Goldfield Summit by Bicycle - Velo

Goldfield Summit

I95 rises from 1500ft in Las Vegas, intermittently and ever so gently until it reaches roughly 6000ft on Goldfield Summit. This is not a 4 lane highway, but a 2 lane road, mostly with a wide shoulder and rumble strips, located exactly on the lane boundary, There may be sections north of Beatty where the shoulder situation is not so good for cyclling. But the profiled section, which I rode during a loop over Montezuma s(u) is -as far as I am concerned- safer than most 3 lane roads.

1.START-END NORTH:site of Alkali, local low point on Silver Point RD
2.profile joins I95
3.the town of Goldfield
4.TOP: Goldfield Summit, 6040ft
5.jct I95 - unsgined E Railroad Springs Rd to Montezuma area
6.START-END SOUTH:jct I95 Nv266

Approaches

From South. This top section of I95 touches on the Goldfield Hills, a picturesque set of bare desert shapes, part of the Montezuma Range The top is signed, complete with elevation. My gps gave a reading 100ft lower, but the map confirms the over 6000ft status.

From South. (described downwards). The road decends a couple of hundred ft into strange Goldfield. There are a surprisingly large number of houses here, but no grocery stores, or anything else that does not fall under the category tourist trap. It is however a collection of pictursque decay, touristically spruced up for the unengaged. On this side is a high mountain park, of sorts - really a desert plain, bottoming on a dry lake bed, I95 decends barely 600ft, before climbing again to get out of this saucer shape. But the profile follows a paved road to a lower point in the saucer along Silver Peak Road to where it reaches a low point, before this road too climbs out of the saucer.