The Black Rock Desert is a semi-arid region of lava beds and playa, or alkali flats, situated in the Black Rock Desert–High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area, a silt playa 100 miles (160 km) north of Reno, Nevada that encompasses more than 300,000 acres (120,000 ha) of land and contains more than 120 miles (200 km) of historic trails. It is in the northern Nevada section of the Great Basin with a lakebed that is a dry remnant of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan.
Lake Lahontan was a large endorheic Pleistocene lake of modern northwestern Nevada that extended into northeastern California and southern Oregon. The area of the former lake is a large portion of the Great Basin that borders the Sacramento River watershed to the west.
The Truckee River is a river in the U.S. states of California and Nevada. The river flows northeasterly and is 121 miles (195 km) long. The Truckee is the sole outlet of Lake Tahoe and drains part of the high Sierra Nevada, emptying into Pyramid Lake in the Great Basin. Its waters are an important source of irrigation along its valley and adjacent valleys.
The Humboldt River is an extensive river drainage system located in north-central Nevada. It extends in a general east-to-west direction from its headwaters in the Jarbidge, Independence, and Ruby Mountains in Elko County, to its terminus in the Humboldt Sink, approximately 225 direct miles away in northwest Churchill County. Most estimates put the Humboldt River at 300 miles (480 km) to 330 miles (530 km) long however, due to the extensive meandering nature of the river, its length may be more closely estimated at 380 miles (612 km). It is located within the Great Basin Watershed and is the third longest river in the watershed behind the Bear River at 355 miles (570 km) and the Sevier River at 325 miles (523 km). The Humboldt River Basin is the largest sub-basin of the Great Basin encompassing an area of 16,840 square miles (43,615 km2). It is the only major river system wholly contained within the state of Nevada.
The Humboldt Sink is an intermittent dry lake bed, approximately 11 mi (18 km) long, and 4 mi (6 km) across, in northwestern Nevada in the United States. The body of water in the sink is known as Humboldt Lake. The sink and its surrounding area was a notorious and dreaded portion of overland travel to California during the westward migrations of the mid-1800s, which were largely undertaken along the California Trail.
Carson Sink is a playa in the northeastern portion of the Carson Desert in present-day Nevada, United States of America, that was formerly the terminus of the Carson River. Today the sink is fed by drainage canals of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District. The southeastern fringe of the sink, where the canals enter, is a wetland of the Central Basin and Range ecoregion.
The Carson River is a northwestern Nevada river that empties into the Carson Sink, an endorheic basin. The main stem of the river is 131 miles (211 km) long although the addition of the East Fork makes the total length 205 miles (330 km), traversing five counties: Alpine County in California and Douglas, Storey, Lyon, and Churchill Counties in Nevada, as well as the Consolidated Municipality of Carson City, Nevada. The river is named for Kit Carson, who guided John C. Frémont's expedition westward up the Carson Valley and across Carson Pass in winter, 1844. The river made the National Priorities List (NPL) on October 30, 1990 as the Carson River Mercury Superfund site (CRMS) due to investigations that showed trace amounts of mercury in the wildlife and watershed sediments.
Modern Lake Lahontan is a reservoir on the Carson River in northwest Nevada in the United States. It is formed by the Lahontan Dam, built in 1905 by the Bureau of Reclamation as part of the Newlands Reclamation Act and is located between Fallon, Nevada and Carson City, Nevada. The flows from the Carson River is augmented by the diversions from the Truckee River. The reservoir is maintained by the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District (TCID). The lake is named after ancient Lake Lahontan, which covered much of northwestern Nevada during the last ice age.
The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about 1,600 mi (2,600 km) across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California. After it was established, the first half of the California Trail followed the same corridor of networked river valley trails as the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail, namely the valleys of the Platte, North Platte, and Sweetwater rivers to Wyoming. The trail has several splits and cutoffs for alternative routes around major landforms and to different destinations, with a combined length of over 5,000 mi (8,000 km).
Ragtown, Nevada, is a Churchill County ghost town of an abandoned 1854 trading post west of Fallon.
The Hastings Cutoff was an alternative route for westward emigrants to travel to California, as proposed by Lansford Hastings in The Emigrant's Guide to Oregon and California. The ill-fated Donner Party infamously took the route in 1846.
Rye Patch State Recreation Area is a 2,400-acre (970 ha) state park unit of Nevada, United States, adjoining Rye Patch Reservoir, an 11,000-acre (4,500 ha) impoundment on the Humboldt River, and the smaller Pitt-Taylor Reservoirs. The recreation area is located at the end of State Route 401, which connects to Interstate 80/U.S. Route 95 about 22 miles (35 km) northeast of Lovelock.
Interstate 80 (I-80) traverses the northern portion of the US state of Nevada. The freeway serves the Reno metropolitan area and passes through the towns of Fernley, Lovelock, Winnemucca, Battle Mountain, Carlin, Elko, Wells, and West Wendover on its way through the state.
U.S. Route 50 (US 50) is a transcontinental highway in the United States, stretching from West Sacramento, California, in the west to Ocean City, Maryland, on the east coast. The Nevada portion crosses the center of the state and was named "The Loneliest Road in America" by Life magazine in July 1986. The name was intended as a pejorative, but Nevada officials seized it as a marketing slogan. The name originates from large desolate areas traversed by the route, with few or no signs of civilization. The highway crosses several large desert valleys separated by numerous mountain ranges towering over the valley floors, in what is known as the Basin and Range province of the Great Basin.
Joseph R. Walker was a mountain man and experienced scout. He established the segment of the California Trail, the primary route for the emigrants to the gold fields during the California gold rush, from Fort Hall, Idaho to the Truckee River. The Walker River and Walker Lake in Nevada were named for him by John C. Frémont.
The Central Overland Route was a transportation route from Salt Lake City, Utah south of the Great Salt Lake through the mountains of central Nevada to Carson City, Nevada. For a decade after 1859, until the first Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869, it served a vital role in the transport of emigrants, mail, freight, and passengers between California, Nevada, and Utah.
The Soda Lakes are two lakes located northwest of Fallon, Nevada. They occupy two basaltic maar volcano craters which may have erupted in the last 1500 years. The larger lake, called Soda Lake or Big Soda Lake, is somewhat elongated, stretching 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) in length. The smaller one, Little Soda Lake, is 200 meters (660 ft) across. Considered to be a single volcano, the combined craters are young enough that future activity can't be ruled out. A geothermal power plant is located on the northeast flank of the volcano.
The Hot Springs Mountains are a range of rocky hills located in Northern Nevada, in Churchill County, between the cities of Fallon, Lovelock, and Fernley. The area was recently volcanically active, is underlain by hot rocks, and is the site of several geothermal electric power plants. It is an arid, rough terrain, uninhabited. These mountains are adjacent to the Lahontan Valley, which contains the Forty Mile Desert, a daunting section of the 19th century California emigrant trail. During the Pleistocene epoch this range of mountains was an island in the now extinct Lake Lahontan.
Western Nevada (WNV) is a region and the northwestern portion of the U.S. state of Nevada that includes Reno, Carson City, Carson Valley and Virginia City. Lyon County and Churchill County are sometimes also referred to as part of Western Nevada.
The Nobles Emigrant Trail, also known as the Fort Kearney, South Pass and Honey Lake Wagon Road, is a trail in California that was used by emigrant parties from the east as a shortened route to northern California. It was pioneered in 1851 by William Nobles, who discovered an easy shortcut between the Applegate Trail in Nevada and the Lassen Trail in California. The trail was extensively used until the 1870s, when it was superseded by railroads.
