I spent two days and one night in Basin and Range National Monument and cannot recommend it more! I think it's an overlander's dream location: endless miles of dirt roads, wide open spaces, history to explore, and an almost complete absence of people.
The Basics: Basin and Range NM is a couple hours north of Las Vegas in the triangle formed buy highways 375, 6, and 318. It's a newly formed monument founded in 2015, so it's almost completely undeveloped. The major roads through the park are maintained to varying degrees by the county, and there are many alternate routes that range from very good to "are you sure this is a road?" There are no established campsites in the park, so it's entirely dispersed camping. The environment ranges from high-desert piñon pine forests to wide open sagebrush planes.
I attached the maps that Alicia, the Ranger responsible for the monument sent to me. They were invaluable!
My Trip: 10/8 - I entered from the southeast near Hiko on Logan Road, eventually connecting to Mount Irish Road. The entrance is an unmarked gate in a barbed wire fence, so you'll probably miss it the first time like I did. Trust your maps. The south side of the park is home to several marked petroglyph sites that are worth a stop to check out.
I drove over the Mount Irish Pass and dropped down to North Crescent Road. I wound my way to Henry Springs Road, stopping to check out several tempting campsites along the way. The only people I saw for the entire day were a group of hunters camped along this stretch of road.
From there I drove Jackrabbit Pass Road to my incredible campsite for the night. I could see the entire valley floor for many miles in all direction and not a single light was visible at night.
10/9: I spent a leisurely morning in camp then headed northwest toward an exit through the Humbolt National Forest on Cherry Creek Road. My main route was Upper Coal Valley Road, Garden Valley Road, and West Cherry Creek Road, although I explored several offshoots and alternate routes along the way. At one point Garden Valley Road disappeared in to the sagebrush. Trusting the two GPS devices that said I was on a road, I pushed on for quite a while until it started to emerge as a cowpath again. Eventually the way become more defined and it joined West Cherry Creek Road right where it was supposed to. I only saw two other vehicles during my time in the park this day...and one was just evident from the dust cloud in the distance.
Summary: I can't recommend B&RNM enough. It's isolated, rugged, beautiful, and undiscovered. Check it out before the hoards find it.
