- This time I'm headed out into the remote part of the state to see some beautiful desert views and wilderness areas.

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

- [Announcer] 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 - [Narrator] 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.

(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Chris Orr, and I'm starting this time in the community of Tonopah, which is located in Nye County on Highway 95.

But this is just a starting point 'cause I'm actually headed out into the desert to enjoy lands with wilderness characteristics in Esmeralda County.

I've got a travel companion waiting for me, so I better get going.

To get started on this adventure, I meet up with Julien Pellegrini, the Wildlands Policy Manager at the Friends of Nevada Wilderness.

Julien, thanks for meeting me today.

- You're welcome, nice meeting you.

- So, I know we said we were gonna meet in Tonopah, but we're not even in the county that we talked about going out to explore 'cause we talked about Esmeralda County, and we're in Nye County.

So why are we in Tonopah?

- Esmeralda County doesn't have a lot of amenities in it, and the nearest, best place for getting gas and a cup of coffee and kind of having a base to work out of is Tonopah.

- So I got my cup of coffee, and I've got a gas tank full of fuel.

So I guess it served its purpose, but I know we've got a lot to see in Esmeralda County.

What are we going for?

- Well, I'd like to show you some of the lands with wilderness characteristics, the intact landscapes here, and maybe explore some of the resources that we have in this county.

- You know, I know that I've probably been in the area, but never out into this area.

So I'm excited to get out there and explore.

And I'm guessing I'm not the only person that this is new to.

- Yeah, that's correct.

Most people who explore Esmeralda County do so from the highway on their way to Vegas or to Reno up north.

You get off the highway a couple of miles, and the place is really pretty spectacular.

- Well, I know we've got a few miles to travel to even start really our real adventure, so should we get going?

- Yes, that sounds great.

- Okay.

(gentle music) Esmeralda County sits in the southwestern portion of the state.

The population is estimated at under 700 residents, making it one of the least populous counties in Nevada and the 20th least populous county in the United States.

As the emptiest county, it is estimated that it means three square miles for each of its residents.

To get started, I followed Julien west out of Tonopah on US 95.

It's only about 10 miles before we pull over just off the highway to enjoy some of the views looking out toward Lone Mountain and to learn more about the area.

So why did we pull off here to begin?

- There's a couple of reasons.

In terms of natural resources, this is a pretty important place in terms of the desert Bighorn sheep that live here.

And those desert bighorn aren't just any bighorn sheep.

They're the states, probably the great basin's most genetically endemic population of Desert Bighorn.

There a remnant population that are very hot, dry desert adapted.

These here are the Weepah Hills, and the large one here is Lone Mountain.

And those kind of act as a big, you know, like a stronghold core habitat for these desert bighorn sheep.

They move between all of these hills to lamb or for breeding or looking, you know, seeking out food or water resources.

And one of their main movement corridors is from Lone Mountain here across this playa, believe it or not, across the highway, into the southern end of the Monte Cristo Range.

- Well, and it's so interesting 'cause when you describe Lone Mountain as kind of, it does have that fortress look.

- Yes.

- That's a impressive mountain.

- It is.

- Especially as you get a little closer to it off the highway.

- Yeah, and it's one of those classic examples that once you get off the highway you realize that Nevada has a lot more than, you know, Las Vegas and Reno.

And it is one of the more wild places I've ever been, is in Lone Mountain.

- And you wouldn't think about that as you just drive right by it.

- Right, yeah.

- That it's, it just looks like a desert mountain.

- Right.

- But it's a whole ecosystem in itself.

- It is, it is.

It's got a lot of, all of its canyons have water holes or springs in them.

And a lot of animals rely on it.

There's mountain lions there, golden eagles, there's a lot of raptor nests.

Our desert bighorn, there's mule deer in there as well.

- Well, and I'm guessing if you have that many animal species, that there's probably quite a history of people following those animals and hunting too.

- That's right.

In terms of human occupation here, it goes back into the terminal Pleistocene, uninterrupted human occupation for 12, 14,000 years or more.

(gentle music) So these are referred to as Clovis points.

To everybody else, these, this style of points recognized all over North America, Latin America, Northern end of South America.

- So what makes 'em a Clovis point?

- So what makes 'em a Clovis point is the shape primarily.

It's called a lanceolate shape with a concave base.

But the real diagnostic piece to this is there is a large channel flake removed from one or both faces of the point, from the base of the point.

Not entirely fully understood yet what that was for, but that is a very diagnostic part to this as well as what's called edge grinding along the sides of the base as well.

Where they ground them down where they're smooth.

- And these are a sample, like a recreation of the kind of points that would've been used in this area.

- Exactly, and it's been well documented and well published by BLM and amateur archeologists and the university that there was a large concentration of these projectile points found within this whole basin, which comes back to the point that people were occupying this area in the terminal Pleistocene, early Holocene.

- That's really interesting to think about that when you stand here now.

- Right.

- So where are we headed to next?

- We will head into the south end of the Monte Cristo range.

- So kind of following where the bighorn go.

- Yeah, that's right.

(gentle music) - [Chris] Not far away, we leave US 95 shortly before it meets Highway 6, and head into the desert toward the Monte Cristo Range and a landmark known as Devil's Gate.

(gentle music) (upbeat music) Julien, this is gorgeous.

This is really striking.

Just in a little bit of highway drive, it's opened up amazingly.

- Yeah, this is a classic example of soon as you get off the highway you realize that Nevada's got a lot more.

- [Chris] Well, and you see those colors from the road, but when you get into it, you don't realize how deep and how colorful and how rich it is.

So what are we looking at that makes all of this?

- So it's a lot of mineral deposition.

The reds, you have a lot of iron oxide or red ochre.

There's a lot of greens and a lot of white, there's some diatomaceous earth here.

- [Chris] So when you say diatomaceous earth, that's some of the fossil beds that you mentioned when we were driving, - Correct, yeah, this is a lot of, well this whole area here, these formations, this is a, it's a fossil bed.

- [Chris] This is really cool.

- And this wash that we're in actually was named a long time ago as Jackrabbit Draw or Jackrabbit Wash, which I always found rather appealing, but a lot of fossils have been recovered out of this wash and adjacent hills.

- And so as we head in, can we explore a little bit and go further up into the hills?

- Yeah, absolutely.

- This is absolutely gorgeous.

- Yeah, this is a neat area.

- Well, I'm anxious to see more.

Do you wanna lead?

- Yeah, let's do it.

- Okay.

(upbeat music) This area is fascinating.

It's rugged and scenic and full of surprising and wondrous geological features.

(upbeat music) It would be easy to spend the whole day here exploring, but there is more to see.

So I followed Julien back to the highway and onto our next destination.

(upbeat music) From Highway 95, we drive west on Highway 6 for approximately six miles before heading south on State Route 773 for 10 miles.

Then it's a dirt road for another few miles to get to an area known as the Sump.

(upbeat music) This is so cool.

- Yeah, it's unique.

(upbeat music) - [Chris] It's interesting because you hear a name like the Sump, and I know years and years ago, I came one other time.

It's such a kind of unattractive name for a really dynamic striking landscape.

- It is, yeah.

I've always been kind of curious of the name, and it doesn't seem as flattering as the actual place is, but there was a type specimen of a species of Gomphothere or early elephant.

- [Chris] I was gonna say Gomphothere is, that's a new term for me.

- Yeah, they were a little smaller.

They weren't like a big wooly mammoth.

But yeah, the type specimen was actually recovered here, and there's a paper published on it.

- Well, and it's just a beautiful location and it's interesting because you think of one of these areas with layered rock and erosion, and yet it's so different from the one we just left up in the Monte Cristos.

- [Julien] Yeah, these areas at a distance kind of appear the same, but once you get into 'em, they're very unique.

- Can we get out and explore a little bit?

- Yeah, let's do that.

- [Chris] Maybe we can find our own elephant bones.

- [Julien] Yeah, try to find an elephant.

(Chris laughing) - The unique beauty of the sump is counter to its unfortunate name.

It is an other worldly landscape of eroded clay spires, fossilized wood, and colorful rocks that invites exploration and wonder.

(upbeat music) It's been a full day, and it's time for us to get some rest, but before we do as the day wanes, we are treated to a remarkable sunset.

And then it just gets better because it's followed by a stunning moonrise.

(upbeat music) We can't resist stopping to enjoy before we head back to town.

(upbeat music) The next morning we're headed deeper into Esmeralda County.

As we head out, Julien and I make a stop to observe a geological feature called desert pavement.

This is so interesting.

It's like a mosaic.

- It is, it's a natural formation called desert pavement, one of my favorite aspects of this lower desert.

They're really old.

A lot of these desert pavement patches can be anywhere from tens to hundreds of thousands of years old.

- [Chris] How do they form?

I mean, why is all of this just rock?

- So they're a representation of time.

And so in these flat planes like this, any precipitation, water, you know, raining, snowing, the water kind of allows some of these rocks to sink down.

And you have dirt surface over the top of that.

And then you have wind that clears that off.

And so just a long period of time of that happening, the dirt kind of comes off the top and the rocks keep sinking and then keep blocking closer and closer and tighter together.

- [Chris] You know, it's interesting because I think some people might look and think that it's just kind of a wasteland, but it's beautiful in just it's color and it's variety, and the sagebrush and the plants almost look like little islands.

- They do act as islands in a way in terms of the animals that live here.

A lot of the rodents and birds as well.

But yeah, these are, so a lot of people are more oriented toward like the Sierra Nevadas and that kind of thing.

For me, this is paradise.

- I love the color, variety and the variety of rock because I immediately just wanna start picking up, and there's so many colors and shapes, and it looks amazingly random.

But then as you start to look at it, you realize, especially in the areas where it's so tight that they fit together perfectly.

- Yeah.

- And it's truly as though nature's kind of made its own little jigsaw puzzle.

- Yeah, and it looks like a puzzle.

I've seen tighter or looser desert pavement soils.

This area and why I wanted to show you this area is because a lot of the desert pavement that exists, at least that I have been able to experience are more uniform in color and type.

This one is different.

It's incredibly colorful and really rich in different types of rock.

There's a lot of Chalcedony here, agate, there's a certain amount of obsidian or basaltic rocks.

There's limestone mixed in some of this.

It's just, it's a very colorful desert pavement.

- You know, it's really interesting because I think from the road you would just think it was nothing, just really arid area.

But as you get out here and you look at it, it really does look like natural art the way the rock is so tightly fitted together.

- That's a good way to put it.

Years ago when we were working on inventorying for lands with wilderness characteristics, I preferred to be down in these areas, especially like when we camped for a couple reasons.

But I would walk around with a black light.

And this desert right now is really quiet.

It's still, you don't see wildlife so much, but if you come out at night, like soon as the sun goes down, this desert just absolutely comes alive, and it's just crawling.

- [Chris] I imagine those scorpions or.

- [Julien] Yeah.

- I'm kind of glad they're asleep right now.

- Yeah.

(both laughing) And the diversity of reptiles here is probably the thing that I find the most remarkable about this, - You know, interesting too because as we walked out I almost felt like I was going to disturb the rock and make imprints.

But really you can't tell where we've walked or not.

It really does look like a pavement.

- Yeah.

- It's taken our weight pretty well.

- I find especially the older I get, the more I try to be delicate.

- I love the way the light is catching on it though.

It just makes me wanna go and explore, and it's fascinating again, how they fit together.

I've even seen a couple of the rocks where they're standing straight up, like vertically placed in the dirt.

- Yeah, it's peculiar.

I don't understand those ones, and they look like a pavement.

- Oh yeah, and it's funny 'cause I'm like, okay, let's go look at that one over there and let's go.

- Yeah, right.

- It makes me wanna explore.

Just keep going out into 'em.

- This desert has a bad habit with me at least of drawing me further and further in.

Every one of these little hills or areas I go to and explore, I look a little bit further, and there's another hill to explore and then another hill.

And I could disappear probably pretty easily unintentionally in this desert.

- You know, it's interesting because so often I hear talk about how desert environments are kind of a quiet beauty.

And I think this is a really nice example of it because it would be so easy just to drive by it or pass it by and not really stop and look at it.

But it's, once you stop and look, it's, the pavement is beautiful.

- It's stunningly beautiful.

(gentle music) People driving down this highway wanna get through this as quickly as they can.

But if, you know, they had an extra day, and they pulled off the road and camped overnight, they'd be, I think they'd be amazed at what actually is here.

- Well, before we head back out, can we explore a little more?

- Yeah.

- Should we?

I wanna see that patch over there.

I already got my eye on a couple patches.

It's just so cool.

Oh, look at this piece.

- [Julien] Oh, yeah, yeah.

- [Chris] That's pretty cool.

- [Julien] Oh, that is neat.

(upbeat music) - [Chris] Part of the friends of the Nevada Wilderness work in Esmeralda County is identifying areas that can be described as lands with wilderness characteristics.

This means that they are sufficiently large areas generally over 5,000 acres, still natural in appearance and offer outstanding opportunities for solitude or primitive unconfined recreation.

They may also contain ecological, geological or archeological features.

That describes much of what we've seen and visited during our trip with Julien.

Back on the road, we head out toward the historic Immigrant Pass Road.

(upbeat music) - So this is the Immigrant Peak lands with wilderness characteristics to the north, and to the south is Rhyolite Ridge lands with wilderness characteristics.

- [Chris] You know it, and it's interesting 'cause they have distinct feels to 'em.

- [Julien] Yeah.

- And it's so different from where we were yesterday.

- It is, yeah.

- Beautiful.

- And that's another part to this, I think that, you know, I initially noticed right from the start, the first time I ever came here is all these places are just unique.

- [Chris] Yeah, Oh no, absolutely.

(upbeat music) And again, very intricate because as you look at the cliff face over here.

- [Julien] Right.

- There's tracks from erosion and boulder movement.

And then you have the more round landscape on this side.

- Yeah, yeah, and it's.

- Really pretty.

- I mean, this is prime bighorn sheep habitat.

- [Chris] Yeah, if I was a sheep, I would like that little.

- [Julien] Yeah.

- [Chris] That little rock face right there.

- [Julien] They see us, we don't see them.

They're up there somewhere - [Chris] Beautiful.

- [Julien] Yeah.

- We can at least still enjoy the view.

- Oh, absolutely - Whether or not we get to see them.

- Yeah, for sure, yeah.

I love the, I love the plants here too.

And strangely enough maybe, this shrub here is seepweed, Suaeda moquinii, if I recall, is weirdly for some reason one of my favorites.

I like the smell of it, but my earliest memories riding around in my, in the Jeep with my dad and my brothers always used to see that shrub.

So it always kind of popped out.

It was always my, one of my favorites.

- But the, you know, again, the vegetation is pretty sparse, but it's so hardy.

- [Julien] Yeah.

- [Chris] And it's so well adapted to this landscape that it's really interesting.

- Yeah, it's a tough place to live.

And that comes back to the Bighorn sheep too.

They live on a knife's edge.

You know, the water tank that we saw that was empty, in dry years, when these water holes, the natural ones dry up, which they do routinely, these animals kind of only have maybe those stock ponds to rely on for their survival.

And without them, a lot of animals end up dying.

Not just bighorn sheep.

But there's Kit Fox in here, mountain lions.

- And I can kind of see where possibly some raptors, there's.

- Yeah, there's.

- Some roosts up there.

- Yeah, I've seen golden eagles in here.

Prairie falcons are not a very uncommon sight.

Red tailed hawks, Swainson's hawks.

In the winter you might see a Ferruginous hawk fly through.

Again, it's a very biologically, biodiversity wise, it's very rich.

- [Chris] It's a beautiful area.

- [Julien] Yeah.

- [Chris] It's gorgeous.

- [Julien] Yeah, it is.

- [Chris] A nice drive, definitely.

- [Julien] Yeah, it is.

I never can see enough of this, this part of the world.

(dramatic music) - [Chris] From the striking canyons we drive down into Fish Lake Valley.

This rugged and serene desert landscape is home to rare plants and fish species.

One in particular called the Tub Chub.

(upbeat music) Even by Nevada standards, this is rural and remote country.

It's a collage of sagebrush planes, Alkali Flats, rugged mountains, and there's even talk of hot springs oasis in the area.

Whether it's hiking, wildlife watching, or just a trip back to find those springs, this area deserves a return trip for further exploration.

As the shadows lengthen, there is just enough time to visit one more remarkable landscape in the area.

To reach the volcanic hills from Fish Lake Valley, we drive north on State Route 264 and then turn east onto Piper Peak Road.

A high clearance four wheel drive vehicle is advisable for these dirt roads.

This is just absolutely beautiful.

- It is, and all of the areas that we've been in, you have the Monte Cristo Range peaking up, Lone Mountain, you have Immigrant and Rhyolite Ridge.

We're on the lower slopes here of the volcanic range.

- And those cliffs are just gorgeous.

- Yeah.

- Beautiful - This is a Bighorn sheep stronghold here.

- You know, and even without being able to actually, you know, peep and see any bighorn, the views are worth it.

- They're, it is, absolutely.

And the solitude, these areas that we've been looking at are some of Nevada's largest, most intact landscapes left.

They're remarkable.

- And it's really amazing how few people we've encountered while we're out here.

- Yeah.

- It's so quiet, and really does feel like a wild, pristine place.

- My organization refers to this whole area as the volcanic frontier and for justifiable reasons.

- Absolutely, I mean, the colors and truly the views are unparalleled.

It's amazing.

- They are.

- The geology, the wildlife, it's absolutely gorgeous.

Thank you so much for bringing me out.

- You bet, absolutely, my pleasure.

- Been a great trip.

(gentle music) That's all I've got time for in this episode.

But it's been really fascinating to get to get out into the remote areas of Esmeralda County and explore some of these wilderness areas.

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

And until my next "Wild Nevada," I hope you get to have some big Nevada ventures of your own.

As Josh falls down the ravine, and we never see him again!

(Chris laughing) - [Announcer] 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.

- [Narrator] 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.

(upbeat music)