All the roads out here are gravel but pretty rough in some spots. So, we rode our mountain bikes out to the historic Gold Butte town site. Our ride was 35 miles with 2610’ of climbing. This was an out and back though you could make some other loops if you wanted longer distance.
This ride took us all the way through the monument towards Lake Mead. It’s desolate out here with no cell service most of the time. The weekends get some jeepers and off road vehicle traffic but never much. Our ride was miles and miles of solitude with nothing but mountains, rocks, cacti, Joshua trees and creosote. Oh, and burros. We passed a fun looking little group of them that were very curious about us. The backdrop of the town site was dramatic with giant boulders and a big butte in the background. We turned around at the historic town site but the road kept going and it looked like Lake Mead was about 15 miles away.
Gold Butte Town Site
There isn’t much left of the Gold Butte town site except some old mining equipment, a few caged mines, and the graves of the last two residents. Gold was discovered in 1905 and a tent city sprung up quickly. At the peak of mining Gold Butte had about 2000 residents, a post office, a saloon, a store and of course, a brothel. The town was short lived and by 1911 the mining boom ended and the miners packed up and left. After that the area became Bill Garrett and Art Coleman ranched here for the next 40 years Fun fact: Bill was the nephew of Pat Garrett, the sheriff who killed Billy the Kid.
We are here for a few more days and can’t wait to see what other adventures we have.
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