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You’ve seen the road signs. You’ve always talked about stopping. But each time you’re in the area, you blow right past so you can just get home. Here are the top 10 overlooked places that are right off the highway and deserve your attention. Trust us, these attractions are time well spent, so ease up on that pedal and pull over. You can thank us later. 

Nevada’s major lakes are household names. But while Lake Tahoe, Lake Mead, and Pyramid Lake are popular, they only skim the surface of water recreation in the Silver State. The following backcountry destinations might mean arrival by a rough road or hike, but time it right and you could have a pristine aquatic playground practically to yourself. 

Who was Howard Hughes? He is remembered as the billionaire who spent much of his late life in near isolation. His demand for privacy is the stuff of legend. When he stayed in hotel rooms, adjacent rooms were also rented, and blankets were draped over all windows. Even employees rarely—if ever—saw him, and most communication was done by phone. 

But above all, Hughes was a shrewd capitalist. To best understand this, look no further than the four years he spent in Las Vegas.  

Vacations can get easily crammed full of activities and things to see and do. While there’s a time for doing the mad dash, there’s also room for slowing things down and spending a little quality time with that most important person: you. There are as many spas in Nevada as there are colors in our sunsets, so consider these mentions as just a taste of what awaits. 

Sarah Winnemucca was born around 1844, near what is today Lovelock. Her name at birth was Thocmetony, and she was a daughter of the leading family of the Kuyuidika-a—a band of the Paiute people.  

Within a year of her birth, Winnemucca’s grandfather encountered John C. Frémont—one of the area’s first white explorers—at what is now Pyramid Lake.

There was plenty of sporting money in Virginia City in 1891, and hundreds of people came by to see Leo and his keg of beer. Some, like Two Toed Pete, were willing to bet that Leo’s mouth was bigger than his muscles.

Nothing sparks pride in where you reside quite like a flag. However, creating a banner to represent an entire culture or geographic region isn’t easy work. Nevada’s flag is beloved by residents today, but it took four (almost five) versions until the matter was settled. 

In ancient Greece, King Hieron’s new crown was to be made of pure gold, but to be sure, the court asked the mathematician Archimedes to determine if inexpensive metals had been used instead. To think the problem over, Archimedes took a bath. As he stepped into the tub, he noticed water spilling over the side. The answer suddenly came to him! A gold bar with the same weight as the crown should displace the same amount of water. If it didn’t, then the blacksmith had certainly cheated the king. The greatest scientist of the ancient era leapt from his tub and ran undressed toward the palace, proclaiming, “Eureka! I have found it!” More than 2,000 years later, that same exclamation was evoked by prospectors in the heart of the Great Basin Desert, and from their discovery, one of the West’s richest boomtowns was born. 

Nevada’s distinct history is borne by the nearly 600 towns that rose and fell before the 1900s even had a chance to stretch its legs. The gold and silver fever that struck the nation resulted in a clamor that touched nearly every corner of the state. While most towns bore fruit only for short periods, they literally left their mark on the state’s landscape. Many ghost towns have no more residents, but they are still full of stories, if you listen carefully.  

Until 2020, I don’t think there was ever a year that I didn’t go to Pyramid Lake. That means, for 54 years, no matter where I lived, I made sure to get to my favorite lake at least once a year. My parents started taking me to Pyramid when I was just a baby, and today, I take my grandchildren there. I think I have the lake’s dirt in my blood, and I know I have it in my soul.