Nipton, California

Each year I briefly visit a town called Nipton. Briefly can mean anything from 30 seconds to 3 minutes. I have never found a reason to stay much longer. It is located in the mountains outside of Las Vegas and it is a railroad crossing, basically. The drive from Havasu to Vegas is around two hours, and if you're like me you typically want the road less traveled. Well that would be Nipton Road.

It is beautiful because of the Yucca trees. There are millions of them, all along both sides of the road.

Once you get through the mountains, you begin a quick descent and the landscape changes into barren desert. Just when you think it couldn't get emptier, you run into the town of Nipton.
It has a few old buildings, a general store that's never open when I drive through, and some railroad tracks. Shay and I stopped one morning as we headed home from an off road race in Nevada and took this photo there:

And we took this one just down the road, to show how empty and desolate the highway is....

Someday I'll figure out what kind of people live in Nipton. I suppose the type of people who do not enjoy neighbors.