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This page last updated on 08/20/2019
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Park Description: Cathedral Gorge State Park is a public recreation and nature preserve area featuring a gorge eroded through soft bentonite clay near Panaca, Nevada. In 1935 it was established as one of the four original Nevada state parks. The park sits at an elevation of 4,800 feet above sea level, and is typically arid with semi-hot summers, and very cold winters. The state park covers more than 1,600 acres along U.S. Route 93. Refer to (Ref. A - the boundary map on the right). A majority of Meadow Valley was covered by a freshwater lake nearly 1 million years ago during the Pliocene Era. The richly colored canyons of Cathedral Gorge (seen in Fig. 01 above) are remnants of this ancient lake-bed. Over centuries, the lake began to gradually drain. Erosion began working away at the exposed portions of sediment and gravel that once composed the lake bottom. Rainwater and melting snow carved rivulets in the soft siltstone and clay shale, splitting tiny cracks and fissures into larger and larger gullies, caves and canyons.
The campground has 22 sites, each with a table, grill and shade ramada (refer to Ref. B). Electric hookups are also available. Sites cannot be reserved. Water and flush restrooms with showers are open year-around. Facilities adjacent to the campground offer large shade ramadas, grills, picnic tables and water. There are two handicapped-accessible campsites at the group area that also have a restroom with flush toilets and showers. Camping is limited to 14 days in a 30-day period. There is a day use picnic area opposite the Cathedral Caves with a large shade ramada and picnic tables. The remote portions of the park are accessible via a four-mile loop trail. Another one-mile trail connects the Miller Point overlook to the picnic area.
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Directions: From Las Vegas, take I-15 north towards Salt Lake City. Travel about 22 miles and turn left onto US-93. Follow US-93 for 143 miles, just past Panaca, and turn left into Cathedral Gorge State Park. Cathedral Gorge is located 15 miles north of Callente, one mile north of the intersection of US-93 and SR-319.
08/20/2019 Trip Notes: On the return of a recent trip to Pioche, Nevada, with Bob Croke, Jim Herring and Ron Ziance, I took them to visit Cathedral Gorge for my third time to capture a few more pictures. I find the unique geology of this park to be so fascinating and always worth a stop. They really enjoyed. Click here for pictures and a description of this visit ... Cathedral Gorge State Park - 08/20/2019 Visit Notes.
10/18/2017 Trip Notes: On the return of a recent trip to Pioche, Nevada, Harvey Smith and I decided to visit Cathedral Gorge for a second time to capture a few more pictures. I find the unique geology of this park to be fascinating and always worth a stop. Click here for pictures and a description of this visit ... Cathedral Gorge State Park - Trip Notes for 10/18/2017.
06/19/2012 Trip Notes: During a week-long camping trip with Harvey Smith to Spring Valley State Park, north of Pioche, NV, we made a side trip to Cathedral Gorge State Park. The ‘moonscape’ like geology in this park is some of the most unique I have ever seen. Its spires and buff-colored cliffs are the result of geologic processes occurring over tens of millions of years. Explosive volcanic activity deposited layers of ash hundreds of feet thick. About five million years after the eruptions ceased, block faulting, a fracture in the bedrock that allows the two sides to move opposite each other, formed a depression, now known as Meadow Valley. Over time, the depression filled with water creating a huge freshwater lake. Continual rains eroded the exposed ash and pumice left from the volcanic activity, and the streams carried the eroded sediment into the newly formed lake. The formations one sees today, made of silt, clay and volcanic ash, are the remnants of that lake. As the landscape changed and more block faulting occurred, water drained from the lake exposing the volcanic ash sediments to the wind and rain, causing erosion of the soft material called bentonite clay, leaving the unique landscape you see today.
The Miller Point Scenic Overlook (shown below) is located just north of the park’s main entrance on U.S. 93, and provides outstanding views of the scenic canyon with a short .5-mile trail that leads to Eagle View (Fig. 02), and eventually all the way down to the very bottom of the canyon. Fig 01 (above), provides a view from the Eagle View Trail at what almost appears to be hand-carved temple spires along the eastern side of the canyon.
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A short drive from the Regional Visitor Center, will take you to an area known as ‘the Caves’. On your left (west), along the edge of the valley you will find rabbit brush, primrose and Indian rice-grass holding small sand dunes in place along the roadsides and walkways (Fig. 03). In the middle of the relatively green valley (Fig. 04) clay, sand and gravel create a soil favored by narrow leaf yucca, juniper trees, barberry sagebrush, greasewood, white sage, shade scale and four-winged saltbush.
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On your right, east, you are confronted with an almost ‘moon-like’ landscape (Fig. 05) of towering cathedral-like spires stretching more than a hundred feet towards the sky. Millions of years of erosion have created several paths the lead 40-50 feet into cave-like areas deep within the cliff-side, the deeply shaded areas in (Fig. 05). Entering and walking through these areas provide you with an awe inspiring experience as evidenced by (Figs. 06, 07, and 08).
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Clicking the picture-link below will open OneDrive in a new window and a folder containing 21 pictures taken of trip to Cathedral Gorge State Park. To view the show, click on the first picture in the folder and you will get the following menu bar:
Clicking the "Play slide show" will play a fullscreen window of the slide show.
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