Sourthern Nevada: Airway Beacon and Double Negative - "take a moment and consider the hysteria"

We drove East from Las Vegas to an old airway beacon arrow located in the desert North of Riverside on Mormon Mesa. I became interested in the history of Transcontinental Airway System beacons after finding one decades ago.

Bosco was more interested in rolling in some fresh cow manure. To his canine olfactory system the manure was probably Eau de Cologne but to me it just smelled like shit.

Next we drove down the Moapa River valley to Overton and then East up onto the southern portion of Mormon Mesa.

About 30 minutes later we arrived at the Double Negative.

Double Negative is a 1,500-foot-long, 50-foot-deep, 30-foot-wide trough that was cut with dynamite and heavy equipment in 1969 by artist Michael Heizer. Take a moment and consider the hysteria that the construction of this piece of art would create today.

Hiezer is the artist behind LACMA's Levitated Mass and the man who has spent decades building "The City" in Garden Valley, West of the Golden Gate Range in Nevada. Don't put a visit on your Nevada itinerary because the site is not open to the general public. Although Senator Harry Reid visited the installation and then convinced President Barack Obama to declare 740,000 acres surrounding the site wilderness. - newyorker.com

We found a few wild flowers blooming near Double Negative.

And then drove on looking for a place to camp.

One of the few cleared areas we could find the site of an old oil well

and that is where we set up camp, prepared dinner and watched the sunset.

The next morning we packed up camp, drove back down to the Moapa River valley and motored on to our next destination.