Hiking Winnemucca Mountain
Wendover, UT to Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge, NV | California Trail Interpretive Center | Hiking & Camping on Winnemucca Mountain | Hiking & Camping in Virgin Valley, NV | November 2025
After our extended stay in the Silver Island Mountains on the Nevada/Utah border, we felt sufficiently recuperated from our long haul drive and felt it time to continue further West. We returned back to I-80 and officially crossed into Nevada (despite sleeping within walking distance of the border we had never bothered to walk that way). There’s probably a lot of more scenic roads and drives and spots through Nevada, but I-80 is still pretty scenic. Most of the campsites and outdoor areas in the mountains here were already closed for the season, so if we ever make it back here in the right season, we have plenty of ideas for what to do.
For today’s drive, we went from Wendover, UT to Winnemucca, NV. We made one stop on our way: an impulse stop at the California Trail Interpretive Center right off the interstate. We were skeptical if it would be open considering that the government had only *just* reopened. But to our surprise it was open and staffed (at least with a volunteer).
This interpretative center is located near where the California trail meets the Humboldt river (later in the trip we ran into more ‘Humboldt’ named things, and looked up who Humboldt was, and honestly I’m surprised we’ve never heard of Alexander von Humboldt). The old trail follows this river to its ‘sink’ since the water never makes it to an ocean. After which, the travelers would make their way to the Lake Tahoe or Pyarmid Lake area before crossing the Sierra Nevada.
We learned a lot from the center and found it really informative. It talked about some of the first travelers to blaze the trail, the Donner-Reed Party and their tribulations, and just the trials the trail entailed. One of the things that we reflected on that wasn’t covered by the center was the fact that people traveled the trail and experienced its trials into the 1850’s and 60s, but then the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. What sort of psychological shift must have occurred in California or Oregon when that happened. Survivors of the Donner-Reed party would be able to travel back East with ease twenty years after their ordeal. And now we follow I-80 faster than ever before, never having Seen the Elephant. One of our last takeaways from this spot was a quote from Henry David Thoreau: “Eastward I go only by force, Westward I go free.” Our thoughts exactly!
We finished our driving today in the town of Winnemucca. In town, we stopped for groceries at Grocery Outlet, which is easily becoming one of our favorite budget grocery store in these areas where we don’t have Aldi. We then left the interstate behind and headed North out of town.
We found boondocking along the road to Winnemucca Mountain, which overlooks the town. By the time we settled the van in, there were still a couple hours of daylight left to walk the rest of the road to the peak. It was probably more walking than we bargained for and the van could have probably made it easily, but it felt good to get a little exercise in after our drive. The summit is covered in telecommunications towers, but there’s still plenty of spots with unobstructed views across the Humboldt valley and to the surrounding ranges.
That evening as we settled in, we saw that there was another strong possibility of Northern Lights. The sky was more clear than the day before as well. Sure enough, we could just make out the reds and greens to the North. Definitely not as vivid as New Mexico had been, but still another successful Aurora Borealis.
As we were driving back down the mountain the next morning, we spotted a new wildlife creature for this trip: a badger! Today was another driving day through some of the most remote highways we’ve taken. They say the loneliest road is in Nevada: a section of US-50 100 miles east of Reno. But when you make anything a superlative, we think it attracts more people, which automatically makes it NOT the loneliest. So we’re saying that the stretch of highway we drove today was the loneliest, at least until we get to drive that section of US-50 and see for ourselves.
We followed US-95 North out of Winnemucca and then NV-140 through the Northwest corner of the state. The mountains and basins stretched for miles as we cut across them. Part of me wishes that we could take our time to explore each one, but another part of me knows that to be ridiculous. We had no reception, and no idea of any official campsites or trails out here.
We ended our drive at a place we had never heard of until the day before when we found it as a recommended campsite. In the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge, we found the Virgin Valley Campground, a free and established campground. After we arrived and claimed a spot, we took a walk down to the Virgin River where it enters a canyon. It reminded us very much of where the Yampa River enters into Dinosaur National Monument.
Now, one of the reasons we chose this campground over others in the NWR was the possibility of showers. We were skeptical when we saw the listing offered free showers because we figured the water would be turned off. It wasn’t until we pulled in and saw the steaming pool that we realized that we were at a hot spring. Normally, we are not necessarily hot spring types of people. In our limited experience, they are either commercialized or trashed. But friends, this spot was pristine.
After a true shower in the shower house (fed by the hot springs of course), we donned our bathing suits and immersed ourselves in the pool of pleasantly warm water. The water was clear and when we stepped along the bottom, little soda streams of warmer water would bubble up. We stayed in the pool until almost sundown when we figured the cold night air would only get worse.
Once we were clean, we got cozy in the van for the night. If only we had reception, we would have considered staying here even longer. But it was definitely worth it for the night, and now we have a new favorite spot to come back to should we ever have the opportunity to drive these roads again.
