Roadside oddities36.4131° N, 116.4235° W
Amargosa Valley, NV
An oversized cow figure in the Amargosa Valley is the sort of inexplicable desert roadside landmark that fits OddWay almost perfectly.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
Roadside oddities in Nevada
Everything OddWay knows about. Narrow it down by what you're after, or where you're going.
Roadside oddities31
Suggest a stopGiant objects, odd monuments and things built for no clear reason.
- Roadside oddities40.7480° N, 119.2865° W
Gerlach, NV
The enormous dry-lake playa is a stark landscape used for land-speed records and Burning Man; surface conditions can become dangerous or impassable when wet.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities38.0300° N, 115.4361° W
Garden Valley, NV
The massive land-art complex 'City' stretches across the desert with abstract concrete and earth forms; visitation is controlled by reservation through Triple Aught Foundation.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities36.2620° N, 116.0656° W
Pahrump, NV
A private property devoted to coffin-shaped art, structures, a cemetery, and macabre handmade objects; tours require advance arrangement and there are no walk-in visits.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities39.0302° N, 116.6666° W
Monitor Valley, NV
A steaming geothermal sinkhole rises as a travertine mound on private ranch land in remote central Nevada; landowner permission is required, and the unstable rim and scalding water make this strictly a look-don’t-touch site.
- Access
- Private land, view only
- Roadside oddities36.6176° N, 114.3447° W
Moapa Valley, NV
Michael Heizer’s monumental 1969 earthwork consists of enormous trenches cut into the Mormon Mesa, making the removed earth itself the artwork; the route is remote and rough.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities37.5329° N, 115.2326° W
Hiko, NV
A jerky shop leans completely into Extraterrestrial Highway culture with alien murals, props, photo ops, and a famously strange desert storefront.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities40.8594° N, 119.3319° W
Gerlach, NV
A multicolored geothermal formation created after drilling on private Fly Ranch land can only be visited through authorized tours or programs; there is no general walk-up access.
- Access
- Private land, view only
- Roadside oddities39.2830° N, 114.9496° W
Ely, NV
This BLM recreation area is unusual because visitors may search designated ground for naturally occurring garnets weathered from volcanic rock.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities37.7085° N, 117.2337° W
Goldfield, NV
A monumental 1907 school building survives from Goldfield’s peak population, an outsized reminder of how quickly the desert boomtown grew and collapsed.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities40.6782° N, 119.3611° W
Gerlach, NV
DeWayne 'Doobie' Williams turned a dirt road outside Gerlach into a folk-art corridor of hand-built shrines, carved sayings, stone arrangements, and desert jokes.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities37.9300° N, 114.4510° W
Pioche, NV
The small early movie house is a remarkably intact piece of Pioche’s 20th-century streetscape; restoration status can change, so exterior viewing is the reliable stop.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities36.3187° N, 115.2054° W
North Las Vegas, NV
Nevada’s newest state park interprets Ice Age fossils and the Tule Springs landscape where mammoths, camels, horses, and other Pleistocene animals once lived.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities38.8734° N, 117.6030° W
Berlin, NV
A shelter within Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park protects fossil remains of giant Triassic marine reptiles discovered high in Nevada’s mountains; building hours can be limited.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities37.6982° N, 117.2286° W
Goldfield, NV
Dozens of painted cars, buses, and vans are planted nose-first or stacked across the desert as a sprawling, constantly weathering outdoor art installation.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities36.8945° N, 116.8302° W
Rhyolite, NV
Dr. Hugo Heyrman’s pixel-like cinder-block Venus rises from the Goldwell sculpture grounds as a deliberately anachronistic desert figure.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities35.1589° N, 114.5810° W
Laughlin, NV
A collection of large hand-built stone labyrinths sits on desert hills above Laughlin, intended for walking and contemplation rather than as ancient archaeological features.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities39.0054° N, 114.2207° W
Baker, NV
An elaborate marble cave system beneath Great Basin National Park contains stalactites, shields, and rare cave formations; entry is by ranger-guided tour.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities36.4492° N, 114.2135° W
Gold Butte, NV
Delicate red sandstone fins, arches, and improbable eroded shapes make this remote Gold Butte formation look almost sculpted; rough-road conditions can limit access.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities40.1807° N, 118.4767° W
Lovelock, NV
A small public plaza invites visitors to fasten padlocks to chains as a local ritual of enduring love, creating a Nevada variation on the global love-lock tradition.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Roadside oddities38.3889° N, 116.0681° W
Nye County, NV
A mile-wide volcanic maar sits along a rough BLM backcountry byway in a landscape once used for astronaut and planetary-field training; the pin is at the public crater viewpoint area.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities35.7097° N, 114.8035° W
Nelson, NV
A crashed airplane used as a movie prop sits among the vehicles and relics at Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours, creating one of the property’s strangest photo stops.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Roadside oddities36.9760° N, 114.9816° W
Alamo, NV
A homemade desert 'henge' assembled from upright concrete forms turns an otherwise empty roadside into an eccentric Nevada photo stop.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Roadside oddities35.8413° N, 115.2695° W
Jean, NV
Ugo Rondinone’s towering stacks of fluorescent boulders rise from the Mojave beside Interstate 15, creating one of Nevada’s most recognizable roadside art stops.
- Access
- Open to visitors