The Nevada Triangle: Have You Experienced It?

Being in the service, I have flown all sorts of paths through Nevada. Collectively, it has just about every geographic feature that is possible, and all in one state. Deserts, Mountains, Canyons. It is no doubt that there have been a great deal of aviation mishaps in this state, due to such geography.

Having a private pilots licence from a state like Massachusetts, and then using it in Nevada is well..... certainly not the same experience, and perhaps there should be local certification required for such a diverse environment. IMHO.

I have flown from vegas to Reno more than a few times, let me say i expect a little "extreme" turbulence on every trip. The area is pretty amazing, the sierra Nevada Mountain range just "pops" straight up and out of the desert floor and goes in what looks like a straight line for hundreds and hundreds of miles. There are also plenty of standalone mountains that seem to just "pop" out the desert floor, i would guess the right conditions to be considered bad flying weather are constantly met in that area.

I grew up in NV and have driven and flown through all parts of this state. Even been to Area 51 a few times, and have never heard of a "Nevada Triangle" or experienced anything even similar to what's described.

I'll definitely look into it though, sounds interesting.

reply to post by smyleegrl


I have personally experienced an information and GPS blackout, just outside of Area-51 on Highway 375. It was pretty cool and a little eerie since it was night, rainy and we'd never been there before. We came up over the hill just before Groom Lake Road, headed northwest. The GPS in truck dash went black, our phones lost signal and when everything came back about 30 seconds later, the electronic compass in the truck dash was spinning for a while. Fluke? Who knows? Trippy though. I’d have to say that any real navigational hazards due to natural science, geography or "paranormal activity" would probably discourage the placement of the nation's most advanced and exclusive aircraft testing facility from existing there. I mean we're good...But not THAT good. Something fun to consider would be that it IS a "Triangle" of crazy physics and that we use that fact like a stellar nebula hides an advance civilization from our prying eyes as we scan to find other habitable planets to exploit. This "Triangle" hides our tech and our tech is SO advanced that it can work around it. Hahahaha. One more level of mischievousness - That bizarre energy occurring in the area SUPPORTS the high tech projects and they use it as a "lightning rod" of energy with which to power their experiments! Wow....

reply to post by smyleegrl


Hi Smyleegrl, I'm reporting back from our trip to the area. We spent most of our weekend in the upper corner of the triangle on the California side, high in the Sierra mountain range.

Sorry to say that none of the locals had any Nevada-triangle-related stories, but I agree with the other posters here who described the area as being prone to wind shears and other natural phenomena. The juxtaposition of high and low altitudes (I drove from 3K feet elevation to 7K feet elevation in 30 minutes) makes the wind do strange things. During a two-hour period almost every afternoon, the wind blew so strongly that we had to secure everything outside from blowing away. It even hurled a ceramic coffee cup across the yard. And, then it died down to almost nothing.

I took a long hike around some mountain lakes that were eerily, oppressively silent. When people talk about having the feeling that they're being watched when they're out in the middle of nowhere, I now know what they mean. It was probably just bears, but it was unsettling.

The other thing that I noticed is that the ground is quite full of mineral deposits. Does anyone know the possible impacts that large amounts of minerals might have on the magnetic fields in the area?

I'll continue to keep my eyes open for more information about the triangle. The one in Alaska is interesting, too.