For close to forty-odd years, the United States government has operated a secret facility within the boundaries of Nellis AFB Bombing and Test Range. Commonly reffered to as "Area 51", this place has become an icon of American pop culture perversely because of its secrecy. Who knows what bizarre flying machines they are testing out there?

As an aviation buff, it'd be pretty cool to catch a glimpse of something. As a taxpayer, though, I am more concerned about the seeming impunity this site seems to operate with - a boundary within which the laws of the United States seem not to apply (one need only look at the case of the widows who've lost their husbands because of toxins they were exposed to while working at Groom Lake)

Besides, wouldn't it be fun to go thumb one's nose at Uncle Sam?

On April 3rd 2000, my girlfriend Chris and I took off into the desert in search of the mythical Area 51 with nothing save a few candy bars and a rental SUV.
To get out to Area 51 from Las Vegas, you need to travel north on Hwy 15, to Hwy 93, and then finally to Hwy 375, the Extraterrestrial Highway (which was named by the state of Nevada to coincide with the release of the movie Independence Day in 1996).

Our First Stop: Rachel, Nevada

a Although Groom Lake Road is some 15 miles closer to Las Vegas, we decided to initially bypass it in lieu of stopping at the town of Rachel, which is home to the (by now) world famous Little A'Le'Inn

Rachel looks even smaller than it's population sign would indicate. One gas station, a few dozen trailers in the middle of the desert, and that's about it. No Wal-Mart, no McDonalds, no Texaco, no Sears. And Webvan doesn't deliver there. Like Robinson Crusoe, it is as primitive as can be...

Okay, Gilligan's Island references aside, yes, it's a small place, but its probably a very good place to see strange things in the sky on clear Nevada nights.

There are two places in Rachel that have attracted attention of those interested in Area 51. The first place is of course the A'Le'Inn, and the second is a yellow trailer proclaiming itself the "Area 51 Research Center." Unfortunatly when we were there, the Research Center was closed, but no matter, as it turned out we were able to get some much needed information from some of the locals at the Little A'Le'Inn, and a feel for the *ahem* local color.

After about twenty minutes of talking with various people there, we acquired a map that clearly showed where the boundaries of Area 51 began (neither of us was particularly keen on being arrested - hence getting a map was essential to preventing us from doing something too stupid.)

We hopped back into our SUV and turned ourselves around, heading south. Our next landmark would be the "Black Mailbox" (which is actually now white...)

Our Second Stop: The "Black" Mailbox

For years, travellers going to Area 51 have used a landmark black mailbox to indicate what road they should turn on. There is no sign that says "Groom Lake Road", and so this mailbox has improvised in that role. About four years ago, the black mailbox was replaced by this white one. We stopped here and took some pictures of it - tourists have scribbled all sorts of messages on it. (If it were my mailbox, I'd be pretty pissed about the vandalism, but that's just me...

We Ambush the Employee Bus

According to the map we picked up from the Little A'Le'Inn, every weekday afternoon at around 3:40pm, a bus heads out of the base on Groom Lake Road, full of employees of the base. This is a little confusing - my understanding is that the staff of the base commute on "Janet" 737-200s. So where this bus was going, I don't know. If you have more information on this, would ya please email me?

At any rate, we were driving towards the base when we saw the bus come 'round the corner. As soon as the bus spotted us, it sped up considerably (est 50mph). Chris managed to snap off a couple of pictures while it passed us.

One thing to note here is the incredible amount of dust thrown up by the bus - anything driving on that road leaves a considerable roostertail. Since there is nothing on Groom Lake Road for a number of miles, any would-be visitors to Area 51 telegraph their intentions well before they get anywhere near the base. As someone put it in Rachel, "Out here, the hills have eyes..."

The Entrance to Dreamland

After the bus passed us, we waited a few minutes while the dust settled before driving on. Another two miles on, we saw a glint of sunlight reflecting off of something! As we drove closer we saw that it was one of Groom Lake's Finest: A cammo-dude !

It looks like the paramilitary force that guards the base have traded in their white Jeep Cherokees for something a little more green. They aren't military police (not in the same sense as MPs anyway). The word we heard in Rachel is that they're probably from some private security company - Wackenhut or PG&G.

We only saw this lone fellow perched on a nearby hilltop, ready to pounce on us should we cross the demarcation line.

In front of us were a cluster of signs on both sides of the road, the point of demarcation was on the other side of those signs - cross this point and you will be arrested and fined at least $600.

(It's kinda blurry in this picture, but the last line on the topmost sign reads "Use of Deadly Force Authorized")

In addition to the cammo dude, we noticed two sensor "trees" that were watching (and probably listening to) us from another nearby hilltop. I assume that there are many, many others, all up and down Groom Lake Road, and that these are deliberatly placed in a conspicuous position.

After getting our pictures, and waving to the cammo-dude, we turned around and headed back out to Rachel. While leaving however, we were followed by another vehicle for about four miles in public lands. It was *probably* the cammo dude in the pickup, but we never saw it directly - we saw another roostertail of dust a hundred yards behind us, and our own dust tail obscured the other vehicle - in fact, we didn't know we were being followed until the road turned 90 degrees and I spotted the second trail off our left quarter.

We were decidedly spooked by this. I drove faster :-)

Dinner at the Little A'Le'Inn

We headed back to the Little A'Le'Inn for dinner and to go over the forty-odd pictures Chris snapped.

Finally, Joe Travis (who owns the Inn) donned his "Grey Getup" for a shot with Chris and myself...

.

After dinner (and the purchase of obligatory souvenirs), we got back in the Montero for the lonely drive back to Las Vegas...