7 Offbeat Nevada Towns To Visit In 2025
Nevada has more than just Las Vegas casinos and desert highways. It’s also home to strange little towns with strange little stories. In Tonopah, a clown-filled motel sits beside a haunted cemetery. Goldfield once had 20,000 people and a booming gold rush, now it’s half-ghost town, half-art gallery. Head to Rachel, population around 50, where locals still report UFO sightings near Area 51.
Or visit Virginia City, where Mark Twain started his writing career, and saloons still serve drinks like it’s 1865. These towns didn’t change much after their mining days ended; they just got weirder. Old railroads, abandoned hotels, alien souvenirs, buried cars, and desert geysers, Nevada’s offbeat towns are full of real stories and odd surprises. If you’re tired of tourist traps and want something less filtered, add these seven offbeat Nevada towns to visit in 2025 to your road trip itinerary. Just be prepared to see things you’ll never find on a postcard.
Tonopah
Tonopah was once the richest silver-producing town in the United States. It all started in 1900 when Jim Butler, Nye County’s district attorney, discovered silver while camping. His find revived Nevada’s economy after a 20-year slump. The name “Tonopah” comes from American Indians who used it for a spring in the nearby San Antonio Mountains. By 1905, the town had replaced Belmont as the county seat, boomed to 10,000 people, and had its own railroad and massive mills.
Today, Tonopah feels frozen in time. Sleep at the eerie Clown Motel, packed with hundreds of clown figurines and located beside the Old Tonopah Cemetery, where early miners rest under strange headstones. Explore the past at the Tonopah Historic Mining Park, with tunnels and machinery from the boom days. At night, visit the Clair Blackburn Memorial Stargazing Park, Tonopah’s high elevation and remote location make it one of the darkest, clearest skies in the country.
Rachel
Rachel is a tiny desert town next to Area 51, known for aliens, mystery, and very few humans, about 100 in total. Originally called Sandy, it was renamed after Rachel Jones, the first child born in the community in 1978, according to the Lincoln County Authority of Tourism website. It's Nevada’s youngest town and famous for UFO sightings, thanks to its location near the Nevada Test Site. Sci-fi fans helped turn nearby Highway 375 into the Extraterrestrial Highway in the '90s.
The town's main hangout is the Little A'Le'Inn, a motel, bar, and restaurant with alien memorabilia. Stop by the Alien Research Center, a silver warehouse with a giant alien statue out front. The Black Mailbox Site is a hotspot where people watch the sky for UFOs. Most residents live in trailers across the Sand Springs Valley. You can also find old Paiute artifacts and rumored ghost towns nearby, just ask the locals for directions.
Goldfield
Once home to 40,000 people during its 1902 gold rush, Goldfield is now a near-ghost town with just 400 residents, and a strange charm. Located south of Tonopah, it was the richest town in Nevada by 1910, with gold ore production hitting over $11 million. But the boom didn’t last. After the mines dried up in 1918 and a fire destroyed much of downtown in 1923, most people left.
Today, Goldfield’s weirdness draws visitors. You’ll see cars buried in the dirt and painted like graffiti at the International Car Forest of the Last Church. The Goldfield Hotel, once a 200-room luxury stay, is now empty and rumored to be haunted. The Goldfield High School stands in eerie ruins. Visit in August for Goldfield Days, featuring old west parades, a land auction, and some truly odd contests. It’s strange, dusty, and unforgettable.
Virginia City
Virginia City, Nevada, boomed during the 1860s Comstock Lode silver rush, quickly growing to over 25,000 residents. Known for its lively mining culture, it's rich in both history and legends. Visitors can explore the Comstock Firemen’s Museum and ride the historic Virginia & Truckee Railroad. Unlike ghost towns, Virginia City thrives year-round, preserving its Old West charm with saloons, museums, and historic buildings. It remains a vibrant testament to Nevada’s silver mining heritage and frontier spirit. Today, you can explore The Washoe Club Museum and Saloon, known as one of America’s most haunted saloons. Grab a drink at the Bucket of Blood Saloon, too.
Pioche
Once the most dangerous town in the American West, Pioche was founded after William Hamblin was led to silver by a Paiute in 1864. In 1868, Francois L.A. Pioche of San Francisco bought claims and built a smelter, calling the mining camp “Pioche’s City,” according to the Lincoln County Authority of Tourism website. By 1871, the booming mining town had over 10,000 residents and a homicide rate that made Tombstone look tame. Disputes over claims were so intense that mine owners hired gunmen, paid $20 a day, to settle problems with bullets, not lawyers.
That year, 75 men were buried before anyone died of natural causes. The “Million Dollar Courthouse” cost so much through corruption and debt that final payments weren’t made until 1937, after it was condemned. Walk through Boot Hill Cemetery, see the rusty Pioche Aerial Tramway still hanging overhead, and explore the crumbling, wild-west downtown. It’s a ghost town with a loud, bloody history, and it’s very real.
Austin
Austin, Nevada was born in 1862 when a Pony Express horse accidentally kicked over a rock packed with silver. Within a year, 10,000 people flooded the Reese River Valley. Austin raised over $250,000 for wounded Civil War vets by auctioning a sack of flour. By the 1880s, it even got its own railroad, just in time for the silver to run out. Today, this remote town of 192 clings to life with grit and quiet charm.
Walk the dusty streets, grab a bite at the International Hotel Café & Bar, or hike the Toiyabe Range nearby. Don’t miss Stokes Castle, a millionaire’s crumbling stone tower, and the Austin Cemetery, where 1800s headstones overlook the valley. Turquoise mines still hum nearby, keeping Austin on the map for jewelers. It’s no ghost town, but it’s close. No gimmicks, no gunfights, just the real Old West, hanging on along “America’s Loneliest Road.”
Gerlach
Gerlach sits about 100 miles northeast of Reno and feels like the edge of the world. Founded in 1906 during the construction of the Western Pacific Railroad’s Feather River Route, the town served railroad workers and later employees of the nearby gypsum plant in Empire. In 1976, residents bought the land from the railroad and formed their own town board. To this day, Gerlach has no sidewalks, streetlights, or grocery stores, residents drive all the way to Reno for basic needs.
Despite its size and isolation, Gerlach is far from dull. It’s the last stop before the Black Rock Desert and has become the unofficial gateway to the annual Burning Man festival, which brings in tens of thousands each year. Even in the off-season, you’ll find traces of playa culture throughout the town. Visit Planet X Pottery, an unexpected art gallery in the desert; book a tour to see Fly Geyser, a rainbow-colored geothermal formation; and cruise down Dooby Lane, a dirt road covered in quirky rock art and local sayings. Finally, don’t miss Bruno’s Country Club, part bar, part motel, and fully legendary for its homemade ravioli.
Nevada’s quirkiest towns aren’t polished or predictable, and that’s the whole appeal. Many were born in the 1800s silver and gold rush, booming with saloons, mines, and shootouts. Today, they’re strange little pockets of history, stubbornly surviving in the desert. These places aren’t for everyone, but they’re perfect if you like weird stories, haunted buildings, and towns where time feels stuck. Whether you're chasing ghosts, UFOs, or just peace and quiet in odd places, there's a town here that’ll make you look twice. Don’t forget extra gas, water, and a sense of humor.
