extraterrestrial Highway, going away from our stop at the Little Ale’Inn.

Below are the typical stops on this trip, and in bold are the ones we stopped at.

  • E.T. Fresh Jerky (alien themed jerky store)
  • Extraterrestrial Highway Sign
  • The black mailbox (a black mailbox at the mouth of a dirt road that people basically treat like a shrine and put letters inside)
  • The Alien Research Center (alien-themed gift shop)
  • The Little Ale’inn (alien-themed restaurant where part of Men in Black was filmed – with the nicest staff ever)
  • The Alien Cowpoke Gas Station + General Store
  • Extraterrestrial Highway Sign, but the other end

And some extend it to…

  • Warm Springs Cafe (ruins of an old stagecoach stop with a geothermal swimming pool, no trespassing signs all around)
  • Tonopah, NV & Goldfield, NV for their historic cemeteries – we drove through here at night and it looked kinda sketch, but I was sad I didn’t get to visit the cemeteries or eat at the Strawberry Hill Diner
  • The Area 51 Alien Center (food + souvenirs) in Amargosa Valley, NV
  • The Alien Cathouse Brothel, right next door to the above
The very beginning of the highway, leading away from Vegas and before turning onto the Extraterrestrial Highway, when it’s still nicely paved and painted.

Before I start rambling and forget this very important point: COWS ARE DEADLY HERE.

By that I mean that this road is so tempting to fly down, and trust me we were, but the cows roam free here and literally stand and/or run in the road, and they will totally eff you, your car, and your day up.

I tried to get off of these unlit desert roads before dark and I failed miserably, and it was super stressful because they come out of nowhere. So please be careful, don’t rush, don’t zone out, and don’t let your passengers zone out either. There were multiple times were we had to come to a stop in the middle of the road to wait for a cow, or cows, to go across.

Anyway, here’s how our trek went…

And I’ll include time stamps as best I can. In a perfect world, we would have started first thing in the morning, had more time for everything including those extra stops I mentioned in the list above… but due to a rescheduled flight, we landed in Vegas much later than originally planned. (But that just means I have an excuse to do it again!)

In case you’re curious like I would be, here’s what the driving day looked like (after flying from Baltimore, layover in Denver, to Las Vegas):

1:50pm: The Extraterrestrial Highway sign

Where there’s a large fork in the road to go left toward Rachel/Tonopah (this is the way you’ll be taking) or right to Hiko/Ely, you’ll find THE sign.

There’s a large sandy parking area in the middle with these huge trees, a bench, and some trash cans. I was SO happy to be here, I love the feeling of researching something online for a while and then finally seeing it person.

Quick note – E.T. Fresh Jerky is *before* this parking area and sign. You can’t miss the billboards for it on the way, but it’s a sneakily small trailer building and you might think that’s not it and drive by it – trust me, it is it.

It goes without saying, there’s nothing out here. No cell service whatsoever, and sometimes not even SOS mode. Come with water, caffeine, snacks, and a very full tank of gas. The stuff that is out here is veeeery far apart from each other and not always actually open. We did this in January and it was pretty hot (don’t mind my sweater, I was in Maryland that morning haha), so I can’t imagine what the summer must be like.

2pm: The Alien Research Center, Hiko, NV

Like I said, not everything here is reliably open and this was the perfect example. I can’t tell ya how many times I researched their hours, and then they stared at me in-person on their door, and yet…

We joked that they were underground in their bunker (it is *literally* on the edge of Area 51) and that this souvenir shop is just a front. There was an RV parked out back, the pigeons that live in the alien’s head, and just us for miiiiiles. We waved to the security cam and took our fun tourist pics.

When we got to The Little Ale’Inn and asked them about it, they joked that everyone runs on their own clock on the Extraterrestrial Highway. And I totally get it, January is the off-season and I doubt many other people came through other than us. But I just wanted to give them my money haha

2:30pm: The Black Mailbox

While originally researching this road trip in 2023, I read that there have been three different mailboxes on the Extraterrestrial Highway at some point: the Black Mailbox, the Alien Mailbox, and the White Mailbox.

I’d also read that all of them had been vandalized and none existed anymore. So, disappointed, I wrote them off in my mind for our go-around through here. Until all of a sudden, my boyfriend goes:

“Why is there a mailbox in the middle of nowhere back there?”

I go, “what color?”

He goes, “black, I think? With stickers? Just standing there by itself.”

Do you know how quickly I booked a u-turn on this little road?! Immediately.

It was definitely very vandalized haha to say the least… It looked like it’d been recently set on fire and was pretty charred. But I was super happy to see it in-person, and I didn’t realize until now that there was a full-on SUNBOW going on in the sky?!

It seems like people kinda treat it like a shrine and leave food and drinks here for the aliens, just like how they put letters in the box to send to them. But because of that, there was a bunch of animal poop (coyote, maybe?) around here so I’m sure they weren’t far away.

2:50pm: The Little Ale’inn, Rachel, NV

We were STARVING when we arrived here. The staff was so friendly and the food was delicious. I bought a bunch of their merch, including a hoodie which is now one of my favorite things I own.

The Little Ale’Inn welcome sign.

We ate at the counter (one of my favorite things to do) and there were what-seemed-like a bunch of locals eating there already. There are some arcade machines in here, lots of photos on the wall about Area 51/aliens, and an ode to the part of Men in Black that was filmed here. And they have bathrooms!

Did I mention the staff is so friendly? We ate, walked around outside (there’s lots to see), and just took it all in. I love being in the middle of nowhere.

Including that flying saucer, this graffiti wall, and this time capsule that says:

“On the eighteenth day of April, A.D. 1996, Twentieth Century Fox hereby dedicates this time capsule and beacon for visitors from distant stars, the State of Nevada and the ‘Extraterrestrial Highway.’ This time capsule will serve as a beacon to be opened in the year A.D. 2050, by which time interplanetary travelers shall be regular guests of our planet Earth.“

And is signed Gov. Bill Miller of Nevada, 20th Century Fox, and the cast/makers of Independence Day.

We left at 3:45pm-ish and drove in a looong straight line while dodging cows, to…

4:35pm: Warm Springs Cafe drive-by

This is where the other Extraterrestrial Highway sign is, facing away from you.

Warm Springs Cafe is on your left as you drive up to the intersection. Sometimes people head-in from at stop sign ahead, where we exited, to do the Extraterrestrial Highway trip in the other direction. As you can tell, the total E.T. drive is really not that long and can easily be done as a day trip from Vegas. This would be your turnaround point.

Warm Springs Cafe ahead, cow warning sign in the mirror behind.

That would have been fine and all, but we needed to get to our motel alllllll the way in Beatty (which is about 100 miles from Tonopah, which as you read before was about 150 miles from the start of this drive).

Warm Springs Cafe.

Oh yeah, and then we planned to wake up before sunrise to go to Death Valley the next morning. Haha I always torture myself with long drives and long days (and I secretly, genuinely, love it)

The “Keep Out” and “No Swimming” warnings written on the building. You can tell that the water is 100% still flowing from the hot spring though (there’s a trail of visible steam), and there’s definitely water in that pool.
This is the building across the street from the main Cafe building.
Warm Springs Cafe.

5:05pm: This random vault toilet in The Toiyabe National Forest

To which I am forever grateful to the National Park Service for. Enough said.

5:12pm: Sunset

I originally planned this trip for the summer, so I didn’t think to account for shorter winter days… and that’s how we ended up being the only light around for miles in the middle of nowhere, Nevada for two hours battling cows and my imagination. Don’t be like me. But how beautiful is that view of the endless road?

7pm: The Atomic Inn, Beatty, Nevada

Our home for the night, where we were promptly greeted by a wild donkey in the parking lot, no kidding.

Just like with the staff at the Little Ale’inn, I seriously cannot say enough good things about the staff we had here.

The front desk manager was so chill, friendly, and accomodating, and the three of us talked about our love of kittens. He restores old school communication devices and there were a few on display at the front desk which was awesome.

In case you’re curious: we had room number 1 (the parking spots are marked with alien heads, so cute) and it cost $79/night. I booked through Expedia but they have their own site too, here: https://atomicinnbeatty.com/.

Our room was *huge* with a king bed, TV, side tables with lamps and an alarm clock, table and chair to eat at, small fridge, dresser, sink outside of the bathroom (love this), a bunch of alien-themed framed posters on the wall (tastefully), and clean toilet w/ shower + tub combo. The faux wood floors were new, the bed was so comfortable, and everything was really clean. There were other people there (and it seems like they have long-term rentals too), but we never heard anyone. And they have an A+ cactus and succulent game within their landscaping.

Such a good way to end the first night of our 6-night trip.

Here’s another sunbow along the way too, for tax. I’d never seen one before.

If you’re think of planning your own and want to learn more about any of these stops, these might help:

… and just for good measure I’m adding this photo of Eddie World Gas, we were here the next morning at 6am getting a full tank of (expensive!!!) gas and (not expensive) snacks.

But it’s such an iconic gas station being that it’s one of VERY few near Death Valley – maybe it’s just me, I dunno – and I want to immortalize being here and have nowhere else to put it.

Eddie World Gas.

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