It’s pretty clear that Sydney Martinez has a special relationship with the state of Nevada. As the former lead writer/photographer for Travel Nevada, the state’s tourism promotion agency, she spent about a decade traveling and photographing nearly every community in the state.
That experience not only instilled in her a deep appreciation of the Silver State, but a thirst to explore as many as possible of the thousands of dirt roads, trails, and paths that spread across the wide Nevada landscape.
For the past several years, Martinez, who graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno with a degree in journalism and minor in photography, has scratched that Nevada itch, traveling all over the state with her husband, Jonathan, and faithful dog, Elko.
Many of their adventures have appeared on her blog, FindingNevadaWild.com, as well as on her periodic Legends of Lost Nevada podcast.
Most recently, however, the enterprising Martinez, who is also a gifted jewelry designer (under the brand name Song Dog Silver, also sold on her website) has expanded her reach into a new venture, a beautifully-illustrated hardcover book titled “Finding Nevada Wild: The Terrain, Culture, and People of the Most Mysterious State in the West.”
Published by Schiffer Publishing, the 320-page book is a visual treat with hundreds (or so it seems) of color photographs enhanced by Martinez’s enthusiastic prose.
The book is not so much a guide book—although there is useful how-to information about being properly prepared before traveling on the state’s remote backroads—as it is a celebration of all the things that Martinez loves about Nevada.
For instance, a chapter titled, “Sounds from the Sage,” addresses the beauty in heading out into the state’s wide-open landscapes and simply listening.
“Just like the way you can see millions of stars amid true darkness, being out in Nevada’s isolated terrain affords some of the darkest, quietest experiences a person can have in the lower 48 states,” she writes. “There, you can really hear the way the world sounds.”
Another chapter, “Hot Water,” seems to be a topic close to Martinez’s heart. She writes that searching for hot springs in the state’s outback is where she began her love affair with Nevada. “This is the place where it all started—where I found myself, and Nevada found me,” she says.
Her chapter, “Great Drives,” is particularly fun, describing spectacular paved-road journeys, such as those through Lamoille Canyon near Elko, Rainbow Canyon in Lincoln County and the Valley of Fire Scenic Byway near Overton.
She also describes several more rustic drives on roads that aren’t paved, such as the one leading to the Walker River State Recreation Area in Lyon County, the trip up Kingston Canyon in the middle of the state and the drive through the Monitor Valley, also in the center of the state.
Other roads less traveled that she spotlights include Success Loop near Ely, High Rock Canyon in northern Washoe County, and the Lunar Crater Backcountry Byway.
Martinez also takes the reader on her journeys through Nevada’s many colorful, rustic, and memorable rural bars that includes a section on the origins of the Picon Punch (with a recipe). Among the water holes captured by her lens and prose are the various Owl Clubs, the Jiggs Bar, the Overland Hotel and Saloon in Pioche, and the Outdoor Inn & Red Dog Saloon in Jarbidge.
Several of Nevada’s most photogenic ghost towns get the Martinez treatment as do rural hotels/motels (in the chapter, “Great Stays”). The book nears the finish line with a chapter on the state’s best places to enjoy Dark Skies and a chapter on geology and rockhounding, which is a particular passion of hers.
The concluding chapter, “Nevadans & Other Wily Wonders,” features some of the colorful people she has encountered over the years as well as brief descriptions of several petroglyph and pictograph sites she has discovered, rural art galleries, and other “wonders.”
“Finding Nevada Wild: The Terrain, Culture, and People of the Most Mysterious State in the West,” by Sydney Martinez is available from Amazon and other online retailers as well as at Nevada bookstores. It can also be ordered on her website, which is www.findingnevadawild.com.
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