IT’S 3.40am in the small US town of Pioche, Nevada.

Six terrified guests sit upright in six separate bedrooms at the “haunted” Overland Hotel and Saloon.

Route 50 is near the secretive Area 51 air force base

There’s an alien obsession in the terrifying US state of NevadaCredit: Getty

Loud footsteps creak in the hallway. Up the passageway one way, back down the passageway the other. Then silence.

The WhatsApps start buzzing. “Was that you?” “No.” “Was that you?” “No.”

The next morning when our group, sleep-deprived and shaken, gathers for breakfast, hotel manager Wendy tells us: “Well, you were the only guests here last night.”

Spooky.

Wendy’s grandad came to the area from neighbouring state Utah at the age of nine, alone except for the cattle he was herding.

This gives an insight into the land we are now in — rural Nevada, a collection of ranches and old mining ghost-towns, separated by long, lonely roads and surrounded by beautiful mountains and desert.

Away from the glitz and showbiz of largest city Las Vegas, the state can claim to be the road trip capital of the US.

I’m on a tour of its state parks — it has 23 plus two national parks — and stopping off at one-saloon towns en route.

The bars are quiet, friendly — and show rodeo on the TV screens. I imagine they are a far cry from when the towns were springing up amid the silver and gold rushes of the late 1800s.

For a flavour of the chaos of those times, you can take a trip to the nearby Boot Hill Cemetery, with its own “murderers’ row” of outlaw graves.

Each is laid out with a ring of stones and marked by timber headstones, with epitaphs that paint a vivid picture of the past.

Take the one for a certain Morgan Courtney: “Feared by some, respected by few, detested by others. Shot in the back five times by ambush.”

Nearby, another simply reads: “Shot in dispute over dog.”

There’s easily enough sticky ends for a hotel full of restless spirits back at the Overland.

Gunslinging ghosts aside, I’m after some wild times and that means getting out into the wilds of the vast natural landscape, which over my few days here is bathed in sun, snow, then sun again.

Nevada is the most mountainous state in mainland US — there are 341 named ranges in the Great Basin alone.

The Great Basin is the country’s largest desert and spans most of the state and several bordering ones too.

The national park there could keep hikers and mountain bikers busy for days, but we make just a flying visit on our road trip north to Ely.

The remarkable Lehman Caves are like an underground palace, naturally made from rainwater and limestoneCredit: Getty

The road near Area 51 is also called the ‘ET Highway’

Rural Nevada is full of old mining ghost-towns

We do at least have time to take in the remarkable Lehman Caves there.

A 90-minute ranger-led tour will take you through just over half a mile of tunnels and larger rooms filled with elegant and intricate stalagmites and stalactites.

Imagine an underground sculpted palace, but all naturally made from rainwater and limestone combining over thousands of years.

Before reaching Great Basin though, we have passed by several smaller state parks.

Ranger Dawn at Cathedral Gorge park tells us there are five in a 50-mile radius.

Each boasts a different landscape and each is worth a visit. Cathedral Gorge gets its name from its unique structure of siltstone “slot canyons”.

These are a maze of tall, thin, pointy, white rocks that you can walk among and between.

Their overall visual effect is reminiscent of the gothic cathedrals of Europe.

Most stolen road sign

The nearby Kershaw-Ryan state park could not be less similar.

It used to be an orchard and garden and is filled with colourful plants and trees.

At Ely we are reminded of the history that formed the towns which sprang up across the state and still maintains them today — and that is mining.

After checking in at the aptly named Prospector Hotel, we take a tour of a historic mining town museum called Renaissance Village.

Its collection of wooden huts used to house workers who travelled from across the world to find their fortune in the copper mines here.

Each has been restored by former cowboy and teacher Glenn Terry.

The insides are kitted out to reflect the different nationalities of miner that would have stayed there, from Chinese to Irish, Italian to Greek.

The town also has a historic steam train that runs themed tours all year.

Our visit was just before Halloween, so it was a spook-fest of elaborately staged murder scenes that dotted the track.

There are 1920s cocktail and stargazing trips too.

There is no shortage of stars to see in the clear Nevada skies.

Far from any light pollution, just look up and you can make out the creamy path of the Milky Way.

The area is so undisturbed, in fact, that the Nevada section of Route 50 — which runs out of Ely and forms part of the 3,000-mile highway that crosses America from east coast to west — is known as America’s Loneliest Road.

You can drive for miles without seeing another car.

You might see a UFO, though. Not far away is Route 375 — also called the ET Highway, and near the secretive Area 51 air force base.

Area 51 has long been associated with UFO investigations and Route 375 has played host to hundreds of unexplained sightings in the sky.

The road sign to mark it is perhaps the most stolen sign in the US. It’s missing during my visit — but this time because a vehicle ran it over.

I stopped at the Alien Research Center (a gift shop, basically) to see a salvaged version of the sign.

While there you can also see official reports of UFOs — and stock up on alien honey, alien cards and alien tequila.

Back on the road and there’s another state park to tick off. This time it’s the Valley of Fire and its giant red-sandstone rocks, with 1,000-year-old art carvings.

This state park in the Mojave Desert is only an hour’s drive from Las Vegas in the south.

A tour of rural Nevada will likely see you fly in and out of this sparkling 24-hour party city.

So you can book-end your trip with nights out on the famous strip.

The endless choice — and sky-high prices — is a world away from the traditional small-town diners you’ll pass on the rest of your tour.

But what you’ve saved from cheap meals, beers and refill coffees on the road will give you enough for a final blowout at the casino capital of the world. Who knows, you may come home in profit.

Either way, you’ll be richer for the experience of the great outdoors in this vast and varied state.

source: thesun.co.uk