Waterfall is like an oasis in the desert

Kings Canyon Waterfall - This is a real treat, especially in this hot weather. Just head west on Kings Canyon (street in town starting at Curry and changing to Road after you cross Ormsby) until you run out of paved road. At the very west end of Kings Canyon Road you will find a small parking area.

From here you have two options, facing the mountains to the left is the old Lincoln Highway. Yep, this was the road up to Spooner Summit before Highway 50 and even before Old Highway 50 (Clear Creek Road). But we'll discuss this route next time.

For this week, we'll take to road to the right. First take a few minutes to check out the historical marker a few feet east on the south side of Kings Canyon Road. It gives a brief description of inhabitants of this area from the American Indians who used this area as access to the lake to the Borda family, who donated this area to Carson City to be maintained as an open space. Thanks to them, we can all enjoy this unique and beautiful area.

Return to the gate on the right at the end of the road. Take the time to pay homage to the firefighters who lost their lives fighting one of the many fires in this area in 1976. We happened to do this hike on the fifth anniversary of the last fire, the Waterfall fire.

Walk around the gate and start up the dirt road. Shortly you'll start to hear the waterfall and as the creek crosses under the road you will feel the temperature drop as much as 10 degrees.

At this point you will leave the road and start up a narrow trail on the left. A word of warning here, this is a pretty rough trail with some sections being more of a rock scramble, so be careful.

Overall it's not going to amount to even one-half of a mile before you will find the waterfall. When we reached the fall, there was far more water than I had anticipated.

What a pleasant surprise to find a fern- and moss-draped waterfall here in an area that is considered a desert.

Once you return to the dirt road, you can either go back to your car or continue on the dirt road that will take you up the hill.

From there we found a trail that starts above the waterfall and leads back into and up the canyon. That's one that will have to wait for another day to explore.

There was a nice article in the Appeal about a year ago about this area and it's worth taking a look at: www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20081109/NEWS/811099993/-1/rss01.

If you are interested in joining some of our walks, feel free to contact me.

• Donna Inversin is walk leader for Muscle-Powered (www.musclepowered.org) and co-chairwoman for special events for We Can. She can be reached at (775) 315-6763.