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October 10, 2003
Access to public land: A tale of two slopes
Chances are, though, not many Pahrump residents took the short drive out of town to head up to the cool air and pine covered slopes on the west side of the Spring Mountains. While Las Vegans can take a nice paved road up to Kyle Canyon or Lee Canyon, where they can access trails up into the pine trees and rarified air, on the Pahrump side there are only dirt roads, in many cases passable only by four-wheel drive. From the Pahrump side, hiking on any kind of developed trail requires driving around the mountains to the Las Vegas side to access the trailheads. There has been talk about building recreational facilities on the west side of the Spring Mountains ever since I moved to Pahrump almost four years ago. It has included everything from constructing some picnic tables and campsites along Wheeler Pass Road to talk of a Spring Mountain Perimeter Trail. With the fire restrictions in place all summer, campfires are only allowed in organized campsites, none of which can be found on our side. At one point in the discussions, I attended a workshop with U.S. Park Service representatives held on a Saturday morning at the Pahrump Community Center. While there, I looked at the topographical map of the Spring Mountains and drew a line with my finger from Wallace Canyon straight up to Mt. Charleston. Most hikers would like to ascend to the highest peak at least once, and Wallace Canyon looked like the closest point to Mt. Charleston. Right now, though, the road into Wallace Canyon is too rough for ordinary vehicles. During a meeting of the Pahrump Public Lands Advisory Board, I asked former U.S. Forest Service District Ranger Tom Kuekes why there wasn't a better road across Wheeler Pass from Pahrump to Cold Creek on the Las Vegas side. The road traverses through beautiful pine forests and past historic charcoal kilns on the east side of the mountains. After a rather diplomatic answer in public, Kuekes expressed his real feelings during a break in the meeting. "We don't want 1.3 million people impacting the resource," Kuekes said bluntly. He was implying, of course, that every man, woman and child in Las Vegas would suddenly want to drive over Wheeler Pass were the road to be improved. (And check out Kuekes's use of some classic bureaucratese. I'm sure a guy would never turn to his wife and say, "Hey, honey, let's go up to the Spring Mountains this weekend and impact the resource!") There is one drive that's accessible to almost any vehicle up to the old sawmill, straight up Wheeler Pass Road from behind the Best Western Pahrump Station. When I decided to turn left and test the road over the pass itself in my Nissan Sentra some time ago, the course began to get rough shortly after the charcoal kilns. I eyed up one bump in the road ahead, got out to survey it and decided to take my chances. The next day I noticed oil leaking out of the car while sitting in a paved parking lot in Pahrump. Luckily I caught the leak in time and used some trusty J.B. Weld to plug the crack in the oil pan. I've heard Carpenter Canyon is beautiful, with even some running water most of the year. But I'm also told it's a rough road accessible only by vehicles with four-wheel drive and high clearance. Most maps of the Spring Mountains show the roads into Trout Canyon and Lovell Canyon, which end at private property (like the right fork of Wheeler Passs road does at the old sawmill, where there's a locked gate). However it would be possible to construct hiking trails before the end of the road, leading around the private property and into the mountains. A trip up U.S. 395 along the Eastern Sierra of California goes through the towns of Lone Pine, Independence, Big Pine, Bishop, etc. Every town has a paved road leading 15 to 20 miles west and heading higher into the Sierra Nevadas. At the end of each road is a trailhead where hikers can walk into breathtaking scenery. I admit, the Spring Mountains don't have 14,000-foot peaks like the Sierra Nevadas, nor are there the same, sparkling, alpine lakes. But we still could use some sort of access to enjoy the mountains. While the Civilian Conservation Corps is no longer active, Nevada Division of Forestry crews are used throughout the state for just such projects. They would be an ideal labor source to cut trails up the west side of the Spring Mountains and build a few campsites and picnic areas. It certainly would do wonders for Pahrump tourism to let people know there are beautiful, easy-to-access mountains only a few miles east of our town boundaries. And the outdoor experience might give young adults in Pahrump a wholesome alternative to smoking meth or drinking at smoky bars. I thought once about going up and smoothing out those rough humps on the road over Wheeler Pass so I could drive over them without bottoming out. But people advised me not to do it, as I could be cited for not having a permit. Federal agencies seem to want to provide a wilderness environment for all animal species except Homo sapiens. But Pahrump is no longer a backwater town on the west side of the Spring Mountains. With a population of almost 30,000, it's time we had better access to the forest, too. Write to Mark Waite at mwaite@pvtimes.com. |
