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22RoadTrips PDF
22RoadTrips PDF
CO M
THE TOWN OF NIPTON , pop. 20, is for sale for JENN McMANUS and her husband, Mike, ride CHINA RANCH is a date farm in Tecopa. Here, a
$5 million. The century-old Hotel Nipton is included. along California 127 in Shoshone, an eco-destination. worker jumps down after hand-pollinating a tree.
I began at the eastern edge of Roxanne. the late ’70s, Sorrells returned to
California in tiny Nipton and “My husband basically saved Shoshone.
worked my way northwest, with Nipton,” she said, standing inside We wandered through an oasis If you go
stops in Shoshone and Tecopa, be- the general store. “There aren’t of palms and clear pools where Sor-
fore heading through Death Valley many towns like this left. It’s bitter- rells played as a child. Now it’s the
to the ghost town of Ballarat. From sweet.” last refuge of the Shoshone pup- Hotel Nipton, 107355 Nipton www.chinaranch.com
fish. Road, Nipton; (760) 856-2335, Ballarat is off Trona-Wildrose Road,
there I traveled south into Trona Shirley Howard, 82, of New Jer-
She showed me around the im- www.nipton.com/hotel.html. near Death Valley. Look for signs.
and finally to Newberry Springs. sey walked in. She was here looking
pressive Shoshone Museum, Ecolodges from $68 a night;
for fossils. hotel rooms $84 a night plus tax. William Fuller’s art is outside his
Nipton “My primary mission is to find packed with historical documents,
house on Marshall Road in Trona.
I drove into town on Nevada 164 trilobites,” she said, referring to the mining relics and fossils. Shoshone Inn, 491 Highway 127, Look for the yard sign. Tell him
shortly after sunrise and wandered extinct marine arthropods. Sorrells is transforming Sho- Shoshone; (760) 852-4335 or David Kelly sent you.
through the cactus garden outside Why? shone into an eco-destination (760) 852-4224, shoshone
where travelers can bird-watch, village.com/shoshone-inn St. Antony Monastery, 43725
the century-old Hotel Nipton. “There is a certain thrill in find-
hike and have a beer at the Crow- .html. Rooms $140 a night. Bragdon Road, Newberry Springs;
The community of 20 sits on ing them,” she said. “And I enjoy (760) 257-1204, www.saintantony
the edge of Mojave National staying out here away from the bar Café & Saloon, which attracts
visitors from around the globe. In China Ranch Date Farm, monasteryus.org. Respectful,
Preserve, a few miles from Nevada, crowds.” China Ranch Road, Tecopa; appropriately dressed visitors
and for $5 million it can be yours. Lang smiled. I think she missed many ways life here is as rich and
(760) 852-4415, welcome.
Roxanne Lang, Nipton’s owner, the place already. cosmopolitan as it ever was.