NEW: Willow Springs - Griffith Peak - West End Wash

Despite the heat, or perhaps because of it, a patron of Offroading Home has been taking his Jeep into the desert on trails listed in our maps as well as new ones in the area.

I'm sure riding in an air-conditioned cab has at least something to do with it; but as we've seen in previous posts there are other advantages to riding in this "alternate" season.

Michael Davidson has been helping verify, and add to, the Great Basin SUV Trails: Southern Nevada map and sending in his GPS tracks so we can remove the hand-drawn lines and replace them with actual, honest-to-goodness ride coordinates.

The Willow Springs Road trail is a great get-away from the heat haze in Vegas. The Mount Charleston area is just a hop-skip-and-jump west down Kyle Canyon Road (NV-157).

He lists two trails: one, to the Griffith Peak trailhead and the other an accompanying hike up to Griffith Peak, which is where the photo accompanying this post comes from.

Michael has also had time to re-visit the Anniversary Mine area. This time he had his GPS unit with him and was able to obtain a more accurate path over the cliff and down into the mine area – not all that visible from satellite images.

Additionally, we have now added the West End Wash trail, which runs northward up the cliff-side to other old mine ruins in that same general area near Valley Of Fire.

All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost.”
J. R. R. Tolkien

Another trail which has been verified is the Red Rock Alt trail in the Red Rock Canyon area. The previously listed trail runs south to north and turns out to be the much easier direction.

The same trail, running in the other direction is much more difficult and requires a spotter if you're going to take an SUV (and it shouldn't be a very big one he says – the vehicle not the spotter.) We've place the trailhead marker to this reverse trail at a turnaround in the Red Rock Canyon protected area (near the petroglyphs) and called it Rocky Gap.

And finally, he has scouted out four other offroad trails running west of Henderson Nevada into the mountains: West River Mtns Rd (154), Ridge Rd (154a), River Mtns South Powerline (155) and Red Mountain Rd (155a).

Probably not too unique by themselves but what a view they lead to! Lake Mead you know. Even just looking at water cools you off! Get the map and see for yourselves – or better yet, go for a drive.