SEEKING SOLITUDE IN THE MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE
Rolling south from Las Vegas on I-15, a traveler might feel the urge to press more heavily on the gas, and the few landmarks don’t offer much motivation to the contrary. In the rearview mirror, the man-made oasis of Primm beguiles with neon casinos and a yellow roller-coaster: Nevada’s last grasp at your wallet. Just west, on the California side of the road, mysterious towers flash white-hot in the corners of your eyes—enormous boilers, with hundreds of thousands of rotating mirrors pointing sunlight at them, generating solar power by the gigawatt. By exit 286, for Nipton Road, there’s no apparent reason to stop—not even gas or food. Not here, in the parched endless scrub, where a summer day can melt your tires, and
