| Spring Valley State Park offers water oriented recreation at the 65 acre Eagle Valley Reservoir. Visitors enjoy hiking, exploring and touring the historic Ranch House Museum.Spring Valley is situated at the upper end of Meadow Valley Wash. The wash is comprised of a number of valleys trending north-south through Lincoln and Clark Counties. Emptying into the Muddy River near Moapa in Clark County, Meadow Valley Wash eventually reaches Lake Mead near Overton. Although part of the Colorado River watershed, the park's environment is typical of the Great Basin desert and riparian life zones.The reservoir attracts a variety of waterfowl and shore birds including mallards, teals, herons, avocets and the infrequent yet beautiful trumpeter swan. Eagles, hawks, songbirds, ravens, and road runners inhabit the canyons and valleys.Common animals include squirrels, cottontails, jack rabbits, coyotes, deer, skunks and an occasional bobcat. Several species of lizards and snakes also inhabit the park.Vegetation communities vary throughout the park, depending upon elevation, precipitation, soils, and slope. The most common community is pinyon pine, Utah juniper, and big sagebrush. The flood plains support rabbit brush, big sagebrush and several grasses. In the meadows, springs and streams, cattails, sedges and grasses are common.One of the largest geologic formations within Spring Valley is volcanic tuff and tuffaceous sediment of Tertiary age. These rocks are found along the hillsides, upstream from the reservoir. They give a dramatic backdrop to the park where light-gray, pinkish or white outcrops are exposed.Eroded from the hillsides, sediments have been brought down Meadow Valley Wash to form the deep alluvium of the valley. Evidence of older lake bed deposits suggest that Spring Valley was once inundated by a lake during the middle Pliocene and early Pleistocene when the climate may have been much wetter than today. |
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