Area 51 Trip Report May 2011

Area 51 Trip Report May 2011
by Paul

I always wanted to go to the Area 51 borders. My big chance came on my latest vacation to the US. This was my second vist to Las Vegas. When I was there in 2008 for my honeymoon I did not have the much needed Wife Acceptance Factor. Yet this time I pulled it off!

So on the 10th of may we headed towards Groomlake Road via the Extraterrestrial Highway. When we arrived on GLR it felt a bit funny to ride on this unpaved road for 20 miles in the middle of nowhere. When we finaly arrived at the border (where the signs are) we immeaditely noticed one of the 'famous' Camo Dudes on the hill on the right. When he saw us he drove his car al little bit forward (maybe just to intimidate us a little).

Off course I got out off the car and took some pictures (despite the threatening words on the signs). I also noticed that the the road is now paved .This starts at where the signs are. It is now more clear then ever where the border is because of this. After 5 minutes we turned around and headed towards the next must see: the Black Mailbox.

When we got there we saw a woman in a car open the box and drop a letter in it. When she drove away we went to the mailbox to take some pictures. After looking in her backviewmirror she drove back to us and said with a firm voice : "you are not going to damage someone else his mailbox are you?" I explained that my intentions where strictly honorable. I said to her that this is a very famous mailbox. While driving away she said: "it's just a mailbox you know ...".

The next stop was the North Gate so we headed towards Rachel. Just before this little town we headed into the desert once again. At arrival we took some pictures. I saw one Camo arrive at the building and going in and one Camo drive out off the Gate looking very intense to us both while passing our car. That was a bit 'creepy'. Also here the road was paved. The paved part starts about half a mile before the actual gate. When we were at the end of the road on our way back we saw a dustcloud coming from a truck driving behind us coming out of Area 51. When we were back on the highway 375 we stopped and let it pass. It looked like some kind of fueltruck painted in green army colors.

After this visit we headed to the famous "Little A'Le'Inn" in Rachel. The people here were friendly and we had a nice lunch. I enjoyed the story off a local woman who explained the very loud noise that F-22 Raptors make with there afterburners at 500 feet. The F-16's are not so bad she said (I quess if you live in Rachel you are an expert haha). Walking back to our car we saw 2 jetplanes at a low altitude flying in circles (hard to see what type they were, but I took a picture).

Back in Vegas after 2 weeks (after a 3000 mile roadtrip) I headed towards the McCarran Airport to look for the Janets. They were really easy to find and I took some pictures. Later I discovered that I could even see them from my hotelroom (Excalibur). We were there for 4 days and I noticed that most of them were coming in between 4 and 6 PM.

All in all a great experience that was well worth the long drive. Even my wife (who is not so crazy as I am) liked the visit to Area 51 and Rachel very much. Not only the mysterious signs and camo dudes but also the great nature of the desolate dessert. It is very easy to understand why a goverment would 'hide' a topsecret base in that part of the US.

If you are in the Vegas area and you have time to spare it is a 'must-see'.

Paul
The Netherlands.