Beatty, Rhyolite, Salt Creek

I stayed overnight in Beatty. The motel (the Phoenix Inn) was no frills, but nice enough. The owners were very friendly and responsive and it was clean and comfortable. It was raining when I left Beatty and pouring in Rhyolite. Luckily, it cleared soon after I arrived. Rhyolite is a ghost town over the Funeral Mountains to the east of Death Valley. It was once a boomtown of about 10,000 people, however, its economy relied on gold mining, and when the gold ran out, the town did too. Today it is a ruin managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Afterward, I went to Salt Creek in Death Valley. It was sunny and warm when I arrived there. The creek has about the salinity of the ocean and is home to the Salt Creek pupfish.

[@LCluney]

Thanks for sharing. We saw Rhyolite a few years ago. At that time, there was a volunteer who was taking donations at the house built out of beer bottles. Very fascinating town. I believe this place was used in a scene of a recent sci-fi Hollywood movie.

[@Desertphile]

Thank you for making this video. Rhyolite folks spent a massive amount of money on the place, right down to bringing telephone service in, building schools, and planning a huge opera house.

[@drumsetsteve]

very nice, I have 72 acres of historic
mining property between Beatty and Rhyolite.
Just off the road that they are driving on.

[@goldwellmuseum]

Thanks for visiting the Goldwell Open Air Museum and your nice comments on our video "Ghost Docent."

[@roxxma]

No problem. I actually just got back from a second trip out that way went to Rhyolite again. I'll post the video in the not too distant future.