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2008 Nevada Extraterrestrial Highway & Lunar Crater Tour

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This was a very brief tour, but after a bleak summer of little riding, almost anything was welcome.  Usually I don't even bother writing about tours this short, but this ride took me to two notable places in Nevada that are not frequented by motorcycles, so I thought I would throw this on the web in case someone out there is looking for this information.  Additionally, even though this ride only took about 12 hours, it was chalk-full of adventure, not unlike most of my motorcycle rides! 

This tour actually started when I rode down to Primm, Nevada to help pit for my brother who was planning on racing in the SCORE Terrible's Primm 300 Off -Road Race.  At the last minute I found out that he wasn't going to race due to the fact that SCORE had almost doubled the entry fee, reduced the course length by a third, and put even more strict requirements on the racers, making it very expensive for any self-funded racer to compete.  As a result, the race saw barely half of the normal entries and was very lame compared to prior years. 

Like usual, the race did provide the unneeded excuse for me to jump on my BMW R1150GS Adventure and head across the Nevada desert.  I took the ultra-boring I-15 down to Primm simply due to the fact that I was unable to leave until late-evening.  The only good thing about this stretch of Interstate Highway was that it gave me an opportunity to test out the HID (high intensity discharge) lighting system that I had just retro-fitted onto my 2004 GS.  I replaced the stock low-beam and added two auxiliary HID lights.  The difference was unbelievable - I could now clearly see the entire roadway including an extensive distance past the edge of the roadway.  The whole setup cost me less than $200 and so far I was convinced that it was money well spent - even on the 4-lane asphalt, boring-as-hell I-15.  I wasn't sure if the lights would be too bright and piss-off oncoming divers, but surprisingly I was able to run all three lights and was only flashed by a couple of semi's on my own side of the highway as I passed.  I even passed two cops who didn't seem to care.  Even using the HID low-beam alone was still a hundred-times better than the GS's stock halogen low-beam. 

I rolled into Primm, Nevada around 10PM PST - completing the ~450 mile ride in right around five and a half hours, which isn't bad on a GS Adventure!  Being that my brother wasn't racing, it was quite a relaxing weekend, consisting of lots of beer, good food, and gambling - with an emphasis on the lots of beer part. 

Monday was my day to ride back to Utah.  I considered which route to take back home and finally decided to visit two new areas on my way back north - Nevada Highway 375 and Lunar Crater National Natural Landmark.  Nevada Highway 375 is known as the Extraterrestrial Highway due to the fact that it skirts the north side of the mysterious Area 51.  It is also in one of the most remote areas of Nevada.  Lunar Crater National Natural Landmark is a little known area in central Nevada, on Highway 6, north of Highway 375.  I had heard of this place a while back, but had found relatively little information about it - let alone having met anyone who had even heard of the place - making it the perfect place for a motorcycle tour!

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