Dayton State Park - Dayton

I think of myself as a person who is generally positive. I try to find the good in things around me. I don't know if I was having an off day the day we visited Dayton State Park though, because I have to honest. We didn't find much to redeem this location. As much as I'd love to try to paint a rosy picture for you, the goal of all of this writing is to provide you with accurate information, so here you go! 

Once the site of a ore processing plant in the heyday of the Comstock, this place then went on to become the town dump, then a DOT equipment parking lot. When the DOT didn't want the land anymore they handed it over the the state parks department and it became Dayton State Park. Doesn't that just sound like the kind of place you want to go for a picnic and some family time?
This park does offer camping, hiking, bird/wildlife watching, hiking, and a group use area.
There were bathrooms, but I don't remember if there was a drinking fountain. The group use area looked fairly decent; in fact a group appeared to be setting up for a wedding when we stopped by.
We stopped to check out "Mary's Garden & Tunnel Trail" when we saw the sign. It looked like someone, once upon a time, had taken the time to establish a cute little flower garden but it didn't appear to have been maintained for a while. We never saw any sign of a tunnel, or a trail either for that matter.

Pardon my finger in the picture here. Apparently I didn't stop to take more than the two pictures shown here...

We attempted to take a hike down a little trail (shown in the photo above), but the trail was incredibly overgrown to the point of being difficult to tell where it was and there was an unbelievable number of ants and mosquitoes. We didn't make it very far before we turned tail and headed back to the car.
I have to say we left here grateful that we'd come on a fee-free day, because this isn't a place I'd want to spend money to visit.

Essential Details:
Dayton State Park
US-50, Dayton, NV 89403
Website