The truth is out there

The truth is out there… although it isn’t as interesting as we’d hoped.

After spending time at Burning Man and in Las Vegas we felt we had probably come as close as possible to encountering alien life forms.

But that wasn’t going to stop us trying our luck on the Extraterrestrial Highway.

For those of you who are not aware, this is the stretch of highway that runs the closest to Area 51 as possible. Now if you were cynical, you might just point out that all the instances of alien space craft sightings are surprisingly close to top-secret military testing facilities for assorted airborne creations. 

That explanation seems far too straightforward, so we were off in search of aliens. 

Well, aliens and the famous black mailbox. 

We also wanted to drive/walk to the top of Tikaboo peak which gets you as close as is now legally possible for a glimpse of the mysterious Area 51. Due to a lack of prior research, we missed the turnoff to this road. Oh well, never mind, there was still the mysterious black mailbox to come.

Again, dear reader, we understand that you may not be well versed in the nuances of UFO hunting in the Nevada desert. So to explain: The black mailbox is situated at the entrance to an unmarked road along Nevada State Route 375 (The Extraterrestrial Highway). This road is known as the ‘front gate’ to the USA’s top secret military facility of Area 51, which is the centre of all kinds of mysterious alien folklore.

The mysterious mailbox has become a central focus for UFO aficionados to hang out and wait to see aliens, or better yet, be abducted by one. 

It was apparently just the mailbox owned by a local rancher who, sick of people stealing his mail had it secured and added a second mailbox, simply marked ‘Alien’ for hopeful visitors to leave their letters to their short, big-headed, grey friends. 

We drove past the area where we expected it to be and saw nothing. Figuring we had just missed it due to short attention spans (Clearly the result of too many television shows about aliens). We carried on to the Little A’Le’Inn in Rachel, Nevada.

Full of all kind of kitschy alien merchandise, we stopped for a few photos, chatted to some other travellers, bought a collector’s pin. Then headed back to have a better look for the mysterious black mailbox, foolishly without asking for any further directions. 

Again, we drove past exactly where we expected it to be without spotting it. By then we were frustrated with our failure, disappointed at the lack of alien sightings and running low on food and gas, so we gave up and wrote off our quest for aliens along Nevada State Route 375 as a complete failure. 

It wasn’t until we drove back into cellphone reception that we finally googled the black mailbox, only to find out that after years in the same location, it had, about a month before we drove past, been removed altogether.

Finally! Proof that aliens exist, the mailbox had clearly been abducted. 

The closest we ended up getting to Area 51 was the Area 51 Exhibit at the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas. At least it had friendly robots. No Emma, you can’t keep him.

Accepting that we were not likely to spot any aliens or gain any unprecedented access to the top secret Area 51, we set off to explore the rest of the state.