Planet X Pottery

In the center of the arid Nevada desert, on a stretch of road where attractions are hard to find, travelers on Nevada Highway 447 will come across a black roadside sign featuring a large, mysterious “X.” Just when you were thinking that the flat desert couldn’t look any more extraterrestrial, Planet X Pottery proves you wrong.

Easy to miss but well-deserving of a roadside stop, Planet X Pottery near Gerlach, Nevada is an intergalactic oasis filled with fine china. Its electricity is generated entirely by the hot, beaming sun of the Black Rock and Smoke Creek Deserts. The solar-powered ceramics emporium features an active pottery studio and four show galleries that the owners, ex-hippies John and Rachel Bogard, promise are out of this world.

Built in 1974 out of an abandoned California Trail homestead, Planet X Pottery has been selling porcelain, stoneware, and Raku products for over four decades. Also found at Planet X is an old-fashioned wooden saloon, complementing the alien-themed art galleries with Wild Western comforts. The outer space appeal is truly stellar.