Living in California and having been inculcated to expect mining towns to either be highly…read moreengineered and artificial (Calico) or ghostly quiet, dead, and obscured by environmental mitigation efforts (Bodie), discovering the Alder Gulch felt a lot like striking gold myself. Here is a world that has been little changed since the mines played out - a world of youthful timber gradually reclaiming a pock-marked landscape of dredged creeks, tailing piles, and human habitations, going far to prove that, given enough time, even the scars of avarice and gold fever heal into something quite beautiful... a pretty "rockin" view to pilfer a phrase. It's easy to discover the history of the area by walking through Virginia and Nevada cities, but there is only one way to get the big picture in a way that will make you fully appreciate what happened in this remote corner of our nation during the 1860s.
Nelson Offroad offers this opportunity. If you can only take one tour during your visit, take this one. Meeting in front of the Virginia City Depot, you can't miss the hulking mass of Desert Storm metal reposing under the Cottonwood tree. Ken and Dani are a local husband-and-wife team - two accomplished, articulate, and very engaging historians who are capable of illuminating the history of the area with great clarity and skill. Unlike most offroad tours, which are reminiscent of sitting in a blender on the chop setting while you stare straight ahead, contemplating your doom, the Alder Gulch tours are an adventurous scenic tour that offers just the right balance of adrenaline and scenic value. All tours take place aboard Colossus (be sure to ask Ken about the history of the vehicle) - a vehicle that can literally go anywhere and withstand earth, wind, fire, and ice as if it were a mere gnat smashed against the windscreen, and are narrated by Ken and/or Dani. The ride itself bumps along, but is in fact rather comfortable and smooth. If you are comfortable with mild jostling, you will be just fine.
The daytime tour, which is about 90 minutes, journeys south from town and up into the lodgepole woods rising above Virginia City on the flanks of Mt. Baldy. Along the way, mining techniques and landscapes previously conveyed in pictures and text in town below become real - your guides will point out and describe the remnants of dredge, hydraulic, and open pit mining: all of which happened on the very ground Colossus grinds beneath his tires. The trip is steep, with a vertical rise of several thousand feet, and every turn of the wheel begets another story. Everything from the local midgets who became tycoons to the Chinese merchants who discovered an ingenious way to spring one of their own from prison to the world of frontier prostitution to the active mines of today are brought to life at the very places they happened. You won't look at the towns the same way again - nowhere is there a more thoroughly entertaining and exciting way to soak up the local history, flavor, and landscape, than aboard this tour. Wildlife sightings are common - Moose, Bear, and Deer call this area home, and there's a good chance you may see one... or even something supernatural if you take their new Ghost Tour.
Tours run rain or shine (apparently the truck can handle apocalyptic floods without batting an eye), at $25 for adults, $20 for seniors, students, and servicemen, and $12 for kids. They also do special charter adventures if you have a place in mind and a group that wants to get there without bottoming out your little Subaru.
Tourist things are sometimes abhorrent but this tour is emphatically not a trap. It is a legitimately enlightening and adventurous experience - one that I am anxious to repeat time and again. There is gold of all kinds up the gulch, and Colossus will take you there.
