The Stops You Should Not Skip on the Drive Into Vegas
We were on the 15 somewhere past Barstow when one of my sisters sat up.
Wait. Does that say Free Syria?
Three of us turned and looked out the same window. In the middle of the Mojave Desert, nothing around for miles, there it was.
I am Syrian. I have never seen my country's name out in the open like that, on a freeway, in the desert, in California. We just sat there going what. Why is that here. There has to be a story.
We pulled off and figured out how to get to it.
That is how we found Liberty Sculpture Park, and it turned into the best stop of the entire trip.
If you are driving into Vegas, do not just floor it and get there. This stretch of road has some of the strangest and most memorable things I have ever pulled over for. Here they are in order, south to north, the way you will actually hit them.
1. Liberty Sculpture Park, Yermo
Thirty six acres of desert right off the freeway, covered in enormous sculptures, and it is completely free.
The one you cannot miss is a giant 64. That is for June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square. There is Tank Man, the still unidentified man who stood in front of a line of tanks holding two shopping bags. There is Liberate Hong Kong. There is a fifteen foot head of Chief Crazy Horse, and inside the headdress it says give me liberty or give me death. There is a statue of the Chinese labor activist Li Wangyang, and a piece called Victims of Communism.
Every single sculpture has a sign explaining what it is. We read all of them.
The artist is why I cannot stop thinking about this place.
His name is Chen Weiming. Born in Hangzhou, moved to New Zealand in 1988, now lives in the US. He bought this land with friends in 2017 to build something that thousands of drivers would see every day whether they stopped or not.
And here is the part that got me. He went to Syria. He fought alongside the Free Syrian Army against the Assad regime. Sources put it at three separate trips between 2011 and 2014.
So that name I saw from the car, out in the middle of the desert, was not random at all. The man who built this place had been there.
It gets wilder. In July 2021 one of his sculptures, a piece called CCP Virus, was burned to the ground. Two men were later charged with acting as agents of the Chinese government on US soil. They had gotten hold of his tax returns through a private investigator who was quietly cooperating with the FBI. And they destroyed his artwork.
Chen said immediately that he would rebuild it. He unveiled the replacement in June 2022.
There is a fifteen foot Xi Jinping sculpture standing in the California desert because someone tried to burn it down and the artist refused to let that be the end of it.
Liberty sculpture park in Yermo Liberty sculpture park in Yermo Tank Man sculpture at Liberty Sculpture Park The 64 Tiananmen Square monument in Yermo California Chief Crazy Horse head sculpture in the Mojave Desert
How to visit: Exit at Calico Road and turn toward Yermo. The entrance is on Yermo Road down a dirt road, so go slow. Free, open daily, and there are picnic tables. Give it thirty to forty minutes minimum. We took longer because we ended up reading everything. Chen is also working on permits for a museum on the site.
More at the Liberty Sculpture Park website.
2. EddieWorld, Yermo
You will see a sixty five foot ice cream cone rising out of the desert. That is not a mirage and you should not drive past it.
It calls itself California's largest gas station and the owner describes it as the Disneyland of gas stations, which sounds like nonsense until you walk in. Twenty six thousand square feet. Twenty six gas pumps and twenty four EV chargers. Three restaurants doing sandwiches, sushi, custom pizzas, burgers, chicken tenders breaded on site.
There is homemade ice cream, a Peet's, handmade popcorn, and a candy section that genuinely stops kids in their tracks, including a big Mexican candy aisle. Jedediah's Jerky is inside if you want fresh jerky by the pound.
They chose Yermo because it is the exact geographic midpoint between coastal California and Vegas. Open 6am to midnight. Details at eddieworld.com.
Real talk: the jerky is expensive. People flag that constantly in reviews. Everything else is worth it, and the bathrooms are the cleanest on the whole drive, which after a few hours in the car matters more than it should.
Peggy Sue's 50s Diner is minutes away if you want to make it a longer stop.
3. Baker, California, which is three stops in one town
Baker is tiny and somehow has three things worth pulling over for.
Alien Fresh Jerky. This place is a full experience. Aliens everywhere, a gift shop full of ridiculous things, and an enormous jerky selection. It was started in 2000 by Luis Ramallo, who moved his family here from Argentina in 1988 and built it with his wife and his oldest son. The Baker store is now forty eight hundred square feet. When they bought it in 2002 it was eight hundred.
Mad Greek Cafe. Right there, and it is famous for a reason. It was on the very first episode of Guy Fieri's show back in 2007. Gyros in the middle of the desert.
World's Tallest Thermometer. One hundred thirty four feet tall, built to match the 134 degree record set in Death Valley. Free, takes two minutes, and it is a great photo.
4. Zzyzx Road
It is the strangest road name in America and everybody driving to Vegas has seen that sign. Almost nobody exits.
We have not done this one yet, but here is what is actually down there, because it is worth knowing. Four and a half miles down Zzyzx Road there is a real oasis called Lake Tuendae. A man made lake lined with evenly spaced palm trees, sitting in the middle of the Mojave, with a short quarter mile loop trail around it. There is free parking and a restroom.
The backstory is incredible. In 1944 a radio evangelist named Curtis Springer built a health resort here on land he never actually owned. He called it Zzyzx specifically so it would be the last word in any directory. People came for thirty years. He was evicted in 1974 for false mining claims and false advertising, and the site is now a California State University desert research station.
Before you go: the road is paved except for a short stretch. The research center buildings are private and closed to the public, but the lake and trail are open during daylight hours. There are rattlesnake warning signs, so stay on the path. Go earlier in the day because the Soda Mountains throw shade over the lake in the late afternoon and the photos come out dark.
5. Seven Magic Mountains, Jean
Seven towers of stacked boulders, each over thirty feet high, painted in colors that have no business being in a desert. You can see them from the freeway and they look small. They are not small.
Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone built them. Three and a half million dollars, produced by the Nevada Museum of Art and Art Production Fund. They opened in May 2016 and were only ever supposed to stand for two years. Official site: sevenmagicmountains.com.
Go now. The lease with the Bureau of Land Management expires in December 2026 and cannot be renewed, because a new airport is planned for that stretch of land near Jean Dry Lake. The artist decided not to move it to Northern Nevada, so it is staying in Southern Nevada, but the Nevada Museum of Art has only said they are still in conversation with him about the next iteration of the piece and where it goes.
It draws around 325,000 visitors a year and it has been extended more than once already, but the December 2026 date is real. I would not assume it will be standing here next time.
Practical: Free, open twenty four hours, about ten miles south of Vegas. No bathrooms on site, the closest are five miles south in Jean. Bring water. Early morning or late afternoon is best for heat and for photos. There are rattlesnake warning signs, so stay on the path.
Still on our list
Things on this same stretch we have not done yet but keep meaning to:
Calico Ghost Town in Yermo, a restored 1880s silver mining town
Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch in Oro Grande, a Route 66 forest made of glass bottles
Primm at the state line, right before you cross into Nevada
Why we do it this way
We could get to Vegas faster. We choose not to.
The drive is not the boring part before the trip. Half of what we remember from this one happened before we ever hit the Strip, and the single best thing we saw was something we found by accident because somebody looked out a window at the right second.
Slow down. Take the exits. That is the whole point.
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