When most people hear or think of Nevada they focus on maybe a couple of cities. Reno, Las Vegas, the capital Carson City. You may also think about Mesquite and Wendover depending on where you live, but Ely, Nevada?
You might ask where is Ely, and what makes Ely so cool to you. Ely can be found on US 50, it's also the junction for 50, 6 and 93. If you are just driving through you may not be impressed, in all honesty it isn't much to look at just driving by. It's your typical mining town, and those you can find all around Nevada (including old ghost towns).
Per the opening in Wikipedia:
Ely is the largest city and county seat of White Pine County, Nevada, United States. Ely was founded as a stagecoach station along the Pony Express and Central Overland Route. Ely's mining boom came later than the other towns along US 50, with the discovery of copper in 1906. Though the railroads connecting the First Transcontinental Railroad to the mines in Austin and Eureka have long been removed, the railroad to Ely is preserved as a heritage railway by the Nevada Northern Railway and known as the Ghost Train of Old Ely.
The town of Ely can be consider a tourism spot, home to both the Nevada Northern Railway Museum and the Hotel Nevada. Also nearby you can find such places as: Great Basin National Park, Cave Lake State Park, and Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Park, and Garnet Hill (a hill where you can spend hours digging away to find yourself some precious gems).
The main reason for our trip to Ely (as spur of the moment as it was) was the Hotel Nevada. And it is also one of Vincent's favorite towns, and now I have two fallen in love with it and it's charm.
Now on to the Hotel Nevada, this was probably the coolest part of our trip. The Hotel Nevada was built in 1929 and was the tallest building in Nevada well into the 1940s, it was also the state's first fireproof building. It was the main stop over for many Hollywood stars and starlights on their way to Star Valley, Idaho. What this means is you can actually stay in some of the same rooms that movie stars stayed in! This time we stayed in the Jimmy Stewart room, and it was pretty neat.
The showers are what give the hotel it's real charm. I don't think I have ever stepped foot into a bathroom that had a warning! Because of how old the piping / building is (and everything is still original) the water temp can go from hot to cold back to hot in a matter of seconds. If given the chance to go back to Ely and explore more, heck yeah! And it is a place that I so totally recommend going to.
(Pictures coming soon)
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