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Trip: Heading out of Tonopah on Highway 6, we drive east for about 50 miles to reach Warm Springs. Here we meet Shawn Hall, the director of the Tonopah Mining Park and the author of a number of books on the ghost towns of Nevada. He is going to guide us to a number of ghost towns today with Warms Springs being the first.
Gold was discovered in the Tybo area in the 1870s. The community’s boom years were 1875-1877, when the population hit around 1000 people. There were saloons, a school, a literary society, a post office and a newspaper office. Over the course of Tybo’s existence more than $9.8 million worth of ore and material was mined in the area. An impressive amount considering the time period the mines were active. In 1879, the Tybo Consolidate Mining Company failed due to difficulties in ore reduction and by the spring of 1880 town was all but abandoned. For more than a century, a variety of mining companies had tried to resurrect mining operations in the area, but any success in doing so has been very limited and short-lived. Even today, Tybo is not a complete ghost. A handful of people still make their home in the peaceful, beautiful canyon.
Soon we are headed on to our next stop. we return to Tybo and backtrack to the fork in the road, this time we take the other option. The remnant of the community of Hot Creek is 11 miles away on a graded dirt road that skirts along the base of the foothills of the Hot Creek Range.
As the light begins to fade, we thank Shawn for our tour and return to Highway 6 and Tonopah for the night.
There we meet Richard Orndorff, a geomorphologist, and Gene Smith, a volcanologist. They’ll give us an expert’s explanation of the area’s natural wonders.
Lunar Crater Volcanic Field covers over 100 square miles, and contains cinder cones, lava flows and craters. Area features include Easy Chair Crater, The Wall, Black Rock Lava Flow and over 20 other extinct volcanoes. The landscape here has been described as otherworldly. In fact, it was used in the late 60s to train astronauts for the Appollo moon missions. Lunar Crater itself was named to the National Natural Landmark Register in 1973, the crater is almost 4,000 feet across, 430 feet deep, and more than 400 acres in size.
The
major attractions of the area are located off of a dirt access road
that should be negotiable to most vehicles. However, watch for sandy
spots and take care not to get stuck. Visitors to the field should be
aware that there are no services, and will want to be sure to bring
enough water and other supplies with them. Thanks to the advisors and contributors of Wild Nevada Program #202:
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After
a brief stop in Warm Springs, we follow Shawn back to Highway 6 and
drive northeast for about another eight miles. After turning onto a
dirt road, we head northwest into the Hot Creek Range. Driving for roughly
10 miles, we arrive in the ghost town of 
After
a tour of the remains of Tybo, we head further up the road to try to
find what Shawn describes as a set of well-preserved 
The
The
second day of our adventure finds us once again heading east on Highway
6. This time we go pass Warm Springs and on to the Lunar Crater Volcanic
Field, which is located about 74 miles from Tonopah. The access road
to Lunar Crater is a maintained dirt road. Though sandy, it’s
easy to travel. From the highway it’s about 7 miles to the Lunar
Crater National Natural Landmark. 
Lunar
Crater Volcanic Field is an outstanding geological phenomenon and a
great place to learn more about 
The
fantastic landscape was formed over a long period of time. As early
as two million years ago volcanic activity began forming the craters
and a number of vents. Later, only a few thousand years ago, molten
lava surfaced along a fault line and through the vents created by the
earlier activity. As the 2000-degree-hot lava spread across the landscape
it cooled and became basalt. Sometime during this period two tremendous
volcanic eruptions created Lunar Crater and Easy Chair Crater.