Carson City trail network to be dedicated

The official opening of the Kings Canyon/Waterfall Trailhead will be celebrated June 24 at 8:30am.

Located at the western end of Kings Street, the facility on Carson City Open Space and U.S. Forest Service  land provides multi-use road and trail access for off highway vehicles, bikes, hikers and equestrians. The trailhead also features a newly refurbished Fireman Memorial that honors the three firefighters who lost their lives battling the 1976 King Fire.

The new trails, kiosk and memorial are the result of a collaboration of federal, state and local agencies working together to enhance recreational access while improving safety and water  quality.

The waterfall area has become an extremely popular recreation area in Carson City.  A new trail was built in 2010, and a few years later, the Great Basin Institute AmeriCorps program, in collaboration with the USFS, added an additional trail loop for the hiking public from the waterfall trailhead.

In the spring of 2014, Carson City Public Works requested assistance from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection to formalize the trailhead and trails, install water quality improvements and provide public education regarding the importance of the creek to the city’s drinking water supplies.

Great Basin Institute AmeriCorps provided hundreds of hours of volunteer labor and contracted hundreds of hours of trail crew time to construct the trail and build the erosion control enhancements. NDEP provided funding for the kiosk panel, fencing to assist in guiding the users, signage on the trail and timber materials to improve and stabilize the slopes.  The U.S. Forest Service’s Carson Ranger District provided pavers to enhance the trailhead to better present the Memorial and interpretive theme. The Nevada Division of Forestry (NDF) provided many hours of conservation crew time to construct the trailhead and place the two kiosks, completing the trailhead in May.