- This time I'm exploring some of the recreation, beauty, and history that's part of the Carson River Corridor.

That's all coming up right now on "Wild Nevada."

- [Announcer 1] Support for PBS Reno and "Wild Nevada" comes in part from the William N. Pennington Foundation.

Bill Pennington was an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and gaming pioneer who built a legacy of community service in Nevada.

(light uptempo music) - [Announcer 2] And by Thelma B. and Thomas P. Hart Foundation, Kristine Perry, Margaret Burback, Mark and Susan Herron, in memory of Sue McDowell, Lloyd Rogers and Gaia Brown, Stanley and Neila Shumaker, and by individual members.

(light uptempo music continues) (uptempo music) - Hi, I'm Chris Orr and this time I'm having a Carson River adventure and I'm beginning in the Carson River Park, which has beautiful trails and a lovely river corridor.

From here, I'm gonna be visiting Prison Hill and some of the others surrounding areas, including a hot springs.

So I better get going.

(uptempo music) Helping me start my river adventure is Open Space Manager Lyndsey Boyer of Carson City Parks, Recreation and Open Space.

So why is this a good place to really start a Carson River Adventure?

- So we are here at Carson River Park, which is one of our open space properties.

And this is an important area because it is actually a put-in location for our Carson River Aquatic Trail, which is a great place to kind of start an adventure here on the Carson River.

The Open Space program here in Carson City is really special and it was started in 1996 with the passage of a ballot measure, we call it the Quality of Life Initiative, that sought to increase sales tax by 1/4 of 1%.

So that increase in sales tax goes towards parks, trails, and open space in Carson City and we've been able to use that to create spaces like this.

So we have acquired over 7,400 acres of open space in Carson City.

It's about 11 miles of the river corridor that we've been able to preserve and protect using that funding.

The river really is a destination in Carson City for the community.

- What does it mean to the Carson community to be able to have these kind of places available?

- It is a gem to have this available for the public, for the wildlife.

And so from, you know, day one, with the establishment of the Open Space program, you know, the community was a huge part of that, you know, deciding to tax themselves essentially for the benefit of quality of life in Carson City.

We also really engage with volunteers.

We bring folks out to the river to do stewardship projects that could be anything from weed removal.

We've done a lot of planting over the years, planting of cottonwoods.

We're always trying to preserve and protect our cottonwood galleries.

They're very important to all these birds that we hear right now.

And you know, cottonwoods aren't terribly long lived, just a couple hundred years.

And so we need to really make sure that they're protected and that we're caring for future generations of cottonwoods so that future generations of people can enjoy them.

- [Chris] You know, it's so funny when you refer to the cottonwoods as a gallery because, you know, not only do they provide such a beautiful amount of shade along the river, but between the birdsong and just the rustling of the leaves, they're truly just like a piece of art all along the way.

- Yeah, kind of like a living tapestry.

- [Chris] (laughs) Yeah.

- Yeah.

(light upbeat music) - [Chris] At River Park, I talk with Gregg Berggren, trail coordinator for Carson City Parks, Recreation and Open Space.

- It takes a community to build trails and trails build community.

And in Carson City our history for trail planning and development goes back many, many decades and it's been a grassroots effort on behalf of so many members of our community.

We've been able to develop a unified pathways master plan that has kind of guided our development of trails throughout the decades and we've had community support all along.

- So what trail are we on here?

- So right now we are on the Silver Saddle Ranch segment of the Carson River Trail.

And this is a recently rebranded trail.

So it was just in the last few years that we completed a final segment of trail along the Carson River from Morgan Mill to the Mexican Dam, it's 5 miles.

And so we rebranded it as the Carson River Trail.

It's accessible to persons of all ages and abilities.

They have an opportunity to come out here and watch the wildlife and see the river.

Part of this trail was even designated by Audubon as a birdability trail so that it is accessible to birders (bird squawking) who may have disabilities and they can come out and park here at Carson River Park and access our lovely cottonwood galleries.

And over the course of a year, we have over 200 species that visit the Carson River.

- Well, as we walk along there, I mean, you could just hear the birds.

They are so active and so present that it makes sense that this is a great birding trail because they're definitely here.

(light upbeat music) Gregg says that trails can connect people with their history and the park has added interpretive panels with information going back to the first people who lived here thousands of years ago.

The nearby Prison Hill recreation area has an OHV section for jeeps, side-by-sides, and dirt bikes.

- [Gregg] And the other thing that's kind of unique about Carson City, we have an aquatic trail.

We have 14 miles of the Carson River that is open to floating.

And about 4.4 miles of that is flat water.

So anybody of any skill level can travel that if they wear the appropriate safety gear.

And then we have about 9 miles of exciting white water.

- When you talk about trails being accessible, it really is.

I've kayaked some of that flatter easier stuff and it's a lovely leisurely float.

And then to know that you've got, really, rapids on either side of it, you can kind of pick your own adventure that way.

I'm excited to get to explore a little more on the Carson River 'cause there is just a wealth of things to do.

(birds chirping) (river running) It's a short drive down Carson River Road and through the roundabout on Fairview Drive to get to the 5th Street Trailhead for the Prison Hill recreation area.

Once there, I meet up with Janel Johnson of NatureServe and the Nevada Native Plant Society.

Looks like you already got a head start on me.

- Yeah, there's some great annuals growing right here.

It's pretty diverse even though you have to get down close to see them.

- Well, thank you for meeting me up here.

I'm excited to learn more about some of the plants that I think I probably take for granted up here.

- A lot of people just look at this and see a sea of sagebrush, and you gotta get down here and really look at things.

- So what is down here?

- So this pink and yellow one is called Phacelia bicolor, and this little green puff with the white things is Greeneocharis circumscissa, which is a bigger word than the plant.

(both laughing) (light upbeat music) - So is this a situation where they're gonna be here every year or is it really dependent on the year itself?

- It's very dependent on the moisture.

So if we don't get enough rain in the spring, there just won't be any flowers here.

It'll just be dirt.

But this is a good year.

This is Tiquilia nuttallii, and then that one over there that's kind of taller, Cryptantha pterocarya.

- [Chris] Those are big names.

- (laughs) Big names for tiny plants.

(both laughing) In the botany community, we call these belly plants 'cause you have to get down on your belly to see them, yes.

(Chris laughs) I think that's a lot cuter than just ground cover, so I like that.

(light upbeat music continues) So what did you find this time, Janel?

- So this is Phacelia tanacetifolia.

(both laughing) - [Chris] That's a mouthful for what's a fairly small bloom.

- [Janel] So if you watch, there's some little wasps coming to visit to collect nectar from the flowers.

- Well, and it's interesting 'cause it's just kind of all wound up in the sage there.

- Yeah, they use the sagebrush as sort of scaffolding to hold up their stem.

So then they don't have to put so much energy into growing a thick stem.

They can get their flowers up high where the wasps can see them.

- Now, that looks like it almost has a thorn to it.

I don't think I wanna touch that one.

- It has really prickly hairs, like touching fiberglass.

So not something you wanna handle very much.

- So even if it's pretty or fairly rare, doesn't mean just grab it and take a bouquet with you, right?

- Yes, definitely don't just taste any plant that you see out here.

(Chris laughs) (light upbeat music) (wind whistling) - So then what are we looking at?

That's kind of a big showy guy.

- Yeah, that big one is evening primrose.

So it's called that because the flowers open in the evening and they're open all night.

And so those pink blobs there are flowers that were open last night that have closed already.

- [Chris] Oh.

- [Janel] And these are pollinated by sphinx moths or hummingbird moths.

- [Chris] Which are very active at night.

Right?

- [Janel] Yeah.

- [Chris] So that's why they open at night?

- Yep.

And they're white, so they catch the moonlight and attract those nighttime pollinators.

One really cool thing about this species is that that center stalk will grow up taller over the course of the next several weeks and those side branches will grow out to the side.

And then in the summer when it gets too hot and dry and the plant dies, the branches will curl up and it looks like a cage.

And so it's common name is bird cage primrose.

- [Chris] So as it does that, is that part of making sure it's spreading its seeds or protecting itself for the next year?

- Yeah.

- Or why does it do that?

- It curls up into a ball and the roots kind of detach from the soil and the wind will just blow it like a tumbleweed.

And so it drops some seeds as it blows across the sand.

- There's something about a primrose tumbleweed that I like and that's kind of cool to think of.

- And all of this sand is here because it blew out of the river floodplain and blew up here.

And the wind has... See, we're right behind this little ridge over here.

And so the wind slows down as it goes over the ridge and it deposits all this sand across here.

- And is that part of why as we hike, we have different plants, is because as that basically that sand pattern changes, it kind of changes what's blooming?

- Yeah, as we walk up the hill over here, we'll get out of this sand deposit and we'll be up in the rocky area and it's completely different plants over there.

Hey, Chris, here's a really interesting plant.

(light music) This is called ephedra or Mormon tea.

- Now, I've seen a lot of this when I've hiked in other places.

So normally when I see this, it's just green and kind of spiny-looking.

But this has- - [Janel] Yeah.

- [Chris] Is this a flower on it?

- Yeah, so these are the male flowers.

So this is a male plant.

A lot of plants have male and parts in the same flower.

But in ephedra, they're separate plants.

So this is a male plant, and ephedra is actually more closely related to pine trees and other conifers than to all the other flowering shrubs that we have around here.

- So if this is a male and it is essentially in bloom, does that mean there's female ephedra in the area?

- Yeah, if we looked around, we could probably find a female.

And the females, when their fruits get ripe, have two kind of triangular-shaped seeds that grow at each joint in the branch.

- That's pretty cool.

- Yeah.

- Again, something I've hiked by many times and hadn't really thought about it.

- A very ancient lineage of plants.

(light upbeat music) (uptempo guitar music) So the really cool thing about this family is that that is not one flower.

This is dozens and dozens of flowers.

- [Chris] So each petal is really a flower?

- Yeah.

Here, I'll show you on the blossom root because it's a little bigger.

So each one of these is a separate flower.

So that's a flower.

And these ones in the center, each one of those is a separate flower.

So this whole family is like this.

They have these.. This is called an involucre.

And within the involucre, there are multiple flowers and some flowers are long and strap-shaped, And some flowers are in the middle and those are called- - [Chris] And they're just blowing away in today's wind.

- [Janel] Yeah.

So those are called disc flowers.

- [Chris] That's really interesting.

- Yeah, and when you cluster a bunch of flowers together, it makes a big show for the insects.

So rather than having one tiny flower scattered around, you get a bunch of them together and it attracts insects from a farther distance, - Thus guaranteeing the pollination.

- [Janel] Yeah.

- I've learned so much in a fairly small bit of trail.

I'm excited to think about how many other plants I'm gonna be able to find in other locations and other trails.

- Everywhere you go, just look down.

Look under the shrubs and you'll find lots of interesting stuff.

- It's amazing the diversity of plants and vegetation that Janel highlighted in such a short hike.

Being able to participate in a guided field trip is helpful if you really want to better appreciate and learn the multitude of plants and wild flowers that fill each corner of the Silver State.

(bright uptempo music) Prison Hill may seem like an unusual moniker for such a scenic and fun recreation area.

But the short drive to the nearby historic Nevada State Prison explains the name.

(bright uptempo music continues) (bright uptempo music continues) In the visitor center, I'm greeted by Lucia Maloney of the Nevada State Prison Preservation Society.

So why do we have a preservation society for a prison?

- Nevada State Prison, it operated for 150 years, from 1862 until when it closed its doors in 2012.

- [Chris] That's a really long time.

- It's a really long time.

It was the, I guess you could call it, the political birthplace of Nevada.

It's not just prison history that the society is trying to protect and educate.

It's Nevada history.

And so we're here, we're restoring and preserving the facility and we're educating the public on the history.

Where we're standing right now is our museum and our gift shop.

We have artifacts here that you can't find anywhere else.

This was the original visiting area.

So you see some of the paint on the walls that the inmates actually painted.

(bright uptempo music continues) - So when you have 150 years of history, what are some of the most important historic things about the prison?

- Well, the prison started as a motel.

It was the Warm Springs Hotel.

The prison is built on a warm spring, a hot spring, that runs underneath the prison.

Abe Curry owned it.

He bought the Eagle Valley Ranch.

And at some point, it was determined that the prison had to be built, had to exist for Nevada to become a state.

So first, it was a territorial prison, and then the legislature met here and it became the state prison prior to statehood.

So really, it's the political birthplace of Nevada.

- So it was really part of how Nevada became a state was because it had a prison?

- That's right.

- Too, I understand there's a real tie because this was one of the first state structures to other buildings in the Carson area.

- That's right.

So in addition to being the Warm Springs Hotel, it was... The hotel was fabricated from a sandstone quarry, which is on this property.

And so not only the hotel and the original prison portion, but many buildings in Carson City are constructed from sandstone that was hand sown from this quarry, including the state capitol, the Mint, the Bank saloon downtown, many of the buildings on the west side.

And so it's really fascinating.

It's really part of Carson City and Nevada's history, this sandstone from this property.

I'll take you over to our visiting area if you'd like to check that out next.

- [Chris] Sure, visiting hour is free.

- [Lucia] Yep, that's right.

- I start my prison tour with guide and site historian Glen Whorton.

- I started here as a correctional trainee officer trainee in 1973, and I worked here for about three years.

And then I had an additional career, 32 years in the department.

But I started here and it's basically always been an interest of mine.

It's so historical that just have to continue with it.

Well, I think we'll start our tour over here at what's affectionately called the Hole.

- I don't know that anything called the Hole is a good place in a prison.

- Yes, that's correct.

This is kind of unique among prisons because this was actually dug out of the bluff by inmates in about 1914.

And it was actually originally used as storage for vegetables.

And that makes sense because it was relatively warm in the winter and cold in the summer.

- So this would've been a naturally cool spot.

- Yes, that's right.

It's been used for a lot of different things.

It's been a storeroom, a maintenance shop, an inmate recreation area, and at one point, it was the offices for our teachers.

- The teachers would have offices in there?

- Yes, yes.

- Definitely not a window office.

- That's not a comment on our value of education.

(Chris laughs) - [Chris] That's a dark hole right there.

- [Glen] Yeah, we've had it surveyed by the university.

They indicate that it's stable, but the supports inside are beginning to fall.

And it kind of makes people nervous going in there.

- So this whole bluff is sandstone?

Is this the sandstone that the prison itself was built for?

- Yes, this is all part of the quarry.

This is all part of that construction for the capitol and for the governor's mansion, the Abe Curry house, the Virginia Truckee shops.

All of that dug out of the ground here.

It was actually a quarry prior to becoming a prison.

- And then I imagine once it became a prison, some of that prison labor was probably used to quarry some of that stuff - The inmates dug the stone, they dressed the stone, but they didn't actually do the construction.

That's probably the prison's most visible contribution to Nevada history.

You know, one of the absolute unique things about the Nevada State Prison is that they had an actual operating casino right here where we're standing.

In 1932, the state legalized gaming and the warden at the time decided that it'd be an appropriate activity for the inmates.

So they had card games, roulette.

(Chris laughs) They even had a sports book.

But it continued from 1932 to 1967.

And in 1967, we got our first real professional prison person as a warden.

And he came here from California, from San Quentin, and he was appalled.

(Chris laughs) So he worked and finally got the casino closed, and the building itself was demolished.

And the only thing we have left is this piece of floor.

And that's it - That has definitely got a little bit of Nevada flare to it, a prison casino.

So within the prison system then, you would have a lot of different types of programs for the prisoners, right?

- Yeah, obviously we'd have our educational programs.

We had substance abuse programs, the puppy program, and there was work experience.

There was prison industries.

So there was a lot of different things to perform those rehabilitation functions that are expected of modern corrections.

(bright uptempo music) - [Chris] Well, thank you for sharing just a few of the stories with me.

It's a fascinating location.

- Oh, we love to do it.

And that's why we really enjoy doing tours and educating people going out into the community.

- And a very important place to preserve.

- It is, it is.

Thank you for coming.

- There's much more to the tour and the location than we have time for here.

It's well worth arranging a visit of your own.

After such a full day, it's time for me to make my escape and get some rest for the final part of our Carson River Adventure.

From Carson City, I head south on US 395 and Highway 88 into California.

And it's just outside of the community of Woodfords that I turned briefly onto Highway 89, then left onto Diamond Valley Road and then left onto Airport Road before I take a final left onto Scossa Canyon Road.

A high clearance four-wheel drive vehicle is advised for the last few miles of this journey.

The road dead ends into a turnaround point, which is actually our trailhead for today.

Whether it's a new bit of trail or something more familiar, sometimes one of the best ways to have an adventure is to join up with some like-minded friends or companions.

So I'm headed out to see the Carson River Hot Springs and joining a group of friends that like to hike together and explore.

So not only is it a great way for me to make some new friends, but also to see more of the Carson River.

Hi, guys.

You guys ready?

- [Group] Yeah.

- Let's go.

(light uptempo music) (light uptempo music continues) This route is known as the Carson River Hot Springs Trail.

It's a challenging out-and-back trek of around 11 miles total.

The elevation gain of over 2,300 feet is not for the casual hiker, since you have steep terrain and sharp grades both coming and going.

(light uptempo music continues) This is a fun group, a mix of old and new friends, and hiking with a group like this can really add an engaging social element to a trek, making the miles go by a little faster.

(light uptempo music continues) And anytime you're on trail, keep your eyes open.

You don't know what you're gonna see along the way.

So what are you guys thinking of the hike so far?

- Good.

- Really good.

- It's good.

- So fun.

- Yeah, awesome.

- It's Very beautiful.

- Oh, my God, look at the mountains from here.

- [Speaker] Yeah, the mountain's on the backside.

- I liked how you timed the hawk to come through just as we came the corner too.

That was awesome.

(light uptempo music) - We start the final leg toward the spring.

The day is perfect.

You couldn't ask for a more beautiful place to be.

(group chattering) (light uptempo music) (light uptempo music continues) (water rushing) The sound of rushing water tells us we've made it to the hot spring and beyond, the Carson River.

(light uptempo music continues) A soak in the hot spring seems like the perfect way to end this adventure.

(light uptempo music) (river running) That's all I've got time for in this episode, but it's been a lot of fun getting to explore how the Carson River has shaped the landscape, the community, and the history of the area, and find a hot spring.

If you want more about this episode or any in the "Wild Nevada" series, visit our website at pbsreno.org and stream us with the PBS app.

Until my next "Wild Nevada" adventure, I hope you get to have some adventures of your own.

(light uptempo music) - [Announcer 1] Support for PBS Reno and Wild Nevada comes in part from the William N. Pennington Foundation.

Bill Pennington was an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and gaming pioneer who built a legacy of community service in Nevada.

- [Announcer 2] And by Thelma B. and Thomas P. Hart Foundation, Kristine Perry, Margaret Burback, Mark and Susan Herron, in memory of Sue McDowell, Lloyd Rogers and Gaia Brown, Stanley and Neila Shumaker, and by individual members.

(light uptempo music continues) (light uptempo music continues)