Legends of Lost Nevada
Nevada’s a mysterious place. With history and mystery as far and wide as the Great Basin, there’s plenty out there to let your imagination run wild in the Sagebrush Sea. I still can’t figure some of these stories (and locations) out. I’ll never stop trying.
The Kestrel Caller
I hereby swear on Nevada backroads to never overload your inboxes, ever.
The Kestrel Caller enewsletter will soar into your inboxes about once a month with info about new Song Dog Silver online store updates and upcoming in-person events, the latest story from my blog series Legends of Lost Nevada (where you can read or listen), and sometimes a rare combo of the two.
Song Dog Silver
Ride Shotgun
@sydneymmartinez
Forever chasing backroads, hot water, and that Great Basin State of mind, follow me to the darkest corners of
one of the most misunderstood states in America one wild raptor, great dirt roads drive, and ghost town at a time.
We used our tailgate as a tripod to shoot this photo that night. The only noise crackling from our campfire, our own heartbeats, and a pair of Coopers Hawks tucking in their chicks for the night, it was unbelievably silent here which gave us a lot of time to think about the thousands of people that surely built a fire in the same exact spot throughout the years.
That was after we spent four days hiking around, bumping over gravel roads, and basically being completely entranced by thousands of signs of ancient human histories left throughout the missing strata from the Grand Canyon and one of the most dangerous and beautiful national monuments in Nevada borders. It’s a stunning place in every respect, and even though we got to be here without the distraction of anyone else, it belongs to everyone and lies squarely on public lands.
Like most Nevada recreationalists, I strongly feel public lands are not just important, but at the center of the Nevada experience. With a higher percentage of public lands acreage than any other state, your ability to wonder what’s over there down that valley then actually go find out is possible here, and not the case in most other places. The privatization of public lands is the biggest thing we have to lose, and while I really try to stay away from anything political on here, I simply cannot fathom the Nevada so many of us know without freely accessing its most special and surprising places—like this one.
Despite which box you checked on your ballot, I do know Nevada Public Lands is what unites so many of us. I enthusiastically encourage anyone else who loves this state as much as I do to call, write, and do whatever else to voice that admiration of Nevada’s most lasting and special quality. Don’t forget to use your voice—it’s a powerful thing. ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥 #insagebrushwetrust #publiclands
This dog has given me more than just about everyone else. We took this picture I the day I signed my publishing contract last year. He knew. And now he gets to be immortalized, being along for all those truck rides, well, forever.
Thank you for being the most loyal, loving bear to me, Elks. I can’t imagine life, or being in the wilds of Nevada without you. Happy 8th birthday!! ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥 #ElkoBear
Introducing Finding Nevada Wild: The Terrain, Culture, and People of the Most Mysterious State in the West. 🌚
Can you believe it??? After a LOT of meltdowns, more rewrites than I can wrap my mind around, and a wily ass publishing world, we’re so freakin’ excited to announce this project. It’s about our lives exploring Nevada’s ultra rurals—Jonny, Elko, and I—and filled with hundreds of color photos, it’s equally at home on your coffee table as it is on the dashboard as you bump down Nevada’s backcountry roads. Shipping summer 2025, preorder your own copy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million starting now.
…and be sure to stick with me on more updates to come. This is going to be an exciting lap around the sun ❤️🔥 #insagebrushwetrust
Knowing something is there that you can’t see right away really has become the center of my Nevada intrigue. And the more I think about it, there really is no truer emblem of those sentiments than Nevada Caves. 🌚
And from trying to figure out the largest cluster of natural caves in Nevada from the speleological pros, to connecting with the same guys who wiggled into that waterlogged cave back in ‘82, to realizing the force of this ancient superbeast twice the size of a grizzly bear, to unpacking the Pleistocene timeline and Nevada’s prehistory with paleontologists responsible for excavating the cave then safeguarding its ten thousand year old remains, I realized there are lots of layers to this story. Just about as many as the sediment in which these remarkable ancient fossils were discovered, in fact.
It’s the latest Legend of Lost Nevada, about Lily the Giant Short-Faced Cave Bear, and the team of people who were courageous enough to find, protect, and preserve her place in a world that always seems to be changing. Find it on my site, or whatever streaming service you’re listening to. ✨ #insagebrushwetrust
History and mystery are alive in the most misunderstood state in the West. And it just got a facelift ✨
I write stories about Nevadans, the Great Basin, and where they meet somewhere in a place you’ve probably never heard of. They’re published over on my site. But if you don’t want to read the blogs, they’re available in podcast form on Spotify and now Apple Podcasts, too. Now you can feast your eyes AND ears out any ol’ time you want. ❤️🔥 #insagebrushwetrust
Upspiraling 🌪️
This last lap around the sun felt a lot like one big confusing time puzzle, with way too many projects and never enough hours in the day to actually accomplish them all. But I think I got at least one major piece of it figured out, and all imagined up from an ultra-rural hot spring. It IS where I do some of my best work.
It’s giving lifelong dreams becoming real 🤌🏻 It’s giving Summer 2025 🤌🏻🤌🏻 More details on this beautiful mystery later, but for now I know with certainty more hope bubbles up around year 38 than ever before. LFG ❤️🔥 #InSagebrushWeTrust