HELIOS One and El Dorado Dry Lake

You might have noticed the very large building just north of here. That’s HELIOS One. The NCR runs the place, so it’s off-limits to prospectors.
Old Lady Gibson

As of writing this, I have driven through and around the HELIOS One area a few dozen times, and it has always been fun and exciting. Just remember in the summer, it gets super hot in the valley.

Locations

# 125 – HELIOS One
# 120 – El Dorado Dry Lake
# 121 – Black Rock cave
# 430 – Henderson

Location Details

# 125 – HELIOS One – Earlier in my journey I talked about how Ivanpah Solar Electric facility gets the honorable mention award for looking more like HELIOS One despite being in a different location geographically. The place that is spot on in location is called Nevada Solar One, similarly a large solar electric facility in the vast expanse of desert. It is a huge facility that you can see from miles away on the highway. When the array is flat, or pointed completely upwards, it looks like a huge black void, or parking lot. In other words, you can’t miss it.

*time to drag 5 of you bad boys across the desert for 36 miles*

One time I came here, the temperature for that day was forecasted to be 108 in the general Nelson area. That is sort of par for the course in July, varying a small amount in both directions. As I began to drive down Nevada 165 into the Eldorado Valley, the temperature crept up steadily to 115. Although I did notice this on my dashboard, it did not make a large impression on me, as changes in elevation had resulted in such fluctuation in the past.

You can drive down this long road off of Highway 95, basically right to the front door of Nevada Solar One, in the very middle of the solar array. But just remember it is going to be way hotter, the closer you get.

*there is no way soldiers are sleeping out here, even at only 1% efficiency*

The hottest temp I have ever seen in the Mojave was here, at 122 F / 50 C, in July 2017.

*YES i too am wishing for a nuclear winter*

Now I respect the NCR troopers stationed here a fair bit more than before. Even after I improved the efficiency past 1% in game, here they are, nonchalantly not dying of heat and wind.

As an aside, I love the quest instructions of That Lucky Old Sun …. “Talk to the idiot wearing sunglasses in the back of the HELIOS One plant building” … ahh never gets old.

I did a cosplay of Fantastic once while at HELIOS One, but it was in November.

The people driving the white pick up trucks that drive back and forth will wave at you and won’t give you any problems. The arrays are on the left and right of the road, and the main substation is at the end and a smaller one to the left. If coming from Powerline Road, it will be opposite.

# 120 – El Dorado Dry Lake – In our world, there is a location with the same name, north of Nevada Solar One, flanked by solar panels to the left of Highway 95. Thankfully no fire ants to deal with. I think it is cool that in real life and in the game, the wind kicks up the dirt here in the same way.

# 430 – Henderson – In our world, Henderson is a separate city that makes up the southeastern part of the Las Vegas metropolitan area. In-game, the REPCONN billboards advertised their location in Henderson, and in real life, the former PEPCON building (and subsequent site of a massive explosion) is also located in the area. Thankfully, in our timeline, the town was voted as second safest in the country, after another (mentioned only) New Vegas location – Plano, Texas.

# 121 – Black Rock cave – To the south of Black Mountain, there is no real world equivalent to Black Rock cave. However, there is a place called Fracture Ridge that I hiked to that has multitudes of black rocks along each side of a walking trail. Despite not finding it in cave form, I was pleased with seeing the real world location has the same topography as in game.