Checking out Panaca's Multi-Use Trail

Snake Valley Trail Partnership is working on developing more trails, including a paved one-mile long multi-use trail in Baker, Nevada.  To learn more about this type of trail, I visited the two-mile long paved multi-use trail near Panaca, Nevada. It starts at the entrance to Cathedral Gorge State Park (above).

Here's the view looking north towards the state park. Folks reaching this part of the trail can then enter the state park and get to the visitor center easily.

Continuing south, the wide trail veers closer to Highway 93 to cross a culvert.

Here's a closer look at their culvert extension.

A Pedestrian crossing sign announces that the trail crosses the highway. It's a 45 mph zone here.

The multi-use trail has stop signs for the users.

Then the trail continues on the other side, getting close to the highway again for another culvert crossing. 

At about the one-mile mark, it reaches the intersection of Nevada Highway 319 and US Highway 93. The pedestrian crossing marks have mostly worn off on NV Highway 319. This trail was put in about 10 years ago.


Here's a view of the trail along Highway 319 looking west towards the intersection and the gas station that's on the other side. For this culvert, they were instructed to do a dip, so when the Panaca spring is drained, this portion of the trail is inundated.

Continuing east along Highway 93, the trail is often far from the highway, but gets closer for another culvert crossing.

I called one of the trail sponsors to learn more about how it came about and how they maintain it. He said they had gotten a grant with an 80:20 match. They had had no problem raising the match. It had cost about the same as our one-mile paved project, in the $700,000 range. They had done nothing to maintain it except sweeping gravel off it and spraying weeds along it.

As I went along the trail, I found that there were sections with some gravel on it, but otherwise it looked great.

The most damage was where this driveway crossed it and it looked like something heavy had been dragged across.


My liaison also mentioned how it got used frequently. I'm certain ours would be also, especially by kids who want a place to rollerblade or bike ride, and those who want to go on a stroll and not worry about dodging traffic.

Hopefully we'll be able to get started on the Baker Multi-Use Trail soon and have a success story like Panaca!