12:21 p.m.
We drove from our motel room in Beatty, Nevada to the ghost town of Rhyolite. There is a sign along Highway 374 indicating the paved road to the old town. As you head west toward Death Valley National Park the remains can be seen in the distance off of the right side of the highway. As you approach, about a mile from 374, you will meet a junction with a dirt road heading off to the west, and you'll see a small cluster of ruins and buildings. That is the ghost town of Bullfrog. Then you'll come to an unusual cluster of buildings and sculptures known as the Goldwell Open Air Museum. This site is open to the public, and we'll return to it a bit later. On past the museum the remains of the buildings of Rhyolite rise up from among the desert sage.

When we first arrived we parked in the gravel lot in front of the signed Information Building. There were a few cars in the lot and we could see a few people walking around the nearby Bottle House. Actually I was surprised by the number of people out there. On visits to other ghost towns and mining camps we are usually the only folks poking about. But perhaps the proximity of this old town to a national park, coupled with the ease of access, makes this a more attractive destination. In fact, there are enough visitors to this site that some governmental agency has placed modern public restrooms at the bus and RV turnaround loop up the hill, near the old railroad station. I did not notice any source of drinking water. So in the warmer months I would recommend bringing plenty if you intend on exploring for any length of time.

We also didn't notice any picnic tables, so we used the back gate of our Tacoma to prepare our lunch and ate while we stood and absorbed the surroundings. At the time the air temperature was 66 degrees.

1:27 p.m.
After we ate we walked around the perimeter fence that protects The Bottle House. This house uses old beer and while bottles instead of bricks. I've seen similar constructions in Goldfield, just up the road a bit toward Tonopah. There had been a female volunteer offering information when we first arrived, but by the time we finished our meal she had driven off, probably to eat her own lunch.

After we'd had enough of The Bottle House we drove back down the road and drove toward Bullfrog to where there is a small sign indicating the old Bullfrog/Rhyolite Cemetery. You have to drive down a bumpy jeep trail to get out there, but it is an interesting site. It's fenced and has a few prominent grave sites, but most of the wooden "head stones" are so weathered that you can't even tell if anything was ever carved into them. There are also quite a few obvious grave mounds that have no markings at all.

From there we drove back up the jeep trail to the road to Bullfrog, and then off to that little town. At this point we didn't realize that this was Bullfrog. I was under the false impression that Bullfrog was located up the road on the other side of Rhyolite. So, we took a quick look around at the few stone ruins that we could see from the road and assumed that this was just a "suburb" of Rhyolite, and then headed back toward the larger ruins.

On the way up to the main section of Rhyolite we made a quick stop at the Goldwell Open Air Museum. This location has all sorts of large sculptures displayed around the property. It's kind of a desolate area, and the modern art seems just a bit out of place among the sage and mine scars, but it is interesting. There are a variety of styles, from a plaster cast depiction of The Last Super, to a twenty foot tall bikini clad woman made out of painted concrete blocks, giving her a Lego effect. There are wooden sculptures and assemblages, as well as a tall metal depiction of a miner and a penguin. This site is worth at least a quick look around.

From there we headed back in to Rhyolite to walk around through the downtown section. At this point the outside temperature was 68 degrees.

In the main section of town there are lots of old stone and concrete buildings at various stages of decomposition. It is interesting to see how the old timers built these structures and how “modern” they seem in so many ways. I guess we always think of ghost towns as being primitive and ancient, but Rhyolite was quite a little city when it was thriving, with something over 10,000 inhabitants at its peak. There are not may of the wood framed buildings left standing, but I imagine if one were to poke around out in the flats where the townspeople lived you might find some interesting items. I think, too, that many of the dwellings in Rhyolite used a basic wood frame covered in white canvas. I’ve seen old photos and that seems to be the case. Those types of structures would not leave much behind.

You can get right up to and even walk through some of the old structures, but some are fenced off for safety reasons. With a few of these old buildings two to three stories tall there is always the danger of one of the old walls collapsing.

From the main part of town we drove on up the hill to where the old railroad depot sits. A few years back this building was used as a museum, but I suspect funding has become scarce and the site is now fenced off. It does seem to be one of the more complete and less damaged buildings within the old town, and there is quite a bit of railroad related memorabilia on display near the building. There are also two or three old boxcars and a caboose sitting nearby.

2:10 p.m.
We left Rhyolite heading north along a gravel road, thinking that was where we would find Bullfrog. But after just a short distance what we were seeing didn't match the map that we had. That's when I realized that I'd gotten turned around and that the little cluster of buildings down by the cemetery was actually Bullfrog.

Because we needed to get to the Visitor Center in Death Valley National Park we had to skip a closer look at Bullfrog at this time, but were determined to visit the site later in the week.

Continue to Death Valley National Park, Saturday, February 17, 2007.