While we stayed in Caliente, Nevada, we decided to visit the Kershaw-Ryan State Park. (We had already paid to visit the Cathedral Gorge State Park, so we had access to this park too.)
The park brochure describes this park as an “oasis in the desert” and they are right. Natural springs feed wild grapevines, gamble oaks, and roses.
Samuel and Hannah Kershaw homesteaded the area in the 1870’s, planting the orchards and crops which were feed by the natural springs. The Kershaws sold the property to James Ryan at the turn of the century. He loved the beauty of the place, and seeking to preserve it, in the 1920’s he donated Kershaw Gardens to the state. In 1935 it became a state park.
The Civilian Conservation Corps built campsites, picnic tables, restrooms, wading pond and a caretaker’s cabin.
Flash floods in 1984 destroyed all the CCC structures except for the wading pond, which feed by the natural springs is still in existence today.
We were surprised and enchanted by the beautiful gardens.
