Get Out of Town - Las Vegas - page 296

To get there: Take U.S. 95 north and turn left on Highway 157 at the Kyle
Canyon cutoff. To get to Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort, once you're on the
mountain, turn right on State Highway 156 going to Lee Canyon. The highway
ends at the ski resort.
Tourist Info: For more information about Mount Charleston call the Kyle
Canyon Forest Service Station ( % 702/872-5486). For camping information
contact the U.S. Forest Service ( % 702/515-5400). For snow reports and winter
road conditions call the Snow Phone at Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort
( % 702/593-9500).
THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL HIGHWAY
In the mood for some real-life X-Files (or possibly a really long and boring drive)?
Then take a trip down the “E.T Highway,” where alien buffs have been spotting
strange lights, UFOs, and other supernatural phenomena for longer than we
rooted for a love connection between Mulder and Scully. (Skeptics, realists, and
those prone to motion sickness should stay home.)
Extraterrestrial Highway, also known as Nevada Highway 375, is the closest
public-access point to Area 51, a top-secret military base located within the Rhode
Island-sized Nevada Test Site. That complex was a major player in the Cold War,
and nuclear bombs were detonated here from 1945 to 1992. (See p. 179 for
details on tours of the facility.) Also known as Watertown, Dreamland, Paradise
Ranch, and Groom Lake, Area 51 is said to be where the military develops and
tests new planes, such as the Stealth Bomber. But ask anyone who's currently in
the military what goes on here, and they'll either avoid the question or roll their
eyes and tell you, “Nothing.”
That's the opposite answer you'll hear from former Test-Site workers, who
insist the government actually possesses dead aliens, and performs experiments on
them. Some extremists also claim that this area, with its rocky, lunarlike geology,
is where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's moon landing was filmed. Meaning,
yes, that our country was duped into believing we'd actually landed in space, when
it was really just a sound stage in the Mojave desert.
Conspiracy theorists are a determined lot, and a trip here is essentially the pin-
nacle of their alien obsession, which is why the long and lonely stretch of road was
renamed “Extraterrestrial Highway” and given a road sign with an alien-like font
by Nevada Governor Bob Miller in 1996. It's a publicity stunt that seems like
something more brazen than the government would allow, if there actually were
otherworldly activity still going on at Area 51. Considering how well known the
place is (for a top-secret facility), you'd think—you'd hope—that any real secret
testing has been moved someplace more, well, secret.
Conspiracies aren't helped by the signs surrounding the area that trespassers
will be shot. The military doesn't mess around here. You may think of it as an
adventure, but they're doing their job. If you venture off the road and actually try
to enter Test Site territory, which is lined with cameras, speeding government
vehicles will be on the scene before you can say, “phone home,” and armed guards
will escort you off the property (or shoot you or take you to jail, depending on
how far you've crossed and how suspicious you look). Truly, this is no laughing
matter.