Natural History

About

About halfway along the Deer Creek Highway, State Highway 158, between Lee canyon and Kyle canyon.

Parking

Parking is not a problem, there is a large parking area across the highway with toilets but no sopurce of drinking water. The picnic area does have tables but they were mostly buried by the 2023 flood.

Hiking Trails

The trail following the creek is paved in the campground. After that, you can go up a dirt road, with houses farther up. The trail rsumes where the creek crosses the road, at which point the trail becomes much steeper, eventually coming to a beautiful meadow with lots of birds.

Birdwatching

The area is home to abundant wildlife. The creek often has water though not always all the way down. This draws lower elevation birds as well as birds that reside primarily in the mountains like Violet-green Swallows and Mountain Chickadees. also make Sunset Pond a stop on their travel, with a good selection of ducks, songbirds and native quail, phainopepla and other groundbirds.

More Photographs

The Lake

Water continues to flow from a spring under the park and surfaces to provide irrigation to the entire west end of Sunset Park. Sunset Park Pond features a giant stone Moai, of the type found in Easter Island, Chile, carved of stone originally for the Aku Aku Restaurant. Fishing is available year-round in the pond. The State of Nevada Department of Fish and Wildlife stocks the pond weekly with rainbow trout from November to March, and with channel catfish monthly from April to October.

Green spaces

The park contains several softball and little-league fields as well as basketball, volleyball, and tennis courts. One 27-hole disc-golf court is located on the western edge of the park. On the west side of the park, there are often owls and hawks nesting.

The Trails

There are four walking trails totaling 3.5 miles of pathway. The paths wind through desert landscapes full of rabbits and birds.