Beatty, Nevada

Anyone ever been there?  Tell me anything about it?  From the looks on the net it looks ok but some people told me thats a dirty and nasty place to visit. 

utmtman said:

Anyone ever been there?  Tell me anything about it?  From the looks on the net it looks ok but some people told me thats a dirty and nasty place to visit. 

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I was there about a year ago -- on my way from Las Vegas to Reno. It's one of those small towns on that long trek that breaks the monotony, but other than a casino with one crap table and a few restaurants, that 's about it. The population is probably about 1500 or so.

Am curious as to why you query Beatty as a destination?

utmtman said:

Anyone ever been there?  Tell me anything about it?  From the looks on the net it looks ok but some people told me thats a dirty and nasty place to visit. 

Click to expand...

We spent some time there doing the north end of Death Valley.  The RV campground there was fairly decent as I remember but we spent some of the coldest nights we have ever RV with the temps and the winds both in the 30s.  (Wind chill = 15?)  The town is a fairly typical small desert town.  It makes its living off the gold mining down by Jerome.

We've only driven through and fueled there on our way to other places, but I would never describe it as dirty or nasty.   

It's a very small, fairly isolated, desert town somewhat close to Death Valley.  We've never stayed at the campground located at the edge of town, but it looked fine ... not fancy ... but OK, and certainly not dirty or nasty. 

Margi

I was offered a workamping job there.  And an rving friend told me I was crazy to go there.  He has made the comments about how the town was.  The internet search on the town showed it was a nice little town.  So thought I would look a little further into it.  Thanks for the info. 

A couple of years ago, we were with a group at Death Valley and did a trip up to Rhyolite and continued on to Beatty. One of the group had an uncle who was a jeweler in Beatty during the boom times. Nice local museum. We thought it was a neat little town.

We've stayed in Beatty many times because it's a good stopping point between Reno and Las Vegas.  There's a campground (El Burro?) a few blocks from the main intersection where the casino is located.  I'm not sure I'd want to stay there for any period of time, but I wouldn't necessarily call Beatty dirty and nasty.  It's just that it has long since passed its heyday.  The campground isn't anything fancy but they do have full hookups and some have 50-amp (some sites have it, but it doesn't work so check before getting settled in).  The disadvantage to this particular campground is where you go to pay.  It's right next door to a motel and you used to pay in the motel office.  But they've been renovating the hotel and now you have to go to the far end of town to the gas station and casino.  Inconvenient if you don't want to unhook your toad.  Hopefully some day they'll get the motel office back into operation!

We've also stayed in Mina which at one time was a very busy town because it was where two railroads of different gauges met.  We wondered what the huge concrete foundation was in the middle of town and were told it was the RR station where the passengers rested when changing from one train to the other.  Mina has a hamburger stand, a tiny store, and a bar or two, but not much else.  There's a small but decent RV park at the south end of town.

Hawthorne is another stop.  It was/is a huge ammunition repository for the military and you can see miles of underground bunkers where it was stored.  It's definitely a military town.  Hawthorne has a good sized casino with a motel and an attached RV park.

ArdraF

According  to my search on the net they, showed three rv parks in beatty.  The national park service asked me if I wanted to be a volunteer in Ryolite and I was interested until they told me the job entailed reparing buildings as needed.  I have done a bit of carpentry work in my day but that is a little out of my league I think.  I would be afraid of the hammer going thru that old wood on every swing.

Neat ghost town up the hill and the biggest damm candy store I have ever seen on main st.
Fun one night stop!

Yes, the RV CG is right on the main drag through town and may be noisy, but we were able to get our 40'er into the gas station for diesel and I'll also vouch for the liver and onions in the casino restruant! We were just passing through on our way to 2 weeks dry-camping at Sunset CG in Death Valley NP - also highly recommended.

We just spent 3 months in Death Valley and visited Beatty a couple of times. It's just a typical small town on a north-south highway. It's a good overnight stop if you're traveling on highway 95. It's also a good base for exploring Death Valley if you can't live without hookups or just don't want to stay in Death Valley (although I don't know why you wouldn't want to stay in DV). From Beatty, you can explore Death Valley, Tonopah (stealth bomber was built there), Rhyolite (really cool town mostly owned by the BLM), funky outdoor art display (just outside Rhyolite), big sand dunes, lots of ghost towns and old mining areas. In October, they have Beatty Days with bed races, music, food, crafts, and more. Rest of the year, there's lots to do in the area, if not in Beatty itself. FWIW, when we lived at Scotty's Castle in Death Valley, we used to run to Beatty for dinner on occasion. Oh, and the Burro campground is closed but there are a couple of others in town. I wouldn't hestitate to spend a winter camphosting there. But then, I like the desert, Death Valley, and Beatty.

Enjoy
Wendy
Bolsa Chica State Beach, California

Thanks for all the answers.  I have sent an email to the people who own the one rv park and told them I am available and can be there by 1 march.  Will see if they contact me again or if they have filled the position.