Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in southwest Nevada was established on June 18, 1984. Ash Meadows is often mentioned in context with the Death Valley National Park system. The “real” Death Valley, however, is located across the stateline in California. Consulting your atlas, you'll find Ash Meadows in the Amargosa Desert, between Beatty and Pahrump. Ash Meadows is a unique ecosystem with many endemic species that are found here and no where else. Geographically being a part of the dry Mojave Desert, this refuge is a warm water wetland including warm water seeps and springs and riparian areas. The springs are fed by underground water, named fossil water, that has been flown underneath the surface for thousands of years.

Ash Meadows offers visitors year round many easily accessible sites. Next to the Refuge Headquarters building, which also functions as a visitor center, is the Crystal Spring Boardwalk. Dirt roads and trails of the refuge, marsh areas and various springs including Jackrabbit, Point of Rocks, Longstreet, Rogers, and Fairbanks Spring and can be found on the Refuge Map.

Ash Meadows is home to a diversity of species. Some are threatened or endangered such as the pupfish species. Others can be found here and in other locations of the Southwest. For example, yerba mansa plants.

Spring at the end of the Crystal Spring Boardwalk	Peterson Reservoir seen from the sand dunes