This morning just after sunrise (6:45 AM) I headed out the door to explore the Upper Las Vegas Wash Regional Trail. This is a "trail" in the sense that the B-line in Bloomington is a "trail". In other words, the "trail" is a long and flat paved path. The winter temperatures in Las Vegas are absolutely perfect for running. Sunny skies, low wind, and warm enough for shorts, long sleeves, and thin gloves in the early morning. By the afternoon temperatures should be over 60 degrees.
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| Every Neighborhood |
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| Looking west |
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| Looking east |
In North Las Vegas, it's important to remember street names. This is because most every street has roughly the same view of the mountains, and looks almost exactly the same. The first time I ran here I actually got lost.
Las Vegas is in a flat inclined "bowl" of sorts that allows for mostly unspoiled views of the surrounding mountains in every direction. Nearly every street follows a straight line across the entire city and appears to end in mountain.
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| Looking north |
After running about a half a mile on well maintained sidewalks past more identical stucco with clay roof housing developments I reached a deserted lot that offered an expansive view of the mountains to the north adjacent to the rather large Upper Las Vegas Wash Channel where the "trail" actually begins.
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| North View of the Las Vegas Range |
I'll admit that I am extremely drawn to this range of mountains to the North. I've only once before run in the general direction of the mountains through the desert that stretches out under them. Running straight from the Northern edge of Las Vegas to the mountains requires finding ways around some fences and a little trespassing, so I only on my final run last year in Las Vegas decided to try cutting through the desert there. Over these mountains also lies the largest wildlife refuge in the lower 48 states, the Desert National Wildlife Refuge.
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| Wash Basin |
At this point I had reached a northern trailhead of the Upper Las Vegas Wash Regional Trail. The path heads due south from this point and connects with another path coming from the west side of North Las Vegas.
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| Trail Start: dashed line means "under construction" |
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| Trail Start |
From this point on the paved path runs next to the wash channel and is flat and fast. This was ideal in my case since this was my first real run in almost three weeks. There are numerous bike racks, benches and picnic tables scattered along the path. Despite being well maintained and entirely through residential areas I didn't actually see another person on the trail. This isn't too surprising since I haven't seen many pedestrians in North Las Vegas either, despite the immaculately maintained sidewalks and densely dispersed housing.
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| Las Vegas strip off in the distance |
Far off to the south, the Las Vegas strip was visible at most points on the path. When the proposed master plan and trail system is complete, Las Vegas should have a multi use path that connects North Las Vegas to the strip and also to Red Rock Canyon to the west. That seems pretty good for a sprawling city of this type.
After about a mile I reached a section of gravel with "no trespassing" signs that appeared to be the end of the trail. However, this vacant gravel area was only about 200 meters long and after crossing through it I was able to pick up the paved path again.
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| Not the end of the path |
At another point along the path I passed another vacant lot that offered a good view of the Spring Mountains to the west and was full of rocks and the type of desert plants one would expect. This is typical of the vacant lots found around North Las Vegas.
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| The Spring Mountains and Mt. Charleston |
I finally reached a point where it was clear (numerous fences and blockades attested to this) that the path wasn't accessible along the basin to travel any further south. The "end" of the trail was actually perfect for a hungry runner as can be seen in the photo below.
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| End of the Trail: The Southwest's Best |
I will have to say that accessibility of an In-N-Out Burger along the path will definitely influence my rating of this trail.
After a turn around (and unfortunately no burger) I reached the current south "start" of the trail again, which although under construction does have a nice identifying sign.
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| Current "end" of the trail |
I ran due north, and headed back along the same path. The trip north was fast and had a satisfyingly consistent and picturesque view of the Las Vegas Range once again.
After exiting the trail and heading back to the house I had run close to 7 miles. This was better than I expected for my first day back to running. The temperature had risen ten degrees during the hour and I even got some good stretching in for my IT band and hip thanks to the numerous benches and tables along the route. Also a little hip massage on the easy curve of the bike racks worked out well in the absence of my foam roller. It feels good to be running again and out in the sunshine!
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