Hi, i’m sydney

A misunderstood place that became part of me a long time ago, I wake up with alkali in my blood, sagebrush in my hair, and Nevada on the brain.
And from grave dowsing silver boomtowns with multi-generation locals, to licking rocks right alongside their claim owner, to discovering backroads bars that are just the same now as they were in 1904, tracking down and sliding into every last natural hot spring in the state, casting a line into legendary waterways, basking in actual darkness, quietness, and far beyond, my admiration for the Silver State is as unending as the mighty Sagebrush Sea.

Finding Nevada Wild

I’ve devoted as much time as humanly possible to studying Nevada’s every line, learning its many histories, following every road throughout its geographical vastness and top-tier recreation amid the most public lands in the Lower 48 states, and debunking absurd stereotypes along the way. Everything you see here all comes from incredibly personal experiences spent traveling alongside my husband and dog Elko out in Nevada wild. You won’t find stories that are simply about a place, but personal accounts from someone who’s actually stood at the top of the mountain, soaked in the hot spring, photographed the milky way, dug into turquoise and garnet claims, and released a wild bird back on its migratory path.

This unending quest of seeking the Nevada most people will never know—Finding Nevada Wild is not just the ritual of jumping in the truck and traveling to some of the most ultra-rural locations in the Lower 48 to unpack some of the largest wilderness corridors in America, every spectrum of the color wheel, and unending stories from Nevadans who have protected their corner of the Sagebrush State because they saw something in it, and for generations. Finding Nevada Wild is also the feeling that comes along with the innocence of true discovery. The revelation that Nevada is not dead and drab, but instead one of the most vibrant, lively places you’ll ever know so long as you want to actually find it.

As I’ve written, photographed, and professionally field guided many writers, film crews, and regular people throughout the Great Basin State, it’s a light I won’t ever stop switching on for myself, and anyone else who wants to really Find Nevada Wild, too.

Sydney Martinez Bio

I can say with certainty there’s no place I’d rather be than Nevada’s ultra-rural landscapes. Professionally, I was lucky enough to do this as my full time job for about a decade where I worked as Travel Nevada’s lead writer and photographer, personally writing thousands of pages of content, shooting a library of just as many photographs, and working as a locations expert for the State of Nevada’s many different departments. Leading all audio and video production efforts, I field-guided many different media groups throughout Nevada as a locations expert, including journalists and film crews for Lonely Planet, Discovery Channel, and Expedia to name a few among many. My work also included consulting and collaboration with the Nevada Bureau of Land Management, the Nevada Film Office, U.S. Forest Service, Nevada State Parks, Nevada Department of Wildlife, Nevada State Historic Preservation Office, Nevada State Museums, Nevada’s Tribal and Indigenous Populations, the Nevada Division of Outdoor Recreation, and PBS’ Wild Nevada.

Song Dog Silver

If you too have felt the thrill of experiencing the Nevada most won’t ever know, the Great Basin State is not just something I’m merely interested in, it’s part of me. Another piece of me lives in Song Dog Silver. Intelligent, adaptable, resilient, and often completely misunderstood creatures, the American Coyote, or Song Dog, is an animal I’ve always been fascinated by and also identified with. There’s an unending beauty and inspiration that lies within a dismissed living being that roams one of the most overlooked places in America, at least to me. Made in Nevada by Nevadans, having a Song Dog Silver Nevada hat pin, money clip, or necklace means we can each carry a physical piece of Nevada with us as we ramble down every dirt road to the deepest, darkest corners of Nevada wild. If you luck out, you might just cross paths with a prairie wolf while you’re out there in the Sagebrush Kingdom, too.

to Nevada— and explore it right alongside me.