Isolation

One of the things that I love most about rural Nevada is the openess - the mountain ranges tumbling into vast valleys.  Few people live in these isolated areas.  In fact, Nevada has only about 27 people per square mile.  Compare that to California that has 253 people per square mile or New Jersey that has 1,211 people per square mile. The majority of the people living in Nevada live in Las Vegas and surrounding cities.  Reno only has a fraction of the population of Las Vegas.  If you exclude Las Vegas and Reno, the remainder of the state (about 90%) is sparsely populated.  

It is very common to drive through on major highways and not see a gas station for 100 miles.  But, most people think of the vast openness as desolate and lonely.  What they don't realize is that just a few miles off the highway are spectacular mountain vistas, rivers and streams with abundant wild life including wild horses and burros, mountain goats, antelope, coyotes, bear,  wolves, numerous raptors and bird species and . . . the occasional rattlesnake.    

And spectacular sunsets . . . one of which is happening right now and I am not in the right place to capture it.  Oh well, there is always tomorrow.  

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