When most people think of Vegas they think of gambling, extravagant shows, CSI, and maybe a few of sinful things that this town is famous for. Vegas is a gaudy congested mess of a city that is fun, in its own way, for a couple of days. Its one of the most popular places for business conferences so chances are if you attend these types of things you will make it to Vegas at some point in your career. If you travel a little outside of Vegas you will find some beautiful desert terrain and some nice mountain ranges. This makes for some good mountain biking and some decent road biking so when I had to attend a conference this week in Vegas I added a few days to the front end of the trip to explore some of the roads.One of the most popular places to ride outside of Vegas is Red Rock Canyon. Red Rock Canyon is nestled in the mountains north west of Vegas it’s only about 20 miles from the strip. Planning the route to ride was pretty easy because there aren’t many roads out by Red Rock. You basically just get on Rt 159 and head towards the mountains. I started my ride from a shopping mall where interstate 215 and Rt 159 meet. There is a bike lane here that turns into a wide shoulder so although Rt 159 has some traffic you really don’t have to worry about the cars.
I started my ride early in the morning to take advantage of clear skies that were supposed to cloud up latter. The first couple of miles were a slow constant climb to get over a small hill that was in front of the mountains. I was on a rented bike, a Cannodale Synapse 5 Alloy which is the next model down to my Cannodale Synapse 5 Carbon so if felt pretty familiar although it took a little bit to get used to the gearing which was a compact.
Once I got over the hill I caught the full view of the mountains. As I rode the next 4 mile I watched the sun slowly light up the mountains. This was a really cool effect. What happens is as the sun rises and shines more light on the mountains the colors get more and more vivid and it looks like the mountains are being painted before your eyes. It was partly cloudy so the sun was going in an out and the effect was some what muted but still cool.
I had a 5 mile ride from where I started to get to Red Rock. Although the road looked flat it was actually a constant shallow climb. Red Rock Canyon has a 13 mile scenic road that is run by the park service. This scenic road takes you up into the canyon to get a closer view of the mountains and the valleys. From my research I knew the terrain would be hilly and require some climbing but it wasn’t anything tougher than I have done in NJ just a lot longer. The first 5 miles of the road is mostly uphill where you climb a little over 1000 ft in 5 miles. The grade is 4-6% with some small spots in the 10 percent range. What’s different here is the perspective. The mountains that surround the canyon are tall and steep so when you see a road next to then that is going up at a 10% grade it looks almost flat. So as you are riding you are reluctant to down shift because you mind is telling you that the road is flat.
Once I understood this though I was better able to grind my way up the canyon. I stopped 3 or 4 times to take pictures and let my heart rate come down but it wasn’t too tough of climb. I don’t know if I could do it with out stopping with the compact gearing I had but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. There were only a few cars on the road and maybe 3 or 4 other bikers so it felt as I had the place to myself. When I reached the top of the climb I looked back to where I came from and saw a smoky haze in the valley below. The smoke obscured the mountains but was pretty. The pictures I took don’t really convey the size or majesty of the view but it made the climb worth it.
The rest of the scenic road was mostly downhill with a few small climbs here and there. The scenic road is one way but I saw a constant stream of runners coming at me. When I left the scenic road and got back to Rt 159 I saw a rest stop for what looked like a marathon run. As I headed towards the town of Blue Diamond I ran in to more and more runners and a lot of support vehicles cheering them on. Most of the vehicles where decorated with a theme “Secret Ninja Monkey”, “The A Team”, “Saturday Night Fever”, and many other bizarre ones. This made the ride to Blue Diamond entertaining.
Blue Diamond is only about 20 miles out side of Vegas and it’s a totally different world. The sign welcoming you to town Reads:
The town itself has a bike shop, a little food store and a few small houses spread around a couple of streets that make up the town. The town makes you feel like you are in the middle of the desert hundreds miles away from any civilization. The bike shop was the satellite branch of the one I rented my bike from and had some Gatorade, food and a couple of nice chair out side. I spend about 20 mins there talking to some people working at the shop and a few other bikers.
After the break I headed back the way I came along Rt 159 back to where I started. The wind and elevation was against me most of the way so it was a slow going but the mountains surrounding the roads were pretty so it was a nice ride. By the time I got back to the car I had done a little over 40 miles and around 3000 ft of total climbing. It was a fun ride mostly because of the scenery.
Sunday I headed towards Lake Mead which is on the south east side of Vegas. They just completed the River Loop Trail which is a paved bike trail that is a 35 mile loop that goes through the mountains of south east Vegas and along the west side of Lake Mead, I was a little unsure of the exact route because the information that I found online was a little vague about the details of the trail and so I had a hard time finding the where to park to get on the trail.
I ended up just parking close to where I thought it would be and heading towards Lake Mead on Rt 146. Worst case I would end up riding along the roads instead of the trail. After 7 or 8 miles I was at the entrance to the Lake Mead recreational area and found access to the trail. I looked over information about the trail and it looked like a good route to take. The one thing that gave me pause to getting on the trail was the warning about mountain goats. Apparently according to a biker I ran into later there are quite a few mountain goats in these parts and every now and then they will try to head butt some passing bikers.
The spot where I hopped on the trail was right before a small hill that I needed to climb to get to the valley where Lake Mead is. Although the trail was paved it was laid out like it was a mountain biking trail with switch backs, hairpin turns, and shear drop offs on both sides of the trail. The path was very twisty, steep and windy both going up the hill and down the other side. With the shear drops on both sides and no barriers it was fun in a scary kind of way. Once I was at the valley and riding along the west side of Lake Mead the trail got straighten out and got a lot easier to ride. There had actually been a lot of rain the week before I got to Vegas so although the trail was wider and flatter there were a number spots where dirt and rocks covered the road and required me to walk the bike acrossed some of them.
I meet a few other bikers riding the trail and spend about 5 miles talking with one of them. Lake Mead is really low, the lowest it has been since the 1930s when it was first formed by the Hoover Dam so the lake looked really empty and not real pretty. Eventually I saw the point in Lake Mead where the Hover Dam starts. I was going to take the road to Hover Dam and try out the new bridge over the dam since I hear it was open but couldn’t get any reliable information about it. Since Sept 11th 2001 no trucks have been allow over the Hover Dam because fear that some one might try and blow it up. This caused all trucks to have to take a 20 mile detour which added a lot of time to each trip. Nevada decided to build a new bridge and road about a mile south of the dam. This new bridge had just opened this past weekend. It was suppose to be an engineering marvel as well as provide a great view of the dam.
It might had been cool to try and ride over the bridge but by the time I get near the dam I was running a little late and wasn’t 100% sure how to get to the dam and back. Some of the biker I ran into said I could take a rail trail off the River Loop Trail that was paved others said it was still dirt and a few others suggested to just take the road. I decided I didn’t want to risk getting lost so I just continued on the River Loop Trail.
From Lake Mead the trail heads to Boulder City which is on the top of the mountain above the lake. Getting to the top of the mountain required a 1000 ft climb that lasted 3.5 miles. The climb didn’t look bad from the map I had looked at but actually doing it was tougher than I thought. Again the mountains make the road look flatter than it is. The hard part wasn’t the grade which was 4-5% it was the fact that the hill just keep on going and going. It was more a mental challenge than a physical challenge. The scenery here wasn’t as nice as the somewhat similar climb in Red Rock I had done the previous day. I had no problem keeping the pedals moving or keeping my heart rate in check the problem was that after 10 mins of climbing I was only half way up the hill. Getting to the top was satisfying though. It was probably the longest continuous climb I have ever done and something that just can’t be found in NJ.
After riding along the top of the ridge for a while there was one more little climb to get over rail road pass. There was a train going over the pass when I got there and I was able to actual pull ahead of the train at the top of the pass. Of course the train was pulling a couple of hundred tons over the pass where I was just getting my fat ass over it so it was a hollow victory but these are the strange games you play when riding alone.
After the pass I continued along the trail for another 5 miles of mostly gentle down hills before leaving the trail to go back to the road to find my car. I ended up with 37 miles and 3700 ft of climbing. The River Loop Trail was actually one of the nicer bike trails that I have done and I would like to do it again someday and hopefully explore a little more.
Riding around Las Vegas was a good change of pace. The scenery is a lot different than I’m used to and the climbs are longer. Although I road the roads around Vegas I ran into a lot of mountain bikers as well who told me how good the trails are so if I come back to a conference out here again I might try to do a little mountain biking.
After the break I headed back the way I came along Rt 159 back to where I started. The wind and elevation was against me most of the way so it was a slow going but the mountains surrounding the roads were pretty so it was a nice ride. By the time I got back to the car I had done a little over 40 miles and around 3000 ft of total climbing. It was a fun ride mostly because of the scenery.
Sunday I headed towards Lake Mead which is on the south east side of Vegas. They just completed the River Loop Trail which is a paved bike trail that is a 35 mile loop that goes through the mountains of south east Vegas and along the west side of Lake Mead, I was a little unsure of the exact route because the information that I found online was a little vague about the details of the trail and so I had a hard time finding the where to park to get on the trail.
I ended up just parking close to where I thought it would be and heading towards Lake Mead on Rt 146. Worst case I would end up riding along the roads instead of the trail. After 7 or 8 miles I was at the entrance to the Lake Mead recreational area and found access to the trail. I looked over information about the trail and it looked like a good route to take. The one thing that gave me pause to getting on the trail was the warning about mountain goats. Apparently according to a biker I ran into later there are quite a few mountain goats in these parts and every now and then they will try to head butt some passing bikers.
The spot where I hopped on the trail was right before a small hill that I needed to climb to get to the valley where Lake Mead is. Although the trail was paved it was laid out like it was a mountain biking trail with switch backs, hairpin turns, and shear drop offs on both sides of the trail. The path was very twisty, steep and windy both going up the hill and down the other side. With the shear drops on both sides and no barriers it was fun in a scary kind of way. Once I was at the valley and riding along the west side of Lake Mead the trail got straighten out and got a lot easier to ride. There had actually been a lot of rain the week before I got to Vegas so although the trail was wider and flatter there were a number spots where dirt and rocks covered the road and required me to walk the bike acrossed some of them.
I meet a few other bikers riding the trail and spend about 5 miles talking with one of them. Lake Mead is really low, the lowest it has been since the 1930s when it was first formed by the Hoover Dam so the lake looked really empty and not real pretty. Eventually I saw the point in Lake Mead where the Hover Dam starts. I was going to take the road to Hover Dam and try out the new bridge over the dam since I hear it was open but couldn’t get any reliable information about it. Since Sept 11th 2001 no trucks have been allow over the Hover Dam because fear that some one might try and blow it up. This caused all trucks to have to take a 20 mile detour which added a lot of time to each trip. Nevada decided to build a new bridge and road about a mile south of the dam. This new bridge had just opened this past weekend. It was suppose to be an engineering marvel as well as provide a great view of the dam.
It might had been cool to try and ride over the bridge but by the time I get near the dam I was running a little late and wasn’t 100% sure how to get to the dam and back. Some of the biker I ran into said I could take a rail trail off the River Loop Trail that was paved others said it was still dirt and a few others suggested to just take the road. I decided I didn’t want to risk getting lost so I just continued on the River Loop Trail.
From Lake Mead the trail heads to Boulder City which is on the top of the mountain above the lake. Getting to the top of the mountain required a 1000 ft climb that lasted 3.5 miles. The climb didn’t look bad from the map I had looked at but actually doing it was tougher than I thought. Again the mountains make the road look flatter than it is. The hard part wasn’t the grade which was 4-5% it was the fact that the hill just keep on going and going. It was more a mental challenge than a physical challenge. The scenery here wasn’t as nice as the somewhat similar climb in Red Rock I had done the previous day. I had no problem keeping the pedals moving or keeping my heart rate in check the problem was that after 10 mins of climbing I was only half way up the hill. Getting to the top was satisfying though. It was probably the longest continuous climb I have ever done and something that just can’t be found in NJ.
After riding along the top of the ridge for a while there was one more little climb to get over rail road pass. There was a train going over the pass when I got there and I was able to actual pull ahead of the train at the top of the pass. Of course the train was pulling a couple of hundred tons over the pass where I was just getting my fat ass over it so it was a hollow victory but these are the strange games you play when riding alone.
After the pass I continued along the trail for another 5 miles of mostly gentle down hills before leaving the trail to go back to the road to find my car. I ended up with 37 miles and 3700 ft of climbing. The River Loop Trail was actually one of the nicer bike trails that I have done and I would like to do it again someday and hopefully explore a little more.
Riding around Las Vegas was a good change of pace. The scenery is a lot different than I’m used to and the climbs are longer. Although I road the roads around Vegas I ran into a lot of mountain bikers as well who told me how good the trails are so if I come back to a conference out here again I might try to do a little mountain biking.
