The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: October twenty-fifth, tooling along America's most lonely highway.

Mention Nevada and most folks envision Las Vegas or Reno, this desert state's unique and vibrant neon blossoms. But there's another, more traditional Nevada, far from the bright lights and crowded casinos. It's a place where one can be alone.

In fact, U.S. Route 50, which bisects the state, has been called America's most lonely road. Following a trail first blazed by the Pony Express, this two lane ribbon of pavement traverses the shimmering, barren Great Basin, the bed of a vast lake that covered central Nevada as recently as 7000 years ago. For almost 400 miles, the road flirts with an endless series of sun-blasted mountain ranges and salt plains. Three small towns that hug the roadside are the only oases of civilization in the otherwise vast, unadulterated emptiness.

The rare rain which falls over these valleys evaporates long before it ever reaches the ground, but in the higher country, the environment is somewhat less forbidding. These isolated, north/south ranges are round- shouldered and softened by grass, sage and pinon. Some of the Bristlecone pines here are 4000 years old. At a place known as Grimes Point, drawings etched into dark boulders date from when this barren expanse was still beachfront property. Since then, the only settlers here have been drawn by minerals in the ground or a desire for the blessings of absolute solitude.

Never underestimate that attraction. This huge emptiness engenders a strange sense of freedom, even for travelers in transit.

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