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# The Dogs at Hot Springs Mountains
- URL: https://badwater.ghost.io/dogs-at-hot-springs-mountains/
- Published: 2026-01-21T01:45:20.000Z
- Updated: 2026-03-02T17:53:08.000Z
- Description: A stretch of checkerboarded BLM land off of I-80.
- Author: Dom Alhambra
- Tags: Travels, Northern Nevada

On the everlasting quest to find convenient places to take the dogs out for an open space run with few to no other people around, I was first intending to check out The Narrows, an off-roading trail that extends from Fernley up to Pyramid Lake. The whole trail wasn't the goal, but just some part I could get to and have the dogs run free.

Unfortunately, one old entrance to the trail system was cemented off at the end of a highway exit, and the other seemed to have a cop blocking the entrance, so I was not wanting to spend more time searching for the other paths to that trail. I proceeded up the I-80 another 15 miles and found a non-technical dirt road system that seems to serve an oil pipeline, solar farms, and some other industrial sites interspersed around 1000s of acres of open land.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/de/28/de287da1-df20-4d86-b533-97ac5221db1a/content/images/2026/01/DSC00429.jpg)

Parked near a "do not enter" sign near a reclaimed mine.

I was thinking to myself when getting to this wide expanse of a valley, that it's so hard to really capture that essence of "freedom" that I see in the Northern Nevada deserts. I think it's not only the openness of the area, but the small dirt roads that move about; seeing those makes me know that people have just decided to go a certain direction, and pioneered their way into new parts of the desert.

I also understand that true freedom would simply mean this place would either be a landfill or another industrial plant extracting all it can from the natural landscape. It's a recreational freedom, I guess.

I do hope that someday my photos can bring about that feeling of "recreational freedom". It needs depth, texture, and clarity about the little opportunity one can have by being in a place that just lets you explore any which direction by foot.

The dogs had a lot of fun running around, and I enjoyed the relatively flatness so I could keep track of them a bit better today.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/de/28/de287da1-df20-4d86-b533-97ac5221db1a/content/images/2026/01/DSC00445-2.jpg)

Lil D jumps to evade Princess' attack.

Lil D was jumping all around this area. She loves openness as much as I do, taking advantage by going full sprints in every direction, and soon enough at Princess or Tuesday, sometimes to their surprise.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/de/28/de287da1-df20-4d86-b533-97ac5221db1a/content/images/2026/01/DSC00463.jpg)

Tuesday does his lone wolf routine and takes the edges of the group, always looking for something to hunt or chase. This time there wasn't anything.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/de/28/de287da1-df20-4d86-b533-97ac5221db1a/content/images/2026/01/DSC00441.jpg)

I really enjoyed the area, but it's an enjoyment of quiet desolation that's hard to truly capture for others. It's only when I go to canyons and forests that people seem to engage more with the photos. But ah well, that still means I get to enjoy these tracts of land for myself—and for the dogs.