Area 51, Extra Terrestrial Highway Drone Views
Recently, I fulfilled a dream to explore UFO territory in and around what is known as Area 51, aka Nevada Test and Training Range site, Groom Lake, Dreamland, Watertown and others. I brought along my dog Reggie as well as my Phantom 2 Quadcopter equipped with a GoPro 3. I have been a sky observer all my life and keep my eyes upward looking for anything interesting so what could be better than Rachel, Nevada? After reading and watching movies about about this place, I had to see it for myself. The town of Rachel is the center of activity for all things Area 51 related.
I made an reservation online for an overnight stay at the Little A' Le' Inn. Turns out they are pet friendly for an additional $15.00 fee per night. Otherwise a one night stay is $49.00. After a 5 1/2 hour drive from Orange County via Las Vegas, NV., with one stop for gas and a break for Reggie, we reached Alamo, NV about 2 pm. This is near the beginning of the famous Extraterrestrial Highway, State Route 375, designated as such by the state of Nevada in 1996. One of the more pleasant surprises driving up here is the Pahranagat Valley, one doesn't hear much about it but it is really beautiful. It has both dry and wet lakes, trees, roving cattle and beautiful landscape. A nice contrast to some of the "cheesy" alien stuff.
The distance from Alamo to Rachel is about 70 miles along the 98 mile long highway. Along the way, I passed the Center for Alien Research, and a couple of other gift shops based on alien things. One place sold alien jerky and advertised a place to dump RV holding tanks.
The "Alien Research Center" is a gift shop and the other "research" building across from the entrance was not open. I met a young couple that drove into the parking lot. They had just come from Massachusetts via Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. I met other people who had traveled the same route from the east all who are fascinated by the mystique of huge tracts of land that are sequestered off from public access.
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| This place is near highway 318 and 375 |
I tried to find the Black Mailbox as that was the next stop along the way but it had unfortunately been removed by the owner thanks to people constantly breaking into it. After passing Coyote Summit, 5,591 ft. my destination of Rachel, Nevada finally appears. Driving into town, you pass an unmarked dirt road that heads west towards Area 51. The test site worker buses apparently use this route. I was excited to see the "Inn" and went inside the restaurant bar to check in. I was greeted warmly by the nice lady working behind the bar and she searched in vain for my online reservation. Luckily, they had room so Reggie and I would not have to bunk in my Expedition. The rooms here are in technically what would be called a trailer village of manufactured homes. My room was about 12' square with a small entry way where the bathroom was located.
Unbeknownst to me was that this was a "shared bathroom". I didn't find this out until the following morning. I had left my room door open and luckily Reggie didn't react to a stranger coming into the bathroom.
The movie "Paul", the story of an earth smart alien trying to escape the evil scientists and aided by two British UFO nerds used this location for one of its better scenes. The restaurant is quite good with friendly service and interesting locals as well as tourists who want to find out what others have seen out there. I tried the Aleinn burger and was impressed. I recommend it.
I got to talking to one of the waitresses there who told me they see things all the time and have become more or less unfazed by what they see. Later that night, I got to witness a pretty good sky show. Even after sunset, some great stuff takes place. First are the high altitude contrails. Unlike most areas of the country where jetliners make their fairly straight sky trails, here they look like spider webs as they twist and turn. Obviously military aircraft going through their routines. Then come the sonic booms. Always in pairs, you know there is some supersonic activity going on. Reggie was not impressed and tended to shake and cower every time the booms commenced. One of the best sights of the evening though was a set of lights heading towards our location from the east, opposite to where A 51 is. At first the light was a steady white light that was moving in a slow but steady fashion towards our location. Then, the light splits in two and then splits again. Then after about 30 seconds the light(s) then suddenly disappear or go out depending on how you look at it. My best guess is that it was some kind of meteorite burning up as it entered the atmosphere. I have seen these before but never headed at me. Later, I saw a different kind of white light much like a flash camera but at very high altitude. There was no noise so I can't say what caused it but there were two bright flashes in succession, as if a giant camera in the sky had taken photos with a flash. I kept watching that spot to see if I could detect an aircraft but the second flash came about 20 seconds later and its location in the sky had not changed. Too bad I couldn't get this on video. After that the night sky show diminished and there wasn't much left to see. So, Reggie and I took a walk over to an area where there were no street lights or other forms of light just to look at the night sky. At first, it was just as you would expect with a carpet of stars unlike what you will see in most places. Being from So Cal, we get so much haze and light pollution there isn't much to see but out here, the night sky reveals its vast numbers of stars, galaxies, nebulae and other amazing features so thick with light that its hard to describe the immensity of so much sky matter.
The Next Morning
As I mentioned before, I was awakened by my trailer mate using the shared bathroom. I think my neighbors are permanent residents of this place. After a delicious and hardy breakfast, it was time to unleash my Phantom 2 and GoPro to capture some video of the restaurant compound and neighboring desert. I had gotten permission to fly around the restaurant and take some high altitude stills as well. Their main concern was that I didn't hit anything. They are right to question a pilots skills and intentions as Phantoms sometimes can wander away. In this case all went well and I got some nice video footage. Hopefully, the next version of the quad copters will allow longer flight time.
