Berlin and the Giant Ichthyosaurs of Central Nevada
Miners in the Shoshone Mountains used ancient marine reptile bones for hearths before scientists uncovered 40 ocean giants.
Live chain controls, closures and 270 cameras on the roads between Reno, Tahoe and Sacramento — answered here, not linked to somewhere else.
The summit cameras, refreshed while you watch. Tap one for the whole road.
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Live Ghost towns, silver, lonely highways and deep time — the true stories of the state the road runs into.
Miners in the Shoshone Mountains used ancient marine reptile bones for hearths before scientists uncovered 40 ocean giants.
On a dry prehistoric lakebed north of Reno, a British team pushed a 20,000-pound vehicle past Mach 1.
A researcher studying ice ages had federal permission to sample an ancient pine, then cut down a 4,900-year-old tree.
Seven million tons of ore pulled from a single Nevada mountainside funded early San Francisco and bankrolled the Union Army.
A remote mining camp shrank to a dozen trailers before Nevada officially renamed its highway for extraterrestrials.
Scientists lower a ten-inch white plate into Lake Tahoe to track clarity down to the foot across six decades.
When a national magazine warned drivers away from central Nevada, the state turned the insult into a legendary survival passport.
Miners in Berlin used fossilized ichthyosaur vertebrae as dinner plates before excavations began in 1954.
Read the story →In 1997, Thrust SSC reached 763.035 mph on the Black Rock playa, becoming the first car to break the sound barrier.
Read the story →Prometheus contained 4,862 growth rings and was estimated to be 4,900 years old when cut down in 1964.
Read the story →Mines on the Comstock Lode extracted nearly 7 million tons of ore, yielding roughly $700 million in modern profits.
Read the story →Fewer than 200 people arrived in Rachel in 2019 after over 2 million RSVPs to storm Area 51.
Read the story →Lake Tahoe reaches a maximum depth of 1,645 feet, deep enough to sit 100 feet lower than Carson City.
Read the story →Life magazine dubbed Highway 50 the Loneliest Road in 1986, warning drivers to carry cold-weather gear.
Read the story →Samuel Clemens worked for the Territorial Enterprise for just 22 months before fleeing a duel in May 1864.
Read the story →The 1864 telegram carrying Nevada's constitution cost $4,303.27, freezing military war wires for over five hours.
Read the story →Pluvial Lake Lahontan reached 281 meters deep in the Pyramid Lake basin before shrinking to modern levels.
Read the story →More than 30,000 divorces were granted at the Washoe County Courthouse during the 1930s alone.
Read the story →Tom Kelly built a house in Rhyolite in 1906 using 50,000 beer and liquor bottles.
Read the story →Valley of Fire became Nevada's first state park after a land transfer of 8,760 acres of federal land in 1931.
Read the story →Nevada holds 83 wild horse and burro herd management areas covering 15.6 million federal acres.
Read the story →The questions people actually type when a storm is coming.
Caltrans publishes chain controls, closures and cameras for the California side of the Sierra. Nevada DOT publishes its own for the Nevada side. The National Weather Service publishes the forecast at each pass. Working out whether you can get over the hill this afternoon means checking all three and already knowing which control point matters.
This site reads all three for you: Caltrans for the passes on the California side, NDOT for the Mt Rose Highway, Kingsbury Grade, US-395 and everything else in Nevada, and the Weather Service at each summit. One page per road, every camera on it in the order you would drive past them, the chain-control ladder from the bottom of the grade to the top, and the forecast at the summit. Every page says how old its data is, and links back to the official source — because on a road that is closing, a number without a timestamp is worse than no number.
93 guides, written for people who have to drive a mountain road to get there — so each one tells you which road, and what it does in winter.
269 of our 270 cameras, placed where the agency locates them. Click a marker to open one.
This forecast could not be refreshed on the last run and may be out of date.
Forecast read
This forecast could not be refreshed on the last run and may be out of date.
Forecast read
This forecast could not be refreshed on the last run and may be out of date.
Forecast read
This forecast could not be refreshed on the last run and may be out of date.
Forecast read
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Chain controls, closures and camera images: Caltrans Districts 3, 9 and 10 (public domain) and Nevada DOT / nvroads.com. Weather: National Weather Service — not an official NWS product. Nevada Explorer is not affiliated with any of them. Always confirm with Caltrans or NDOT before you travel.