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 and far beyond, my admiration for the Silver State is unending.

My family moved to Nevada from Colorado on a job transfer in the late nineties, and since then, 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 personal experiences spent traveling alongside my husband and dog Elko out in Nevada wild. I invite you to jump in and share that same admiration for the Silver State right alongside me.

A Word on Locations

The Internet has made some of Nevada’s most sacred locations over-loved these past few years, and protecting a variety locations (especially private-lands hot springs, rockhounding and fossil sites, and other special places that need to remain that way) by not revealing their exact location is something that’s important to me. The truth is, nobody showed me a single one of these places—I’ve invested a lot of time in a quest of finding them on my own, with a whole hell of a lot of research and determination most people living in a modern world with a dependency on immediacy aren’t interested in. The good news is in the truest spirit of of adventure, anybody can go find Nevada’s wildest places with careful planning and the right survival skills. In other words—if you’re coming here to ask me about locations, especially hot springs, don’t. However, if you’ve done your research and are narrowing in on the location you’re planning on visiting and have specific questions about the conditions of roads, that petered out summit trail to the top, creature comforts that might help while you’re out there, and tips on spider mites and other natural conditions during the time frame of your visit, well then, I’m all ears.

Song Dog Silver

If you’re anything like me, or felt the thrill of experiencing the Nevada you can’t see from the highway, the Great Basin State is not just something I’m merely interested in—it’s part of me. And even though everything about the Silver State is experiential based, always, I’ve invested another piece of me into Song Dog Silver. Inspired by the American Coyote—a tragically misunderstood creature who thrives in one of the most misunderstood states in America— Song Dog Silver is made in Nevada and made by Nevadans. Having a Song Dog Silver Nevada hat pin 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.

to Nevada— and explore it right alongside me.