We had an amazing adventure visiting Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Park in Northern Nevada. This park is right outside the small town of Ely, NV, which is located approximately 4 hours north of Las Vegas. It was cold and snowy during our visit which made it super fun for the kids. Temperatures dropped as low as 3 degrees during the night and the highest during the day was 25 degrees! For us SoCal natives, that was cooooooollllllldddd!!!!
Before exploring the ovens, we made sure to read and learn about these historic structures. We learned that they were originally built to make charcoal which was needed for smelting. They had the supply of pinyon pine at their feet which they burned in the ovens to make the charcoal and they had the demand for the charcoal from several smelters close by. When the demand died down the ovens were abandoned and eventually became hideouts for bandits on the run! Learning that info had the kids pretending that they were seeking shelter and let their imaginations run wild! My son thought we might catch a wolf! We hiked and explored the trails and followed and examined paw prints in the snow!
Unfortunately, it took us longer to get from point A to point B because every two steps the boys wanted to stop and play with the snow!
The views were incredible, and we all had a great time, we’ll see you on our next adventure!