Epic Travel → North America → The West Coast → Northern California → Death Valley → Rhyolite Ghost Town

Location: Beatty Junction area, Death Valley

Time Required: 30 minutes – 1 hour

Red Tape/Notes: Rhyolite is technically outside of Death Valley National Park, so it’s free to visit! The access road is clearly marked on highway 374, just west of Beatty, Nevada. You can read more about the history of Rhyolite on wikipedia.

What’s Nearby?: Keane Wonder Mill, Keane Wonder Mine, Keane Wonder Springs and Cyty’s Mill, Keane Canyon, Titus Canyon, Leadfield Ghost Town

One of the many boom towns that sprang up in the area, Rhyolite was founded in 1905 and empty by 1916. The town grew extremely quickly, with extensive infrastructure and amenities and an estimated peak population between 3500 and 5000 people in 1907-1908, and served miners from nearby camps with a bank, a hospital, an opera house, railroad service, and more. Today most of the buildings are gone, including the mercantile, which was struck by lightning in 2014 and burned to the ground. However, you can still see the remains of some of the larger buildings, like the Cook Bank, the schoolhouse, and the train station, which is intact. Nearby is the oddly fascinating (and free to visit) Goldwell Open Air Museum, which features interesting art sculptures, mainly installed as permanent installations.

Epic Travel → North America → The West Coast → Northern California → Death Valley → Rhyolite Ghost Town