Trout Canyon and Lovell Summit Road

{Click on an image to enlarge, then use the back button to return to this page}

This page last updated on 02/09/2019

Side Note - Fire As of 07/18/2013: As of today it has been reported that the fire is 93% contained, up from Monday’s containment figure of 80 percent. This is mostly due to some heavy monsoon rains. The active fire edge is south of State Route 157 and east of Rainbow, and may be several days before that section of the fire line is fully secured. There is also active fire above the Cathedral Rock area, where the terrain is too steep to safely access. That section will be allowed to smolder until rain extinguishes it. On yesterday’s ride, we could still see shouldering areas in the mountains above the small village of Trout Canyon. We observed helicopters (right) flying from the Pahrump staging area carrying supplies and water over the mountain ridge to the east. “Two problem spots remain — one above the west side of Kyle Canyon and the other in the southeast portion of the fire swath, not far from Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. The area to the north of the western Kyle Canyon is extremely steep terrain and, as a result, inaccessible to firefighters. It’s going to be a waiting game.” It was noted that,”We’re going to have smoke in there for some time higher up — quite high up.” Refer to my page on the updates to the fire ... Carpenter 1 (Canyon) Fire.

(Fig. 01)

(Fig. 02)

07/17/2013 Trip Notes: Today Harvey Smith and I started out by driving up the 11-mile Carpenter Canyon Road (Fig. 01). After about 8 miles, about three miles short of the canyon, we had to abandon our trip due to a non-passable area in the road, refer to (Fig. 02). From here we backtracked back to Pahrump and took NV-160 east to Trout Canyon Road. We followed this well graded dirt road for about 8 miles up and across the desert (Fig. 03) before finally reaching the small village of Trout Canyon (Fig. 04). Shortly after entering the access road to the village, we came upon a local property owner (Fig. 05) who offered to escort us to his family’s 6-acre property, called “Scenic Areas” (Fig. 06), located on the north western edge of town so we could take some pictures of the surrounding fire damage. Standing and talking with him in the backyard (Fig. 08) and looking at the areas along the edge of his property, where the firefighters had dropped “fire retardant”, it became obvious how lucky he and his family had been. There were places where the fire came within 40-feet of his property line. Looking beyond his gardens and 128 fruit trees (Fig. 09), the entire area to the top of the distant ridge line was burned black. Every thing you see in (Fig. 09 & 10) was burned. We learned that the community’s water pipeline — made of PVC piping at the spring head and shell casings coming three miles downhill from Deer Springs, had sustained 18 breaks, meaning that the entire town was without water. It was his hope that officials would soon approve a temporary pipeline, hopefully to be installed before he lost all of his trees and gardens. (Notes continued below)

(Fig. 03)

(Fig. 04)

(Fig. 05)

(Fig. 06)

(Fig. 07)

(Fig. 08)

(Fig. 09)

(Fig. 10)

After taking pictures here, we drove a couple of miles back down Trout Canyon Road to the entrance of Lovell Summit Road. This 10 mile long road, connects to the northern end of Lovell Canyon Road, near the Torino Ranch. Refer to the map in (Fig. 02). This well traveled dirt road led us in and around several mountains and valleys that provided some beautiful scenic views. About 2/3 of the way along this road, we were quite surprised to find a beautiful green valley (Fig. 11) that contained a large ranch and nearly a dozen homes and dwellings, all marked, “Private Property”. Upon reaching the highest point of this road (Lovell Peak), we were confronted with an expansive view (Fig. 12) that looked down into Lovell Canyon. Notice the large black area just to the right of center – this was the “burn area” for the fire that was in Lovell Canyon. After we reached this area and got out to take pictures, I realized that I had once hiked to this exact spot with my friend Buster. In fact, we hike a stream that ran down the wash you can see snaking its way down the center of the picture in (Fig. 13). The two pictures in (Figs. 14 & 15) are looking east (Left) and west (right) along the burn area. This burn area follows the road three-quarters of the way down the road to the Lovell Canyon Trailhead parking area. I don't know how this fire was put out, either by the rangers or the rain that we had last weekend, but am so glad that it didn't spread any further. Over the years we have really enjoyed hiking in this area.

(Fig. 11)

(Fig. 12)

(Fig. 13)

(Fig. 14)	(Fig. 15)
(Fig. 16)	(Fig. 17)

Go backto ... Lovell Canyon and the SMNRA - Summary Page