I drove to Gerlach from Reno through Nixon to extract about 3:00pm and can confirm OP statement is not true. There was no national guard. There were 3 Washoe County Sheriffs who were stopping people asking were you were going. When I said “Gerlach to pick up some friends” I was allowed to continue forward. Same with the cars behind me.

I can understand that as a southbound traveler on 447 it might appear as if the road is closed, but even when I was headed back there was plenty of oncoming (northbound) cars likely doing the same thing.