Island in the Sky

Join Friends for our June Wild Speaker Series: "Island in the Sky" on a Zoom call!

This month we will be joined by Go Mt. Charleston and US Forest Service staff Rosa Prasser and Jen Humphreys as they talk about the magnificence of our very own Mt. Charleston. The unique features of the Spring Mountains rise above the Mojave Desert catching people’s eyes as they go about their days in the Las Vegas Valley. These Mountains were pushed up from the valley floor thousands of years ago forming what we now call an island in the sky. Join us to learn more about these distinctive mountains, how they were formed, and what the future holds for them.

We'll wrap up with a Q&A session to answer all your questions!  This will be an informative chat for the whole family!

We will be giving away a free Stanley cup item to one lucky attendee that night! Make sure to tune in for a chance to win!

If you are interested in attending, please register in advance at the Zoom link here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUoce2pqzkvHdYFeNB_sma7LOr1jm3sfTZL

Every first Thursday of the month at 7pm, Friends of Nevada Wilderness hosts a local environmental expert for folks who are interested in the outdoors to learn more about hikes, local habitat, and ways to get involved with conservation efforts. 

National Trails Day!

Get to work in an awe-inspiring place! This year National Trails Day will be held out at Steven's Camp, north of High Rock Canyon and the Black Rock Desert. The work will include maintaining the Upper High Rock Canyon Trail as well as maintaining the public use cabin. Trail maintenance helps to keep a trail open and available to the public while minimizing damage to the fragile environment around it. Trail work involves opening a trail for safe passage by clipping back overgrown brush, sawing fallen trees to remove from the trial, and creating a safe durable surface to hike on. Friends of Nevada Wilderness will provide all of the training, safety equipment, and trail maintenance tools needed to get the job done, as well as breakfast on Saturday and Sunday and a big group dinner on Saturday night! We'd love to see you out on National Trails Day to help maintain this beautiful area. 

About Steven's Camp and the Upper High Rock Canyon Area

Steven's Camp is located on the North side of High Rock Canyon Wilderness and High Rock Canyon Area of Critical Environmental Concern. Steven's Camp Recreation Area has a desert cabin available for visitors on a first-come, first-serve basis. It is located in such a unique area surrounded by desert rims and vistas with large meadows. Another cool feature of the area is The Emigrant Trail  (the combination of the Oregon, Mormon, and California Trails) goes through High Rock Canyon and historians have estimated at least 500,000 emigrants used these three trails between 1843 and 1869. The journey through was often slow and arduous, fraught with risks from infectious diseases, dehydration, malnutrition, injury, and harsh weather. Who knows, maybe some ruts of the trial can still be observed in this area?

As always, this project is free! We will be providing breakfast with coffee Saturday and Sunday as well as a delicious dinner on Saturday night. We have camping gear available for those who need it. Most cars should be fine, Higher Clearance and 4x4 recommended to reach the campsite (one small creek crossing near the campsite). A limited number of spots available in Friends trucks to transport volunteers and carpooling is an option as well. 

Check out some photos from past National Trail Day at Stevens Camp on our Flickr here!

Information:

Difficulty: Open to all levels!

Location: Steven's Camp, north of High Rock Canyon and the Black Rock Desert

Dates: Friday, June 3rd - Sunday, June 5th

Travel: Leave Reno at 12 pm on Friday, returning Sunday afternoon. Most cars should be fine, Higher Clearance and 4x4 recommended to reach the campsite (one small creek crossing near the campsite). A limited number of spots available in Friends trucks to transport volunteers and carpooling is an option as well. 

Food: Breakfast and coffee provided on Saturday and Sunday, big group dinner Saturday night!

Gear/Clothing: Long sleeves, long pants, sturdy work or hiking shoes. Camping equipment: tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad. Camping gear available for loan 

More Details: In-depth information such as camping location, weather, and project specifics will be sent to those who RSVP about 1 week before the project

RSVP is required to participate

Suggested Packing List 

Join Friends of Nevada Wilderness at Cathedral Rock, Saturday June 4!

Join us on Saturday, June 4 at Cathedral Rock for a late Spring clean-up event! We hope you can join us for a hike up Cathedral Rock to remove graffiti. 

The hike is a moderate to strenuous hike along a fairly steep incline, leading to a steeper section before ending with beautiful views of the Spring Mountains.   The hike is about 3 miles round-trip. We may encounter ice and snow on the trail, even in June.  For an excellent description of the hike, please visit our friends at BirdandHike.com.  We will meet at the Cathedral Rock/South Loop Trail Parking area at 7:45 am, then hike together and clear up graffiti along the way. We will be back at our vehicles by 4:00pm.

Please contact [email protected] for more information. Be sure to RSVP soon!

Become a Weed(end) Warrior with Friends!

It's time again for the Santa Rosa Bull Thistle Extravaganza! Join us in Falls Canyon on the western slopes of the Santa-Rosa Paradise-Peak Wilderness. We will be hiking up the canyon and removing the invasive Bull Thistle as we go. Removing invasive species is important because they crowd out native grasses and flowers and decrease biodiversity. How far we hike will depend on the number of thistles we find, last year we hiked about 6 miles total. 

As always, this project is free! We will be providing breakfast with coffee Saturday and Sunday as well as a delicious dinner on Saturday night. We have camping gear available for those who need it. For this project, a 4-wheel drive vehicle is not required to reach the campsites, but high clearance may be necessary. A limited number of spots are available in Friends trucks to transport volunteers and carpooling is an option as well. 

Please contact Olivia Wolff at [email protected] with any questions or additional details.

Campout at the 2021 Bull Thistle Extravaganza

Check out the photos here!

Read more about Santa Rosa-Paradise Peak Wilderness here!

Information:

Difficulty: Moderately Strenuous: It may not be appropriate for everyone. Requires the ability to hike up to 8 miles a day with a heavy pack, work with shovels, and work in warm, sunny weather. 

Location: Falls Canyon, Santa Rosa-Paradise Peak Wilderness

Dates: Friday, June 17th to Sunday, June 19th

Travel: Leave Reno at 12 pm on Friday, returning Sunday afternoon. For this project, a 4-wheel drive vehicle is not required to reach the campsites, but high clearance may be necessary. A limited number of spots are available in Friends trucks.

Food: Breakfast and coffee provided on Saturday and Sunday, big group dinner Saturday night!

Gear/Clothing: Long sleeves, long pants, sturdy work or hiking shoes. Camping equipment: tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad. Camping gear is available for loan.

More Details: In-depth information such as camping location, weather, and project specifics will be sent to those who RSVP about 1 week before the project.

RSVP is required to participate

Suggested Packing List 

Join the Spring Stewardship Team to survey Stanley Springs, a big springs complex with a long history! We’ll hike about a mile and a half up the Stanley Springs trail to the beautiful forested springs that we’ll survey together. This is a great opportunity to freshen up on spring monitoring techniques, get a little more guided practice, meet some of your fellow volunteers, or learn how to use the flow and water quality meters. This opportunity is open to anyone that has watched the spring monitoring volunteer training video (if you haven’t, shoot us an email at [email protected] and we’ll make sure you get it!), but space is limited.

WHEN: June 11 from approximately 9am to 1pm. You will be able to leave earlier if desired.

WHERE: We’ll meet at the Stanley Springs parking area along Kyle Canyon Road—about a 45 minute drive from Las Vegas. It should be nice and cool compared to the Vegas Valley!

WHAT: We will hike around a mile and a half up the Stanley Springs trail as a group. This trail is short and well maintained but relatively steep and at high elevation, so some may find it challenging. Once we reach the top of the trail, we’ll work as a group to survey the 6ish springs in the area. You’ll get to practice with the equipment and hang out with some cool people!

WHAT TO BRING: You’ll want to wear comfortable clothing and shoes for hiking. Make sure to bring sun protection (hat, sun screen, sunglasses), at least 2 LITERS of water, and food/snacks for the day. A small daypack would also be helpful to carry these materials on the hike.

WHAT WE BRING: We’ll have survey equipment, snacks and water, and extra field sheets and pencils that we will distribute at the trailhead. And, of course, the springs shirts 😉

More details will be sent out to all RSVPs in advance of the event, but feel free to reach out to [email protected] if you have any questions. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Join Friends at the Lovell Canyon Loop to install trail signs on Sunday, June 12!

Enjoy a nice hike in the spring air on the west side of the Spring Mountains with Friends of Nevada Wilderness as we install 3 signs along the Lovell Canyon Loop system of trails on Sunday, June 12.  The Loop will take us through about 6 miles of beautiful pinyon juniper forest in the foothills of the Spring Mountains in La Madre Mountain Wilderness Area.  Along the way we will stop and replace the wooden signs along the loop with new, more accurate signs, provided by the US Forest Service.  

RSVP today, space is limited!  For more information contact Peter Sbraccia at [email protected]  

Join our Volunteer Trail Crew!

This summer, we need your help to maintain trails in Central Nevada! Maintaining trails keeps access to our Wilderness areas safe and open while minimizing damage to the natural ecosystem. While we are out there, we'll clip back the overgrown brush, saw an opening in any fallen trees, direct water off the trail, and practice sustainable tread repair techniques to get our trails back up to standards. Friends of Nevada Wilderness will provide all of the training, safety equipment, and trail maintenance tools needed to get the job done. To find out more about our professional trails program, click here.

While the exact location of this project is TBD, we do know that we'll be in either Arc Dome Wilderness or Table Mountain Wilderness. The National Forest will be doing construction on some campgrounds this summer, and we won't know their schedule until 30 days prior. This page will be updated and emails will go out to participants once we know the exact location. Arc Dome Wilderness "contains spectacular, glacier-carved highlands, steep, rugged canyons, a diverse mix of landforms and ecosystems, and some of the best trout streams in Nevada." Table Mountain Wilderness, just a couple ranges over, "contains some of the most extensive aspen stands in the state."

Volunteer trail maintenance is hard work, but it is also very rewarding and lots of fun. You will leave these projects with a sense of accomplishment, some new skills, and hopefully some new friends! So please, read the info below and RSVP today! 

Information:

Difficulty: These projects are some of the most strenuous we offer and may not be appropriate for everyone. They require the ability to hike 10 miles a day with a heavy pack, work with tools, and sometimes move heavy objects. Having said that, feel free to reach out to us and discuss the difficulty of the project if you have any concerns. There are many roles in trail maintenance and we can usually find ones appropriate to meet everyone's level. 

Dates: Friday, July 15- Monday, July 18

Travel: We will be leaving by noon on Friday in order to drive the 3.5-5.5 hours to the trailhead (depending on location) and set up camp before dark. We will be working on the trail on Saturday and Sunday and driving back to Reno on Monday. High Clearance and 4x4 are required to reach the campsite. There are a limited number of spots available in Friends trucks. It would be great if you could stay the whole time, but we understand if your schedule does not allow this and we would love to see you out there for any amount of time you can offer!

Gear/Clothing: Work clothes: Long sleeve shirt, long pants, sturdy work or hiking boots. Camping equipment: tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad. Camping gear is available for loan.

Food: Friends of Nevada Wilderness will provide delicious group dinners on Saturday and Sunday and breakfast with coffee on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday! Volunteers will be required to provide their own dinner on Friday night and lunch/snacks on Saturday and Sunday.

More Details: In-depth information such as camping location, weather, and project specifics will be sent to those who RSVP about 1 week before the project.

RSVP is required to participate

Suggested Packing List