Leaving Las Vegas

After packing as much as we could into the two days we had in Vegas, we headed out for our day trip to the small town of Rachel, NV. Rachel, population of around 200, is the Mecca for UFO enthusiasts. This small town features a small, dingy restaurant and bar known as the Little A' Le' Inn (little alien) and is the closest town to Nellis Air Force Base, better known as Area 51.

The drive from Vegas to Rachel is a barren, boring desert drive. There's very little to see until you get close to Rachel. Here we are within 40 miles of Rachel when the aliens start popping up.

In the 1990's Nevada's SR375 was named the Extraterrestrial Highway.

Here we are in Rachel. Not too much to see.

Little A' Le' Inn

The Little A' Le' Inn is probably the most famous truck stop style restaurant in the world. The entire building can't be more than 1000 sq. ft., but thousands and thousands of people visit this isolated restaurant every year. Some come just to have lunch at the last town on SR375 for over 100 miles. Most people, though, come to talk to the locals about what they've seen and heard and burn all their cash on alien memorabilia (I know I did).

When we arrived, we were the only car in the parking lot. I was worried that the restaurant was closed, but I guess business was just slow. When we entered, the restaurant was as empty as the parking lot. The guy standing behind the counter offered us as seat at the bar. As Liz was going over the menu, I began to strike up a conversation with David, the man behind the counter.

It turns out that David was in the Air Force for 11 years. He served in Desert Storm in the 90's and had been stationed all over the world. One of the places he was stationed was Nellis AFB (Area 51). He claimed that he had never seen anything interesting at the base, but had seen things elsewhere. He told me that he had been flying in a squadron of F-16s at supersonic speed when a craft passed by them like they were standing still. The event was caught on video (I'm assuming the jet's onboard video), and when they landed the reviewed the tape. This group of combat-trained fighter pilots had no idea what could travel at such speed.

Soon after David told us his story, the restaurant began to fill up. Liz and I ate our lunch, bought some souvenirs, and were on our way.

This is the outside of the Little A' Le' Inn. I'm serious, it looks like a truck stop.

Of course, Liz and I had to pause for a picture in front of the restaurant.

The entry sign for the Little A' Le' Inn.

These are some pictures of sightings and other random information.

In the back corner of the store you have the gift shop. One of the town locals can be seen in the corner of the picture. It was not very hard to separate the locals from the visitors.

P.S. By 'visitors', I mean non-locals, not aliens. Hehe. Thought I should clear that up.

Area 51

After president Clinton signed the Freedom of Information Act in the 90s, many of the formerly classified documents about this base were made available to the public. This along with satellite imagery (that clearly showed the base) made it difficult for the government to deny the existence of the base any longer. Finally, the government acknowledged the base's existence as an experimental aircraft test facility, but nothing else.

Regardless of the role of the base in the UFO phenomenon, it is still a place of wonder for many people (us included). The location of the base can be seen in the map on the top of this page. The gray area is noted in the map as being Nellis AFB and Nevada Test Site. To get an idea of the scale of this place...

It took us over two hours to drive from Vegas to Rachel, NV. If you compare the driving route to the base on the map you can see they are close to the same length. I could not make an exact calculation of the size of the base because of its irregular shape, but I measured chunks of the base and summed them up to get an estimated size of the base. What I came up with is that Nellis AFB, or Area 51, covers over 13,000 square miles. Now that's a large base!

We decided we had enough of the mysticism, now it was time to check it out for ourselves.

This is the noted 'black mailbox' that marks one of the roads into the base. This mailbox belongs to a small ranch that lies just off of SR375.

You may have noticed that the black mailbox is actually white. David at the Little A' Le' Inn told us that the ranchers did this because people kept stealing the black mailbox. It seems the ranchers even decided to try to make some money from the deal by adding a place where visitors can drop money.

Before we took this trip, I looked on line for information about the base. It appears that the site is patrolled by both military and civilian security. They are known to take their jobs very seriously. This white SUV is one of the civilian patrol vehicles. These vehicles just sit ominously watching anyone driving down the dirt road. Its a little intimidating.

Here we are on the dirt road passing the ranch. Non-military personnel are allowed to travel down the road for many miles before being forced to turn around. Once you get past the ranch, the military has road sensors to detect vehicles that are traveling down this seldom used road.

There are many of these hills throughout the area that serve as lookouts for the security vehicles. It is difficult to see because of the distance, but one of the security vehicles is watching us from the top of this hill.

This is the end of the road for us. If you drive past this sign, the security patrol has authorization to shoot you on the spot. I've heard that they have no problem in using this authority. Up to our right there is a vehicle atop one of the lookout hills. Two figures can be seen inside carefully watching us.

I have to confess that I didn't take this picture, its actually off of a postcard. The 'photography prohibited' sign and the armed guards watching us led me to avoid using my camera.

David from the Little A' Le' Inn told us that many of the locals go out to this area around the time of the shift change on the base. Apparently, the employees of the base need to keep their anonymity so they can not leave while there are civilians present. Basically this local ritual is a major annoyance for the base and its employees.

One of the locals, who authored a book on the base, goes above and beyond to agitate the employees of the base. Apparently he's a regular for attending the shift changes and even went as far as digging up the military's road sensors. This man took a trip to Denver about a week ago, and in his absence the FBI raided his house and took his computer, books, paperwork, etc. David claims that they haven't found what they're looking for, but they have not returned any of the man's things yet.

On the way back to Vegas, we were passed by one of the security vehicles. I was not able to get my camera out quick enough for a closeup, but the olive colored truck is clearly visible. The men inside were wearing fatigues and had their faces painted a dark gray.