50 Classic Hikes In Nevada: From The Ruby Mountains To Red Rock Canyon

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Nevada is blessed with an outstanding array of natural features, varying from rich sandstone formations to alpine summits to just about any other landform imaginable. Far from any major population centers, remote mountain ranges offer sweeping vistas through the clearest of skies. In stark contrast to the surrounding lowlands, alpine lakes, flower-filled meadows, and gurgling streams grace the slopes of the highest ranges. Solitude and serenity, characteristics sorely lacking in more heavily used regions of the West, are easily attained within the wildlands of the Silver State. Visitors unfamiliar with Nevada's natural riches are often awestruck at their first glimpse of the state's majestic topography.

Despite declining budgets that have resulted in the deterioration of some trails within Nevada, hikers can choose from a fine assortment of excellent ones to enjoy while pursuing their avocation. This guide offers fifty of the state's best routes, from short and easy hikes suitable for families with small children to full-scale assaults on the highest peaks. May the reader find the trips described in this book to be as awe inspiring and wonderful as the author found them during his fieldwork.

FLORA

The breadth and diversity of Nevada's vast landscape defies any attempt to accurately classify the flora within the state into exact groupings, but some general classifications are valid. The following biotic zones are presented in descending order.

ALPINE ZONE The alpine zone is the smallest vegetative zone in the state, occupying the lands above timberline. Conditions within the upper elevations of the mountains are extreme—intense sunlight, periodic drought, limited growing season, and high winds. The ground-hugging plants of the alpine zone rarely exceed a height of more than a foot, with many plants developing a mat-like structure. Where moisture is in ample supply, as in the Ruby Mountains, the alpine flora thrive, with individual species numbering almost two hundred. In drier areas, the alpine zone is much less prolific, often times harboring a hybridization of alpine and desert plants. This zone contains a fine variety of flowering plants, including mountain sandwort, rosy pussypaws, whitestem goldenbush, and cutleaf daisy. Common wildflowers include western mountain aster, monkshood, arnica, shooting star, subalpine fleabane, elephantshead, bog orchid, and American bistort.

MONTANE FORESTS The composition of the zone below the alpine heights varies significantly across the breadth of the state. The most biologically diverse ecosystems are found along the fringes of the Great Basin; traveling toward the center of the Great Basin is a journey toward less diversity. While some mountain ranges harbor relatively dense forests, the typical Nevada mountain range is made up of rather sparsely wooded slopes of limited species.

Where soil conditions are favorable, the one tree found throughout the Great Basin is the quaking aspen. Aspens flourish in riparian areas, and often intermix with conifers of the mid-elevation forest. Pure stands of aspen are frequently seen sprawling across the canyons of many Nevada ranges. Typically growing at elevations of 6000 to 8000 feet, quaking aspens may extend as high as 10,000 feet under the right circumstances, as is the case on the broad plateau of Table Mountain in the Monitor Range, for instance. The brilliant golden-yellow leaves of the quaking aspen create a dramatic texture to the Nevada landscape in autumn.

Classified as outside of a true Great Basin environment, the Carson Range near Lake Tahoe is biologically distinct from its eastern neighbors. This subrange of the Sierra Nevada contains the most varied flora of any range in the state, with fifteen species of conifer inhabiting the region. Four species of conifer occur within the pinyon-juniper woodland: Common or dwarf juniper, Western juniper, Utah juniper, and singleleaf pinyon. Ponderosa pine, Jeffrey pine, sugar pine, white fir, incense-cedar, and Douglas-fir are found between 5000 and 7500 feet. From roughly 7500 to 9000 feet, stands of red fir dominate the slopes, with smaller amounts of white fir, lodgepole pine, Jeffrey pine, mountain hemlock, and western white pine. Above 9000 feet, whitebark pine intermixes with lodgepole pine, western white pine, and mountain hemlock.

The majority of forests in Nevada's mountains can be roughly categorized into upper elevation and mid-elevation forests.

UPPER ELEVATION FOREST Below timberline, at elevations roughly between 9000 and 11,000 feet, a trio of conifers composes the upper elevation forest—limber pine, whitebark pine, and bristlecone pine. Limber pine and bristlecone pine are the two most dominant conifers, with limber pine most prevalent in the northern part of the state and bristlecone pine in the southern part. Many of Nevada's mountain ranges contain two or three species of pine, but some ranges have only a single species. Although Great Basin National Park is perhaps the most noted area for bristlecones, the Spring Mountains contain the most extensive stands of bristlecone pine in Nevada.

MID-ELEVATION FOREST A traditional coniferous forest is absent from the typical Nevada mountain range, as a zone of shrublands often extends from the pinyon-juniper woodland below into the upper elevation forest. This situation is particularly apparent in the Toquima, Toiyabe, and Monitor Ranges of central Nevada. Aside from aspen groves and pockets of mountain-mahogany, mid-elevation slopes are often devoid of trees. However, defying an absolute, across-the-board classification, some Nevada ranges do have a significant mid-elevation forest.

With the exception of the Carson Range, the Snake Range in eastern Nevada (which includes Great Basin National Park and the Mt. Moriah Wilderness) has the most diverse mid-elevation forest in the state. Four species of conifer are found in this zone of the Snake Range, including white fir, Douglas-fir, subalpine fir and ponderosa pine. The Jarbidge Mountains have the most significant mid-elevation forest, with densely covered slopes of subalpine fir common throughout the range. The Spring Mountains also have a fairly significant mid-elevation forest, harboring extensive stands of white fir and ponderosa pine.

PINYON-JUNIPER WOODLAND Generally, the pinyon-juniper woodland is a zone composed of pygmy conifers spanning the area between the montane forest above and the sagebrush zone below, usually between the elevations of 5000 and 8000 feet. The pinyon-juniper woodlands form the largest forested zone in the Great Basin, exceeding all other coniferous zones combined. The woodland usually has a dominant species of either singleleaf pinyon (Pinus monophylla) or one of four types of juniper: Utah, western, Rocky Mountain, or California. Rarely achieving a height over thirty feet, these trees display rounded, spreading crowns—squat forms not usually associated with the correct shape for the perfect Christmas tree.

Since the pinyon-juniper woodland is generally an open forest, a number of shrubs are commonly found either intermixed with the conifers or in extensive clearings. These shrubs include sagebrush, serviceberry, bitterbrush, snake-weed, snowberry, elderberry, gooseberry, rabbitbrush, and wild rose. In southern Nevada, a number of additional shrubs flourish in this zone, such as black-brush, cliffrose, and Apache plume. A mixture of grasses is also common to the woodlands understory; Idaho fescue, Great Basin wildrye, and squirreltail are the usual species. Cheat grass has become problematic across the state, forming pure stands after fires.

Many trails in Nevada spend much of their initial mileage passing through the pinyon-juniper zone. In bygone days, Native Americans spent a good deal of time in this area collecting pine nuts from the pinyon pines, which were one of the few staples of their rather Spartan diets. Nowadays, pine nuts are frequently found in the gourmet section of grocery stores.

SAGEBRUSH ZONE No other plant is more associated with the undeveloped lands of Nevada and the Great Basin than the big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata). Rightfully so, the yellow bloom of the big sagebrush is honored as Nevada's state flower. Not surprisingly, this zone covers more acreage than any other vegetative zone in the state. The ubiquitous sagebrush seems to cover everything in sight, but before the advent of livestock grazing in the Great Basin, this zone was three-quarters covered in native grasses. Since cattle and sheep eat grass and shun sagebrush, native grasses have dwindled in the Great Basin, with sagebrush and non-native grasses the beneficiaries.

Sagebrush appears in pure stands, but also intermixes with a number of other shrubs. Bitterbrush, desert peach, ephedra, rabbitbrush, and spiny hopsage are common associates. Grasses prevalent in the pinyon-juniper woodland are also found in the sagebrush zone, where cheat grass is problematic as well. Wildflowers frequently seen in the sagebrush zone include Indian paintbrush, lupine, milk vetch, penstemon, and buckwheat.

SHADSCALE ZONE Named for its principal shrub (Atriplex confertifolia), the shadscale zone occurs at lower elevations, where soils tend to be alkaline and precipitation is low. Although shadscale is the dominant member, and one of the three most prolific plants in the Great Basin, saltbush, rabbitbrush, bud sagebrush, spiny hopsage, Mormon tea, greasewood, and horsebrush may appear in this zone as well. Shadscale is important winter forage, palatable to domesticated grazing animals, as well as to small rodents, rabbits, and deer.

MOJAVE DESERT ZONES At lower elevations in the southern part of the state, Great Basin vegetation transitions to vegetation of the Mojave Desert, which can be demarcated into two principal zones: the blackbrush zone and the lower Mojavean zone.

BLACKBRUSH ZONE Replacing the sagebrush and shadscale communities of the north, the blackbrush zone within the Mojave Desert is defined by a predominance of the namesake shrub (Coleogyne ramosissima). This open scrub community is dotted with Joshua trees and Mojave yucca. Additional shrubs that may be present in this zone include creosote bush, desert almond, and boxthorn.

LOWER MOJAVEAN ZONE In the lower Mojavean zone, white bursage replaces blackbrush as the principal shrub. This zone is less diverse than in the blackbrush zone, and plants tend to be more widely spaced. Joshua trees are absent, although some Mojave yucca is still present.

RIPARIAN ZONES Riparian zones occur across the spectrum of previously mentioned plant communities. Thin, green ribbons of vegetation straddling the streams, creeks, and rivers of Nevada spill from the mountain heights to the basin floors. The addition of significant moisture to the various zones within the high and low deserts of Nevada creates pockets of thick foliage resulting in the highest diversity of plant species in the state. Approximately 75 percent of the plant species within Nevada depend upon riparian zones for their survival, in spite of the fact that only 1 percent of the state's lands are classified as riparian. Typically, these areas are dense thickets of brush, grasses, flowers, and trees, forming the most verdant environments in the region. Many of Nevada's trails justifiably follow paths through or near riparian areas adjacent to waterways. Hikers, as well as animals, find relief from the glaring sun of a hot afternoon in the cool shade of the riparian