CARSON CITY — The opening of the new Kings Canyon/Waterfall Trailhead will be celebrated Wednesday, June 24, at 8:30 a.m.
The trailhead is located at the west end of Kings Street in Carson City, Nev. It 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 among federal, state and local agencies.
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.
Visitor use has increased since the completion of a new family-friendly trail to the Kings Canyon waterfall, which, officials say, is compromising water quality.
In the spring of 2014, Carson City Public Works asked for help from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection to formalize the trailhead and trails, install water quality improvements and provide public education about the importance of the creek to the City’s drinking water supplies.
According to the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources:
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 of 2015.
