NEVADA

Hiking with your dog has a different meaning in Nevada. 48 million acres - more land than 32 states can claim - is our land, stewarded for us by the Bureau of Land Management. As the BLM likes to say, “Access to wide open spaces is in the fiber of Nevada history.” So you can hop in a four-wheel drive vehicle with your dog and go make your own trail in 2/3 of the Silver State. Feel like a mountain climb? Nevada has more mountain ranges and more peaks with over 2,000 feet of prominence than any other state outside Alaska. Time for a desert experience? The Black Rock Desert Wilderness in the remains of a prehistoric lake is one of the larges protected desert playas in the country. You get the idea - wide open spaces for you and your dog. Great Basin National Park is the main big space off-limits to dogs. The epic The 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail visits two states, six counties, three national forests, state parkland and three wilderness areas. The tail-friendly footpath stands as one of the largest volunteer projects ever completed in the United States. Lake Tahoe itself is one of the world’s largest alpine lakes. The glacial water is so clear - 97% pure - that if your dog fumbled a meat bone over the edge of a boat you could watch it drop for 70 feet on its way to the 1,645-foot bottom of the lake. The state rock, sandstone, is on best display for your dog in dazzling red formations in the Valley of Fire State Park and the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area around Las Vegas.

The Best Day Hike You Can Take With Your Dog In Nevada

Fire Wave Trail
Valley of Fire State Park • Overton

The red sandstone formations here look as if they actually melted and cooled in place. An American Automobile Club representative traveling on a primitive road through the area in the 1920s gave the valley its name. In 1934 it was a no-brainer to make the Valley of Fire Nevada’s first state park. Seaman will have fun on the fine redsand and rock face trails across some 40,000 acres when the sun is not blazing overhead.

There are nine shortish trails leading into the desert rocks from the parking lots along the park’s White Domes Road scenic drive. The go-to hike is the Fire Wave Trail that travels around a red rock wall and onto undulating rock hills of reds and yellows and pinks. As you cross this rock color palette there is a suggested trail marked by cairns but really the entire desert landscape is open and beckoning to Seaman. The out-and-back adventure concludes after 1.2 miles at an ice cream shop of swirling scoop-like confections.

The nearby White Domes Loop Trail offers both contrasting colors to the red rocks and a dab of cinematic history. Star Trek fans will no doubt recognize these Fire Canyon rocks. Lee Marvin also led his crew of hard-edged adventurers here to rescue a kidnapped Claudia Cardinale in the 1966 western, The Professionals. Some stone ruins from the movie are still in the rocks. The one-mile circuit also travels through a short slot canyon.

HIKING TIME: 1-2 hours

(from the book 300 Day Hikes To Take With Your Dog Before He Tires You Out: Trails where you won’t be able to wipe the wag off your dog’s tail)