Wheeler Pass: On the Road Before Dawn

You've got to get up early to get the best of Wheeler Pass Road. Preferably well before daylight. Hitting U.S. Highway 95 at about 4:30 a.m., in midsummer, put us on the eastern end of this scenic and uncrowded drive just as dawn broke on the Nevada State Prison at Indian Springs, some 40 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The sun was still low and behind us, good for photography, as we turned west, a few yards past the prison, onto the paved road toward the tiny community of Cold Creek.

That hard surface ended 13.1 miles later as we turned right on a U.S. Forest Service road toward the Willow Springs Campground.

Our first wild horse of the trip appeared even before the turnoff, and our first cottontail rabbits bounced across the road a mile after it. Wildlife experts estimate there are 200 to 250 elk in the area. "I've seen golden eagles about halfway to the village of Cold Creek," said Forest Service Ranger Lee Nelson recently. There are also chukar, and mule deer." Butterflies like the well-watered areas around Cold Creek, and seven species are found only in the Spring Mountains. ...