Major production funding for "Wild Nevada" is made possible by the Nevada Commission on Tourism, who encourages everyone to explore the Silver State's hidden treasures.

[Music] >>Chris Orr: Hi, welcome to "Wild Nevada."

I'm Chris Orr.

>>Dave Santina: And I'm Dave Santina, and this time we'll take you from the desert floors to the mountains and back again as we explore some of the many recreational possibilities surrounding the Reno-Sparks area.

>>Chris: We're gonna brave the snow to go hike a bit of the trail that the Donner Party took 150 years ago.

And then try our hand, or feet, at snowshoeing on the Tahoe Rim Trail.

>>Dave: Back down in the desert we'll take you hiking near Pyramid Lake and show you the petroglyphs of Spanish Springs, which is just a few miles north of Sparks, our starting point.

Sparks began as a railroad town and this locomotive is a tribute to that history.

Today, Sparks is a city of 60,000 people and growing.

It's a great tandem with Reno as a base for your recreational activities.

>>Chris: We're doing things a little bit differently this trip, treating Reno and Sparks as a hub for our activities and branching out in all directions.

We're headed northeast to the desert and then west and southwest to the mountains.

For directions to any of the locations we visit this trip you can go to our website at knpb.org.

>>Dave: Snowshoeing sounds like a lot of fun to me and I'm really looking forward to walking in the footsteps of the Donners, but first we're goin' to Spanish Springs and the petroglyphs.

[Music] >>Dave: We're headin' out to meet our guide, Alvin, to show us the petroglyphs, and he tells us that this mountain here, Sugarloaf, was known as the border, the dividing line between the Washoe and the Paiute Indians.

[Music] >>Chris: After several miles of well graded dirt road we meet Alvin and start off to a nearby canyon.

>>Chris: [Laughs] A dog escort.

>>Dave: Paws everywhere.

>>Dave: There are a number of petroglyph sites in this area.

Alvin's taking us to one that lies at the bottom of the canyon.

We cross a field of brush and rocks before we see the canyon open up in front of us.

[Music] >>Alvin McLane: Well, here we are makin' it down to the main canyon.

This is the main canyon with the petroglyphs, so we'll, they start down here and so we'll just continue on up to where the nice, where the nice, uh, panels are.

>>Dave: It's a pretty canyon.

>>Alvin: Yeah.

Interesting to get out here and hike.

>>Chris: I don't know how many petroglyphs we'll see up ahead, but this is such a fun place to hike it wouldn't matter if there were any there at all.

I enjoy the views along the trail just for themselves.

>>Dave: The early sunlight brings out the colors of the canyon rocks and the contrast from light to shadow makes the scenery all the more impressive.

>>Alvin: Now we're gettin' to a good area.

>>Dave: Whoa!

Look at all of those!

>>Chris: Look at those!

>>Dave: Wow!

>>Alvin: One of the, uh, one of the better panels close to Reno.

>>Dave: That is incredible.

>>Alvin: You can see the different ages of the petroglyphs.

You can see where some that are, look pretty, pretty crisp and clear.

>>Dave: Yeah.

>>Alvin: And you can see some, some that look like they're older.

>>Dave: Kinda faded.

>>Alvin: Yeah, where the patina has developed over them.

>>Dave: Is there a way to determine from the, the fading or the, the clearness of it how old it is?

>>Alvin: The, the only thing that we can determine is you can also see there's the, the lighter ones?

Okay, that just, uh, means that it's, was made later, they're more recent than the older-looking ones.

And it's just a relative age.

>>Dave: Hmm.

>>Alvin: Uh, there hasn't been a technique developed yet to really date, uh, the, uh, petroglyphs.

>>Chris: Were these Washoe or Paiute or do they predate...?

>>Alvin: Well, we're, we're very close to the, uh, uh, boundary line between the Washoe and the Paiute, uh, Indians.

And, what I've seen in all the territories around in Nevada and the Great Basin, I really don't see that much difference in the elements, uh, between, between the territory boundaries.

And so, personally, I think that most petroglyphs that we have predate the, um, uh, local or the, the modern Native Americans as we know them today.

Coming around the corner here where we've got a few more petroglyph panels.

Yeah, there's another one of my "cross with four circles" back there.

Circles.

>>Dave: Lotsa shapes.

>>Alvin: You got a, uh, human, human figure right over... >>Dave: Oh, yeah.

>>Alvin: ...where my shadow's almost starting to hit it.

>>Dave: There.

A head.

Legs.

Now, we can come right up to these, but, I mean, are people, is it bad to touch these?

>>Alvin: Yeah.

You don't wanna, you don't wanna put anything on the petroglyph panels because anything like the oils from your hand can contaminate the patina.

>>Dave: Mm hmm.

>>Alvin: If you don't wanna chalk them or, or touch them.

>>Chris: So the best way to enjoy 'em is just... >>Alvin: Just enjoy 'em with a photograph.

>>Chris: [Laughs] >>Dave: Yeah.

>>Alvin: Take a picture.

>>Chris: Just look at 'em.

>>Dave: Look, but do not touch.

>>Alvin: You can look at 'em.

There, we're comin' up on a interesting solar phenomenon compared on one of the, uh, petroglyph panels and, uh, cutting ... kneel down here and show how the, uh, how the interaction is.

>>Chris: The shadow's outta the way.

>>Alvin: Yeah.

So, you can see the, uh, shadow from this rock right here that you're sitting on, how it cuts, how it's startin' to cut across this.

>>Chris: So, it makes it a solar interaction because they're using the contrast of the shadow and the light.

>>Alvin: Shadow.

Right.

Interacting on, so this is called a "indirect interaction."

If you see the sun itself where it comes up behind a peak or something?

>>Chris and Dave: Uh huh.

>>Alvin: A sharp peak or sharp notch, that's a "direct interaction."

When you see interactions like this that only interacts on, there's eight important solar dates during the year.

>>Dave: Mm hmm.

>>Alvin: And I think especially the wintertime would be an important time to know, uh, uh, the shortest day of the year.

Well, when they could watch that sun slowly creepin' across the horizon, moving back, well, it's gonna be a renewal of life, it's gonna get warm again, plants are gonna grow, and I think that was important, to mark that, the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.

>>Dave: That's fascinating.

>>Dave: Alvin has shown us a place that feels like it's isolated from modern civilization yet is only a few miles from thousands of people.

We thank him for bringing us here as we head out for Tahoe Meadows.

We'll see Alvin again tomorrow.

>>Chris: We have quite a few miles to cover before the next leg of our adventure.

We head back to town on State Route 445, then south on Highway 395, then west along State Route 432, also known as the Mount Rose Highway.

[Music] >>Chris: Have you ever snowshoed before, Dave?

>>Dave: Yeah.

Once.

It was fun.

>>Chris: I always imagined it as kind of like the snow equivalent of walking on water.

>>Dave: [Laughs] [Music] >>Dave: We meet Sara Holm of the Tahoe Rim Trail Association for a little snowshoeing.

>>Chris: It's windy up here and that makes the cold feel even colder.

It's also important to dress in layers on a day like this.

For me, a t-shirt and jacket just won't cut it.

>>Dave: Modern snowshoes are rather easy to put on.

You just stick your feet in the straps and tighten them.

In no time we're up on our feet and out in the meadow.

>>Sara Holm: The trail starts right down there by the brown sign with the trail marker on it.

>>Dave and Chris: Uh huh.

>>Sara: The trail parallels the highway for a little while and then it cuts across the meadow, across Ophir Creek and into the woods.

>>Chris: Okay.

>>Sara: And I was just thinking if it's too windy we can go to the woods earlier.

>>Dave: [Laughs] We might be all right.

>>Chris: A beautiful view of Tahoe.

>>Dave: Let's get started... >>Sara: Yeah.

>>Dave: ...and see what we find, alright?

>>Sara: It's so nice up here.

>>Dave: Makes it, makes it harder to leave 'cause you'd like to just stand and watch for awhile.

>>Sara: [Laughs] Well, it'll just get better.

Hopefully.

>>Sara: We're heading south from Tahoe Meadows.

Um, and Tahoe Meadows is one of our big developed trailheads.

We have two, Tahoe Meadows in the north and Big Meadows in the south.

And we're heading south towards Diamond Peak Ski Area, Tunnel Creek Road.

This is one of the most popular sections of the trail 'cause it's the closest to Reno.

>>Dave: Hmm.

>>Sara: You've got a beautiful lake view in about a mile and a half.

So from here, if we headed south, we would eventually end up at Spooner Summit.

>>Dave: Mm hmm.

Um, and then we would head over those mountains down to Kingsbury Grade.

But this is the beginning of a 24-mile section.

>>Chris: I like to think of snowshoeing as a combination of playing in the snow and hiking.

But actually, it's a practical way to travel in the snow.

Being able to stay on top of the pack rather than sinking into it with every step means that you're able to move faster and with more ease than if you were just walking or trudging through it.

>>Dave: Quite a little bit of exercise on the snowshoes.

>>Sara: It's great exercise in the wintertime.

>>Dave: What, what, uh, what is the benefit of these?

Because it doesn't look like it's that deep, but would it make a difference if we weren't wearing them?

>>Sara: It would.

We would sink maybe down to our shins.

>>Chris: [Laughs] >>Sara: And that would be uncomfortable.

>>Dave: That would be uncomfortable.

>>Sara: And not fun.

>>Dave: So, what... >>Sara: We would, we would spend a lot more energy, so... >>Chris: Well, when was the trail officially opened?

>>Sara: September 22nd of 2001.

>>Dave: So it took 17 years to, to build it?

>>Sara: To build it, yeah.

And we overlapped with the PCT, the Pacific Crest Trail, for 43 miles.

>>Dave: Mm hmm.

>>Sara: Uh, we do overlap with the Round Lake Trail for about 5 miles.

And we are on Forest Service roads for a little bit.

So, the total trail ended up being 164.7 miles.

>>Dave: Oh, so it's a little longer than you thought.

So, you could conceivably actually walk all the way around on this one trail?

>>Sara: Yep.

>>Dave: You can do a lot of the same things in snowshoes that you can do in regular shoes.

It's just a little more difficult.

>>Dave: Just a little workout on the top of the snow.

>>Chris: [Laughs] It's a great place to snowshoe, though.

>>Sara: It's perfect.

>>Dave: It looks like we timed it just about right.

It's just gettin' dark enough that we should probably head back to the road.

>>Chris: It's been great fun stomping around in the snow.

back down the mountain.

Tomorrow we'll be back in the high country, but for now it's time for a night's rest.

>>Chris: Today we're continuing to mix the desert sand and sage with the mountain snows.

We're starting here about 10 miles southwest of Reno in Verdi.

>>Dave: Verdi is an old lumber and railroad town with a lot of historic buildings.

It's a great place to come and walk around and just take a look at things.

Anytime of year, it's a beautiful place to visit.

>>Chris: We're headed up into the mountains to Dog Valley to retrace the steps of the Donner Party.

>>Dave: Then later on today we'll take you on a gorgeous desert hike near Pyramid Lake.

Shall we go meet our guide?

[Music] >>Chris: We meet journalist and author, Frank Mullen, who agrees to take us in his vehicle.

Frank wrote "The Donner Party Chronicles," a day-by-day account of the Donners' journey.

He's a knowledgeable guide to this trail.

Frank points out the first elevation where the Donner wagons ascended the mountain.

We'll be following the very same path, but that's hopefully the only similarity between the two parties.

I am so glad we're not bringing wagons for this trip.

>>Dave: We follow Dog Valley Road for a few miles and cross a couple of one-lane bridges on our way up into the snow.

The road takes us past the burned-out forest area which was a casualty of the different wildfires in recent years.

The snow is thick up here.

Only a high-clearance vehicle could make it up and back safely and, even then, it's no guarantee.

About a mile and a half past the snow level, Frank stops the car and we walk the short distance to the trail.

>>Dave: We really got a break with the weather.

>>Frank Mullen: Oh yeah, this is great weather.

>>Dave: Relatively warm.

>>Frank: The, uh, Donner Party left Springfield, Illinois, in, um, April of 1846 to take the, uh, 2,000-mile walk west to California where they wanted to start a new life.

They were the last wagon train of that year and, uh, there were about 80 people, and they got caught in the snow up at Donner Lake and had to stay there for months before the survivors were rescued.

The, uh, people who survived had to resort to doing, uh, or to, uh, committing cannibalism on the bodies of those who had died before them.

Here's the, uh, first marker.

>>Dave: Ah, it says, "California Trails."

This is the actual trail right now that we're on?

>>Frank: Right now we're walking on the actual trail.

>>Dave: Was the, uh, the Donner Trail, that we call the Donner Trail today, was it called the Donner Trail then?

>>Frank: Uh, no, it was pretty much known, Donner Lake, after the Donner's camped there, was known as Donner Lake.

It used to be Truckee's Lake.

But, the Donner Trail itself was just the Truckee branch of the California Trail, uh, and that's how it was known.

As a matter of fact, the year after the Donners traveled it in 1847, very few pioneers wanted to go that way just because the Donners sort of gave it a bad name.

>>Dave: [Laughs] I was wondering about that.

I would think that it would be, uh, the least popular trail at that point.

>>Frank: You can see how difficult it is to get through the snow just walking through with, with modern snow boots on.

>>Dave: Yeah.

>>Frank: They had to not only walk, uh, but, uh, guide their oxen-, uh, driven wagons up here in this type of, of snow.

It was October, but it was an early snow in 1846, and they had to struggle through the snow just to get to Donner Lake, where the storms continued and they were entrapped for months, the last survivor coming out in April of 1847.

It was at this spot when the Donners hit some rocks and upset their wagons.

Little Eliza Donner, who was four years old, was trapped in the back of the wagon and, uh, she almost smothered in the quilts there.

And, uh, in looking around the area, they have broken pottery.

>>Dave: Huh.

>>Frank: That could be the Donners' dinner set right there.

And there's broken pottery throughout in here.

Not that the Donners were the only ones who may have upset their wagon here.

So this may not be the Donners' pottery, but it, it, on the other hand, well could be.

One of the things about finding these kinds of artifacts on the trail is you need to leave 'em where you found 'em because when the Forest Service archaeologist comes up he can look at it, he can compare it in the book and it becomes a piece of history.

You put it in your pocket and you take it home, it's a piece of junk.

Now the trail turns to our left here and follows the contour of the mountain above where the road is located now.

And you can follow the trail here.

And once you get here, there's your other marker.

>>Dave: Oh, yeah.

>>Frank: Right along there.

And this trail is, uh, Wiggins pretty much marked this trail through here through Dog Valley, Hope Valley, Russell Valley, but you gotta look for it.

It's not, you know, that close to the road.

The road's all the way down the cliff here.

And, on this you're gonna have to walk probably a quarter mile before you can rejoin the road along the contour of the hill above what is now Dog Valley Road.

>>Chris: But this where they brought the wagons through.

>>Frank: This is where they brought the wagons.

Yeah.

Right over there.

>>Dave: Wow, it's beautiful.

>>Dave: Before we leave this historic area, Frank shows us a point on the trail with a great view back to the Truckee Meadows.

Today's weather allows us to enjoy it, but the Donners never saw this view.

Frank takes us back down the road to Verdi and we set out for a return trip to the desert.

[Music] >>Chris: We pick up the dogs and drive about 25 miles north of Sparks to our meeting place, The Pyramid Lake Store, on State Route 445.

Here, we rejoin Alvin McLane, who shows us the direction we'll be heading toward Needle Rock.

>>Alvin: Well, now we're gettin' ready to go for our hike, huh?

>>Dave: The Needle Rock area has become popular as a weekend destination for just about everyone.

Hikers, rock climbers, target shooters and off-road enthusiasts all enjoy what this area has to offer.

Alvin takes us about a mile south and turns off the paved road.

Once again, we leave the van behind as this territory requires 4-wheel drive.

[Music] >>Chris: We're headed up toward the Needle and after a few bumpy minutes in the jeep we reach the end of the drive and the beginning of our hike.

>>Alvin: Okay.

C'mon, Petro.

Well, this is where we'll start hiking.

The trail gets, the jeep trail starts gettin' a little rough here.

>>Dave: [Laughs] It was fairly rough on the way over.

>>Chris: [Laughs] >>Alvin: Oh?

Oh, you thought that was rough.

We'll have to go on a real, real jeeping sometime.

>>Chris: [Laughs] >>Dave: Okay.

>>Chris: Well, as long as you're drivin' and you don't think it's rough, then we're okay.

>>Dave: That's right.

>>Alvin: So we'll have about a, uh, about three-quarters of a mile hike and it's gonna be a real pretty area up in here of hoodoos, uh, narrow slot canyons and natural arches... >>Dave: That sounds beautiful.

>>Chris: Sounds great.

>>Alvin: ...to walk through, so it's a, really a photo, photogenic, real, very pretty area.

>>Alvin: Okay, now we're approaching, uh, an area of hoodoos.

>>Dave: Hoodoos.

>>Alvin: And it's a... >>Dave: [Laughs] >>Alvin: ...and it's a actual geological term for these slender eroded columns.

>>Chris: Hoodoo sounds more fun than geological [laughs].

>>Alvin: Yeah.

But you can see, uh, the, uh, the prominent one here which is probably about 15 feet high and you see some smaller ones.

And, and they were formed by the cooling cracks.

When the rock cooled it formed vertical cracks and so, uh, along those cracks you have the later water erosion that eroded the rock away and left, between the cracks, left these pillars sticking up.

>>Chris: So this is a very volcanic area, then?

>>Alvin: It's all volcanic, yep.

This rock was ejected, ejected into the air, and that's why it's called air fall, and then when it settled, all this material settled back down and it formed rocks over a long period of time.

So, these, even though these rocks look like they might be very young, they're, uh, very old, in our time span.

>>Dave: Right.

>>Chris: [Laughs] >>Alvin: Several, several, probably several million years old.

Yeah.

>>Chris: The geological variety here gives the appearance of another world.

Every few steps brings another unique texture and color.

From here, we begin to move up a fairly steep angle.

It's a great workout for the legs.

[Music] >>Alvin: Here's a nice viewing spot, huh?

>>Dave: Wow, there's the rock.

>>Alvin: There's Needle Rock.

The one we saw when we first started.

>>Chris: The more we hike, the better the scenery becomes.

When we reach the top, our reward is a great view of Pyramid Lake, which adds more color to an already beautiful desert palette.

>>Alvin: Now we're getting into our destination.

We wanna go around these rocks over here and then, we're in this area, it's all real pretty, uh, volcanic rocks.

>>Chris: It's very different than the last kind of rock, though.

>>Dave: What causes the different colorations on this?

>>Alvin: Again, it's just, it's just, uh, the minerals in the rock, uh, the reddish color is generally an iron, iron-like down below and the darker is manganese.

>>Dave: So on the top where it's darker it just, it's, it's, is that a higher-up layer than what's underneath here?

Is this worn away more than on top or is it...?

>>Alvin: No, this is all probably approximately the same age, it was probably all ejected out in a very, very, uh, small time period.

And actually the black we see up there on top, that's actual, actually lichen.

>>Dave: Oh.

>>Alvin: You can see right here above these holes.

>>Dave: Oh, okay.

>>Alvin: That's lichen.

>>Dave: That would make sense.

And then these holes.

Are these holes wind, wind blown?

>>Alvin: Wind.

Wind erosion of the soft areas of the rock, in the wind and sand, you can see how much sand has, uh, eroded... >>Dave: Yeah.

>>Alvin: ...eroded down around the trees and stuff.

>>Dave: So, we're standing on top of what used to be this rock?

>>Alvin: Right.

Right.

>>Alvin: Here's Alvin's hidden, secret room.

>>Chris and Dave: [Laugh] >>Alvin: Pretty neat area.

>>Dave: Amazing.

>>Chris: Wow, look at that!

>>Dave: Wow.

>>Chris: [Laughs] That's neat.

>>Alvin: When I had small, small crews, I used to just climb up over there and then go down over there.

[Laughs] >>Dave: Is this, did this used to be one rock that eroded down?

>>Alvin: Probably.

There's probably a, a cooling crack or something in here and it's just eroded away over the years.

>>Dave: And it looks like water could've fallen down.

>>Alvin: Yeah, you can see how, how this, here's part of this major crack right here.

>>Dave: Yeah.

>>Alvin: And it's just a weakness zone that the water was able to erode and formed this right, very narrow slot out through there.

So, uh, so what we'll do is go back out, go around the rocks... >>Dave: Do a loop?

>>Alvin: ...and, uh, do a loop through a window.

>>Dave: Oh, great.

>>Alvin: The easiest way is to step up on top of the rock here and then... >>Dave: We're losing sunlight, but there's still time for one last thrill: this window rock.

We have to go through it.

There's no way around.

Everyone makes it with no trouble and we start back to the jeep with nothing but gratitude to Alvin for sharing this memorable experience with us.

>>Alvin: Wow, that's neat right here, too, with somebody in it.

Okay, we made it through.

It's a pretty neat area to go hiking, huh?

>>Chris: Oh, it's a beautiful area.

Another great stop, Alvin, thank you.

>>Chris: We've had a busy couple of days and covered a lot of territory, seen some incredible desert landscape, the petroglyphs in Spanish Springs and then these beautiful rock formations near Pyramid Lake.

>>Dave: And up in the mountains, the Donner Trail gave us a look into history and snowshoeing near the Tahoe Rim Trail, well, that just gave us an awful lot of fun.

>>Chris: We're out of time for this show, but if you want more information about this or any of our trips, you can visit our website at knpb.org.

While you're there, send us an e-mail and tell us about some of your adventures.

>>Dave: And, until our next "Wild Nevada" adventure, you go out and enjoy our beautiful state for yourself.

[Music] Major production funding for "Wild Nevada" is made possible by the Nevada Commission on Tourism, who encourages everyone to explore the Silver State's hidden treasures.