Page 19 - DreamScapes Magazine | Fall/Winter 2023

heading out of town. From there, it’s a quick drive to Seven Magic Mountains, where nine-metre-tall towers of painted boulders stand as unlikely sentinels guarding the arid Mojave.
Farther north, the art installations continue along Hwy. 95 in Beatty at the Goldwell Open Air Museum, a sculpture park created by a group of Belgian artists. You’ll be awed by the ghostly figures that compose a life-size 3D version of Da Vinci’s Last Supper.
Your day will get even weirder at the International Car Forest in Goldfield, a collection of old automobiles that have become the canvas. Wander through a graveyard of painted cars that seem to erupt out of the ground. Before your car decides to grow roots and join the metal masterpiece, con- tinue north.
Your final destination is Reno and its hip midtown dis- trict that’s alive with public art, including some 100 murals. Instead of driving there in one shot, think about breaking up the trip in Tonopah and staying at The Clown Motel—this creepy inn displays more than 2,000 clown figurines.
QUENCH YOUR THIRST ON THE SALOON CIRCUIT
During silver boom times, miners slaked their thirst at bars located in towns all over Nevada. These historic “Sagebrush Saloons” now serve beer and burgers to road-tripping tourists.
American flags and “Wanted” posters adorn the Happy Burro Chili & Beer in Beatty, so named for the wild burros that roam the town. Order a hot dog or burger topped with chili, and wash it down with cold beer served in a mason jar.
At Iggy & Squiggy’s Junction Bar in Gardnerville (cash only), you can try a “Nevada Martini”—Coors or Pabst Blue Ribbon served with gourmet olives. And be sure to sidle up to Nevada’s oldest bar inside the Genoa Bar & Saloon in Genoa. It’s a heritage brick building on the outside and filled with saloon Americana within—wooden bar stools facing a diamond dust mirror, chandeliers overhead, and vintage photographs crowding the walls.
If these don’t satiate your taste for the Wild West, it’s just another road trip past more surreal scenery to seek out the rest of the state’s saloons. DS
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TRAVEL PLANNER
Visit TravelNevada.com and search “Road Trip” to plan your own Nevada road trip or book your travel to Nevada with itravel2000 and see itravel2000.com/promotions/nevada
FALL/WINTER 2023 DREAMSCAPES 19