It's considered one of the most remote places in the continental U.S. for those daring enough to take Hwy 50-dubbed the Loneliest Highway in America-to get here. This part of the country is not only known for its extreme darkness and unmatched stargazing, but also for its silence. Perched on the edge of eastern Nevada, Ely, a boom to bust mining town, is sandwiched between mountain ranges, some over 12k feet, making it the perfect launch pad for outdoor adventures. According to White Pine County Tourism, Ely has always been a "gathering place for tribes, travelers, and treasure hunters."

While the mineral treasures have all but dried up, the new ore rush for Ely is endless miles of gravel roads that spool out into the Great Basin, making it the perfect place to explore on two wheels to get a deeper sense of its expansive geography, unique flora and fauna, and colorful history.

The pinyon pine, which dots the mountainous Great Basin landscape, is a sacred tree to the Shoshone, a hunting and gathering peoples who have inhabited Eastern Nevada since prehistoric times. Many Southwest tribes trace their origins to the pinyon pine, especially in harsher climates like Ely and the larger Great Basin area, as its nuts represented a life-or-death winter food source. The Western Shoshone still have a presence here in Ely, in fact, they're a sovereign nation that resides on a reservation just south of town.

Founded as a stagecoach station along the Pony Express and Central Overland Route, it was the discovery of copper in 1906 that really put Ely on the map. This sparked massive railroad development and town growth, but when those veins evaporated, so too did the mining boom. Today, there are fewer than 5k people that live in this once bustling railroad and mining town.

So what brings folks to this remote region these days? Well, it's a combination of factors, including the Nevada Northern Railway Museum, featuring the Ghost Train of Old Ely, a working steam-engine passenger train. It also has the East Ely Railroad depot museum, one of the most complete historic railroad yards in the nation. White Pine County has the most 11,000+ ft peaks in Nevada, with Wheeler Peak being the tallest at over 13,000 ft above sea level, making it the perfect destination for outdoor enthusiasts. Ely is also home to Great Basin National Park, which sits south of town on the border of Utah. But what's really going to start getting folks to explore this region are the hundreds of miles of gravel roads that spider out into the Great Basin, many of them leading to ghost towns, hot springs, high mountain passes, or National Parks.

Of all the scenic gravel cycling routes in Nevada, the Success Loop is a hidden gem. Situated at 7,300 feet and ascending to 9,363, it can be ridden either direction but I prefer counter clockwise. After leaving the downtown historic train depot, a zig and a zag through the neighborhoods gets you onto gravel and heading south towards Cave Lake State Park. With the Ward Mountain Range to the west and the Scheel Creek Range to the east, it's easy to feel small in this high desert landscape. Few people outside of this region know about this loop, which makes it the ideal place to explore on two wheels. After a bit of pavement through the park, the road turns to gravel and you begin to ascend through stunning groves of shimmering aspens with the craggy granite cliffs of the Schell Range looking over your shoulder. The descent off Success Summit is stunning, with aspens lining the gravel for much of it, flanked by running water at times, and road conditions nearly perfect.

Speaking of forgotten times, there are folks still using this expansive landscape to run sheep on, much like the ancient Basque people who immigrated to the western United States from their homeland in the Pyrenees Mountains. While I didn't see any, there may've been arborglyphs-tree carvings made in the bark of aspen trees by Basque sheepherders throughout North Eastern Nevada- in the dense canopy while I rocketed down from Success Summit. Unfortunately, like the sheepherders who carved them, the arborglyphs are vanishing from Northern Nevada, as the trees succumb to the ravages of time, fires, development, vandals, disease, insects, and old age.

It's fitting that the Success Loop ride ends where it began, the East Ely Railroad depot. As one of the most complete historic railroad yards in the nation, there's no better place to step back in time to get a glimpse of Ely's copper mining roots and the West's fascinating locomotive history than here. And that lonesome whistle of the trains that roll through here, as Twain stated, are a great reminder that this region is full of countless springs, ancient pines, and indescribable sounds and scenes of nature that allow us to escape daily life. For those explorers looking to seek out wild and expansive gravel road adventures, Ely, NV, is just the place for you.

Got a hankering for a two wheeled desert adventure, but sleeping amongst the sage brush doesn't sound like fun? You are in luck!

Fill your saddlebags with the bare minimum, grab your credit card, and pack your spirit of adventure  as you hop on your gravel bike - that's all you need for this three day desert sojourn. Taking you to some far flung borderlands, through the magestic desert of the Old West, with a hotel and a hot meal at the end of each day.

by Yuri Hauswald