The Walker River State Recreation Area is officially open. The 12,000-acre property is made up of four historic ranches that the previous owner donated to the state.
"It's estimated, conservatively, it's over $8 million  and the state got it for free and now everybody, no matter who you are, will be have the benefit of the beauty out here," Gov. Brian Sandoval, R-Nevada said.
The new park is the state's 27th, and it is the first of two news ones that are being created in more than 20 years as part of the "Explore Your Nevada Initiative". The other one will be the Ice Age Fossils State Park in North Las Vegas. Sandoval says this would not have been possible during his first term, when the economy was recovering from the Great Recession.
"We had over 14 percent unemployment, we literally had a $2 billion budget hole and one of the difficult decisions was to reduce the hours in our state museums, reduce the hours at our state parks and close some of our state parks," Sandoval said.
Sandoval's proposed budget for the next biennium includes additional funding for improvements including WiFi in every Nevada state park.
The property includes the Pitchfork Ranch, Rafter 7 Ranch, Flying M Ranch and Nine Mile Ranch. Nevada owns Flying M Ranch is not open to the public yet because the previous owner has an life estate agreement, so he can live there for the rest of his life.
The recreation area has been closed to the public for more than 125 years. The establishment of the park opens up about 28 miles of access to the East Walker River.
"I grew up fishing and wishing, driving up and down the road down there, wishing I could get down to the river on some of those private ranches," Jeff Bryant, Executive Director of the Walker Basin Conservancy said. "There's a lot of really neat things back here, the wildlife, the geography, the geology. It's going to be a new place to explore in our state."
People will have the ability to to a lot of different outdoor activities in this area that were not allowed before.
"The opportunities are fishing and exploration, kayaking, hunting," Eric Johnson, Administrator of Nevada State Parks said. "We do allow hunting in portions of the area."
"I've always wanted to get out here to recreate and go fishing and hiking and to be a part of this is an amazing deal," Robert Biggs, Yerington resident said.
Nevada's state parks cover a total of 160,000 acres, drawing 3.5 million visitors per year and generating $3.9 million of annual revenue.
"We're about 46 percent self-funded but to maintain affordable recreation," Johnson said. "We need a little help from the state and it seems like we use the money wisely and there's a good opportunity to continue doing that."
"I can't wait to come here and camp and the whole idea of being able to go all over the state and to visit places like this," John Rice, Elko resident said. "It's just wonderful."
Nevada covers approximately 71 million acres and state parks make up about .002 percent of that. 86 percent is federally managed land.Â
The public grand opening for the Walker River State Recreation Area is Saturday, September 22 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Pitchfork Ranch.
