January 31st, 2026
A highlight this winter has been discovering this trailhead, which is pretty much across the street from an overland trail that I had taken the dogs with Sosa several times, enjoying the sloping canyons and miles of open walking terrain that's hidden behind the small industrial "suburb" of Lockwood.
Unlike the overlanding area, this trail has easy access to water, following the Long Valley Creek what seems like 10+ miles. Sosa and I have only seen the first mile or so with each dog walk, but even that is already a great experience.
The dogs greatly appreciated easy access to drinking water and a place to cool down, given that even January was warm for Northern Nevada.
Short of the mile mark, there's a choice to follow the creek to head up the ridge. From here, you can enjoy views of the rolling mountains of what I believe is called the Curnow range extends along the north end of I-80, though getting up and close with that area is just heading into what feels like an endless range of mining operations.
Similarly, across the Long Valley Creek from our ridge is a mining company that appears to have blown off the top Washington Hill to extract who knows what. Maybe I saw copper, or maybe I'm making that up in my head.
At the end of this trail is supposed to be the Lagomasino Canyon Petroglyphs, which I haven't yet gotten to, but will enjoy exploring likely later this year.
The highlight of this miniature canyon trail are the plateaus and outcroppings that give so much character to the trail
I find the trail systems behind Lockwood fascinating because it's only 5-10 miles south before you start encroaching on the northern ranch suburbs of Virginia City. Where this trail feels like it's going into a remote pocket of outer Reno, in reality, OHV trail systems effortlessly connect between Lockwood and Virginia City, turning the wilderness of the Virginia Range mountains into a playground of 2-stroke and 4-cylinder engines.
Luckily, Long Valley Creek trailhead appears exclusive to horse riders and hikers, providing a small haven from UTVs barreling down rocky trails.
Our goal is always to find places for the dogs to run free. They're not particularly well-trained to come back immediately, so we know that if others are on the trail, we'll keep them on leash. We cut our walk a bit short when we saw a few other hikers with their dog in the distance, so we didn't have as much opportunity to look down the canyon into the creek.
I'll be posting another series of photos for when I took just Lil D down the lower path along the creek.
Reno continues to grow, and I'll accept that little-used trails like this will become more and more popular as the city expands into the hills, as Tesla and Panasonic and mega-warehouse distributors pull people into small towns like Fernley and Lockwood to skip the bumper-to-bumper traffic caused by the incredulous small artery of the I-80 that connects Reno/Sparks to these huge corporations.
But during my weekday travels to the remote pockets surrounding a developing city, I have great appreciation for the amount of freedom one can have in the high desert. Where the troubles of city life so quickly transforms into the near-silence of a desolate and beautiful scenery.
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