There are more than 600 ghost towns in Nevada, and they all tell a story.

Eric Cachinero, Associate Editor of Nevada Magazine, details 70 of them in his new book, "Odyssey of a Ghost Town Explorer."

"For this book we traveled 12,084 miles," he said. "That's a bit shorter than half the circumference of the Earth. It's also the distance I've traveled in 2016 and 2019 in search of Nevada Ghost Towns."

He ran into plenty of adventure along the way.

"Everything from flat tires - a lot of flat tires - bad weather, there may even have been a mountain lion, deer, elk, a lot of Nevada experiences, and that's the core message of this book," Cachinero said. "The ghost towns are just the destination, it's actually getting out there and exploring Nevada, that's the fun part, so it's just an excuse to get out there."

Some of the towns are just dots on a map. Others are entire ghost cities.

"The majority are mining-focused, but there are some that are not, so there's really a very large diversity of different structures," he said. "You have everything from old schoolhouses and churches to old steam equipment. Some have bank vaults - no riches, but you can open the old bank vault, so that stuff is still there and protected. And that's the message with this book, is to get out there and have people explore the state while also respecting and protecting these historic places."

Some of the destinations are off well-traveled roads. Others are much more of a trek. But it's not hard to social distance on a Nevada ghost town road trip.

"I think ghost towning is one of the most socially distant activities you can do, especially in Nevada," Cachinero said. "Some of these places are out in the middle of nowhere; you're traveling hundreds of miles on dirt roads without seeing a soul for days at a time, so I think it's truly the perfect activity right now. It's fun for the most extreme desert explorer to the family in the two-wheel drive car, you just have to be safe and be smart, have an atlas and a copy of our book, read about these places and decide which ones you want to go see for yourself."

The book includes historical pictures from a lot of the sites.

"That's a theme of the book, is standing in these places and imagining what it must have looked like and been like, imagine the noise from the stamp mills that ran day and night," Cachinero said. "It's really fun to stand there in silence and imagine what it must have been like."

He says since he's only seen about a sixth of the state's ghost towns, there are plenty of road trips in his future.

"I think it's going to take a lifetime, I truly do" he said. "There is a lifetime of ghost towns and history in this state, and I plan on spending a lifetime out there."

To check out the book, click here.Â