Twenty minutes past the last stoplight in northern Nevada, the sagebrush flattens out and the road stops feeling like a commute. Somewhere out there, behind long lines of pipe fencing, a few hundred wild horses stand in the open air, chewing hay and sizing up whoever pulls into the gravel lot.
Most people drive right by without knowing it exists, which is a shame, because kids tend to go quiet in the best possible way when a mustang walks over to look at them. Admission costs nothing, the animals are real, and the whole thing sits close enough to the city for an easy morning trip.
Where The Pavement Gives Way To Sagebrush
North of Reno, Pyramid Highway carries you out of the suburbs and into open range country fast. The National Wild Horse and Burro Center at Palomino Valley sits about 20 miles up that road, with its entrance off Ironwood Road at 15780 Pyramid Highway, Reno, NV 89510.
Run by the Bureau of Land Management, the facility is the country’s largest preparation and adoption center for wild horses and burros gathered from public rangelands. Animals arrive here after roundups, get veterinary care and feed, and wait for adopters or long-term pasture placements…