by John C. Evanoff
March, 2005
Northern Nevada is full of some
of the most extraordinary geography in the world and nowhere is
that more true than the high desert body of water called Pyramid
Lake. Just thirty minutes north of Reno on State Highway 445, driving
through Spanish Springs Valley and then Palomino Valley, you come
to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Indian Reservation. The dark tan sagebrush
encrusted mountainsides along the way parade against the glorious
Nevada blue skies as bastions for a host of wildlife including mountain
goat, bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, mountain lion,
sage grouse, red hawk, peregrine falcon and golden eagle. A little
more than half the way to Pyramid, you might stop and visit the
Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse corrals where as many as a
thousand wild mustang and burrows can be viewed. It’s not
very often you get a chance to see this many wild horses in one
place. Further along on the left, you will drive by some unusual
black monoliths. These are lava columns left from volcanoes whose
outer husks were worn away by weather and water on the eastern edge
of Tule Mountain. In fact, many of the table top mountains you see
along the way are left over islands from a vast inland endorheic
(watershed) lake called Lahontan. Thirteen thousand years ago, it
spread over most of northwestern Nevada, almost eight thousand square
miles at its crest. This lake was the result of melt from giant
ice sheets a mile or more deep during the last ice ages advancing
into North America. Then, it warmed up and about nine thousand years
ago, only a few remnants remained, one being Pyramid Lake.
Further down the road, you will
drive over a small rise just past a small store on your left. At
the top, slow down. The view leaps upon your eyes from north to
south a fifteen mile long and west to east eleven mile wide expanse
of majestically blue-green water. No forest or fields; just three
huge sagebrush covered mountain ranges surrounding an awe-inspiring
splash of different hues of blue more than three hundred fifty feet
deep. Stop just on the other side of the hill at the rest stop on
the right overlooking the lake and get out of the car and take it
all in. This is a magical canvas of shadows and vastness, and you
feel like you’re looking at ethereal elements materializing
into an abstract painting of some optical illusion or mirage. There
is a sign there giving you more information about the lake. Along
the mountain sides across the lake, you can see the shore lines
of ancient Lake Lahontan, the highest and most jagged beaches, being
as much as three thousand feet above the current water level. In
the winter of 1844, Captain John C. Fremont, a band of volunteers
and his trusty guide, Kit Carson, came across the hills north of
the lake from your far left and were the first white men to see
this body of water. John and Kit tasted the water but found it to
be somewhat saline. Fremont was mapping the area for the government’s
great expansion westward. With much trepidation, he traversed the
cliffs now called Hell’s Kitchen along the northeast side
and rested on a beach a couple days later overlooking a rock protruding
from the water that reminded him of the great pyramid of Giza in
Egypt. So, he decided to name the body of water Pyramid Lake. The
Pyramid Rock is an immense tufa formation built from calcium carbonate
and sediment welling up from hot water vents below. Many of these
rocks can be found along the shores and roads lead to some of them
for easy examination. You will see signs along the main road that
point the way to some of them including Castle Rock, Indian Head
and Popcorn. There are also many curious names of the beaches and
points including Windless, LA Rock, Spider, Wino, Willows, Blockhouse,
Rawhide, Cattle Guard, and Dago to name a few. Fremont met a friendly
and thriving people at the south end of the lake near the present
settlement of Nixon and was amazed at the size of the fish they
fed him and his men next to the Truckee River that flowed into the
lake. These were the Pyramid Lake Paiute Indians, very resourceful
fishermen and hunters who have lived in the area for thousands of
years. Caves high above the water’s edge have been excavated
by archeologists and attest to ancient man traversing and living
along the shores of Pyramid Lake for more than nine thousand years.
If you travel north on SR445 to
Sutcliffe, a small village next to the lake, you should stop at
the visitor center. The center has a small but interesting exhibit
about the Indians and the history of the lake. Also, stop by Crosby’s
Lodge to check out the walls of pictures and mounted Lahontan Cutthroat
Trout. The world renowned trophy sized cutthroat trout are caught
at Pyramid Lake between October 1st and June 30th. Summer is closed
to fishing for the cutthroat trout to allow the fish to grow. The
original Pyramid Lake Lahontan Cutthroat is no longer in existence
but a species very near it that comes from a body of water that
once was part of ancient Lake Lahontan is fairing extremely well
in the lake. In recent years, fly fishermen from around the globe
have traveled to the area to fish for these hard fighting and truly
beautiful fish. Throughout the winter, you can go to the beaches
below Sutcliffe and see as many as a hundred fishermen standing
on ladders and whipping the lake with their weight forward lines
in hopes of catching trophy sized fish. The fishing license is only
seven dollars per day or fifty dollars per season. Boaters and lure
fishermen also do well at the lake. Boaters must pay an additional
fee. Boat docks are situated at Sutcliffe, Warrior Point, Pelican
Point and Popcorn Rock. Camping is allowed and costs nine dollars
per day.
Bait fishing is not allowed because
of a regulated size slot limit. Only flies and lures are allowed.
You may only keep two fish and only in the order I outline here.
Two can be kept between sixteen and nineteen inches or one can be
kept between sixteen and nineteen inches and the other one more
than twenty-four inches. Only one fish can be kept over twenty-four
inches. All other fish must be released back into the lake. Be sure
to be careful with the fish that you release back into the water
so they may grow to the sizes most appreciated by fishermen of these
stout and colorful land locked salmon family trout. If you catch
a fish over ten pounds, you can register it with the State of Nevada
Fish and Game Department to receive a trophy fish certificate. You
can also drop by Crosby’s Lodge or the Visitor Center to have
them take a picture of it and put it on the walls there. Just recently,
in February of 2005, a twenty-four pound cutthroat was caught by
a fly fisherman at the “nets” near Sutcliffe using a
dark colored fly called a wooly bugger or wooly worm. The fly imitates
the large dragon fly nymph prevalent to this high desert water.
The largest Lahontan Cutthroat trout caught at the lake and still
the world record was forty-one pounds, caught in 1938, but that
was the original Pyramid Lake Lahontan Cutthroat. Still, the fish
here grow very large and the Indians believe that one day, fishermen
will catch thirty pound trout again. Lure fishermen also do well
using large multi-colored spoons imitating the tui chub and cui-ui
that also live in the lake. The cui-ui, a bottom sucker fish noted
as a living fossil left over from eons ago, is an endangered species
and protected by the Indians and the government. It is currently
being revived and in the spring, you can sometimes see hundreds
of them (most more than five pounds each) at the Truckee River inlet
trying to make their way up to spawn. The tui chub is a bottom white
fish that grows to two pounds and during the summer can be seen
in schools of thousands along the banks of the lake. I’ve
caught a half dozen cutthroat over ten pounds, the biggest being
thirteen pounds, on flies and lures. But I’ve also caught
thousands of one to eight pound fish and carefully released them
back into the lake after perhaps snapping a picture to remind me
of their stunning appearance and colors. When I was young, my father
and I used to catch Steelhead, Sacramento Perch, Cutbows and Bowcuts
all around the lake when the Nevada Fish and Game Department tried
to restock it with anything that could handle the alkalinity. All
the experimental game fish died off except for the Sacramento Perch,
which can still be fished off the rocky points in the warmer months
with floating poppers and flies. Speaking of warmer months, summertime
brings a host of activities. Many people in the region love Pyramid
for it’s warm almost tropical feel in July and August and
thousands of them water ski, boat, swim and enjoy other water sports
throughout the hottest days. A beach picnic with friends and family
is a must at least once a summer at Pyramid.
Looking north from Sutcliffe, you
can see needle rocks sticking up out of the water. These are more
tufa formations that stand as much as a hundred feet high. To the
right of them, Fox Bay extends for some seven miles to the cliffs
of Hells Kitchen and Anderson Bay. This entire area is sealed off
from off-roaders to protect the hot springs and unusual structures
there. In the middle of the lake sits Anahoe Island, the largest
tufa formation on the lake, which is home to one of the country’s
largest colonies of American White Pelicans. In the late spring,
flocks of pelicans, seagulls, loons, double-crested cormorants,
egret, ibis, grebes and other waterfowl, begin to migrate to Pyramid
Lake to take advantage of the vast amounts of food and the island’s
protection from man and animals. Bird watchers love to visit the
area in the summer to view all of them nesting and feeding, but
the island is protected and you are not allowed to land on it. It
might not be such a good idea anyway because there is a large population
of rattlesnakes that inhabit the island also. One of the most magnificent
experiences you can view is the fall flights of young pelicans all
along the shores. In some flights, you may see as many as two hundred
pelicans in enormous lines skimming the top of the water from Anahoe
Island all the way south to where the river runs into the lake.
Traveling south on SR446, you will
drive past Popcorn Rock, the Truckee river inlet and come to the
junction of SR447. Just a few hundred yards prior to the junction
on the left just past the Pyramid Lake High School is the Pyramid
Lake Museum. You can spend an hour or two examining and studying
the exhibits there including the story of the Pyramid Lake Paiute
Tribe and the many events that make this area and the people that
inhabited it, historically inspiring. One of those stories concern
the legend of the Stone Mother which I write more about a little
later. After you take a left at the junction and proceed north on
SR447 in the direction of Gerlach, you will cross the Truckee River
and pass through the town of Nixon. Nixon is a settlement very near
where Fremont first met the Indians at the south end of the lake
and it is the cultural and government center for the reservation.
Further down the road around a corner at Marble Bluff, another tufa
formation, gives you a wonderful view of the west side of the lake.
At one time, there was a slough from the Truckee River and Pyramid
Lake that flowed to Winnemucca Lake east of the lake. Winnemucca
Lake dried up in the 1930’s because of the construction of
Derby Dam diverting water to Fallon and Fernley and heavy upstream
water use by Sparks and Reno. If you go a bit further past the sand
dune hills and Duck Pass, you will reach a turnoff to the left that
you can drive all the way to the Pyramid rock. Although, you could
take a two wheel car, it would be better if you had a SUV or four
wheel drive truck or van to make the trip. It takes about thirty
carefully driven minutes. There are plenty of places to stop and
take pictures but the bay close to the Pyramid holds the most notable
views and camera shots. From this vantage point, you can see across
the lake to Tule Mountain on the right and Monte Cristo on the left.
You can also better see the old western shores high on the hillsides
of this once much larger body of water. Since you are closer to
Anahoe Island, you may also see much more bird life. Around the
bay, you will see many tufa rocks and one called the Stone Mother,
a large tufa outcrop shaped like an Indian Mother with a basket
at her side. The story of this unusual tufa rock is a fascinating
legend passed down through the ages in tribal folklore and can be
read at this website: http://www.pyramidlake.us/index.html under
the heading Stone Mother.
I’ve known many of the Pyramid
Lake Indian families throughout my life and have fond memories of
many of my friends and fishing buddies over the last six decades
there. I even lived at the lake in a trailer at Sutcliffe in 1987-88
with my wife between homes in Reno. The area around the lake is
perfect for hiking and sightseeing. There are many roads and trails
to discover and the views are always awesome. Take a picnic basket
and enjoy the trip. Stay on the roads, be safe and always have fun.
It doesn’t matter how many times you visit, because of the
seasons, the sky, the water and weather, Pyramid Lake looks different
every time.
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