RR: Las Vegas - S. Cottonwood Valley Epic

[Solo]

If you are looking for an interesting ride near Las Vegas, have an insatiable sense of adventure, and keen navigational skills, this could be the ride for you. It is truly open desert riding, most of it following two valleys bordered on either side by fairly steep mountain faces.
All of the information I was able to find on the area indicated that it was a rarely ridden gem and very challenging to follow as the heavy rains regularly wash the trail away. On this day, it lived up to every bit I had heard.
It wasn't the typical desert ride start, I wasn't there at sun up and didn't set off until around 9 A.M. or so (nursing a bad hangover from the night before). Fortunately, by the time I started pedaling it was sunny and only around 62 degrees.

Some pics on the way to the trailhead






The trailhead was a little difficult to find as it looped around the dirt parking lot just off the south side of Hwy 160. (Now is a good time to mention that I didn't have much of a trailmap, but more so a flier with no features or contour lines.)

Looking northwest, there's snow in them mountains


Just south of the parking lot, I came across this lone S/T called Dead Horse Loop with no where to go but straight.



Eventually, the S/T dropped down into a small ravine for a bit before turning west towards the base of the adjacent mountain. The grade wasn't steep at all, but it was all that my under developed California sea level lungs could handle as it climbed to nearly 5,000 feet.

Looking up from the Dead Horse Overlook


Looking back across the valley


This was highest point of the loop and the descent down was absolutely unreal. It was a sweet mile or so of high speed bermed S/T that raced down through a small ravine to the valley below. The trail is bordered by sporatic cacti and prickley bushes that kept me in check, but I did everything I could to stay off the brakes and let it run. Sorry, no apologies for not stopping to take pictures here.

Just after reaching the bottom of the ravine, the trail began to head back up the other side via a set of switchbacks called Satan's Escalator. It really wasn't as bad as it sounded, especially having just came down such a sweet section before.

Satan's Escalator


Once over the other side, the trail flattened out some and began criss crossing a sandy wash. There was some light ground cover making the trail pretty easy to pick up on the other side of the crossing.

Eventually, the trail turned into double track and headed east up to the Wilson's Tank Overlook.

Looking down from Wilson's Tank


There is a sketchy little trail leading down from the overlook to the next valley below that is steep, chunky, and loose all wrapped into one. I believe this is called Pipeline Scrape.



Looking back up Pipeline Scrape


Once at the bottom, the trail turned into double track as it began to head back north up the valley. This trail is known as Bonnie & Clyde and is where the sense of adventure and keen navigational skills come into play. Although the lower portion of the trail is washed out regularly making it very difficult to follow, it does have some really nice S/T sections meandering through the Joshua trees.



Token wildlife shot


Once through the Joshua trees, the trail exits back into the sandy wash for a bit and becomes very difficult to follow. (hence no more pictures). If it weren't for an occasional orange ribbon that someone must have placed several months before (and that I am eternally grateful for) it would have taken 10x as long to make my way back up the trail. Of course, I could have taken the sandy wash back up the valley, but what fun would that have been?

The top half of Bonnie & Clyde turned back into sweet desert S/T and slowly guided me back to the parking lot.

Total distance = 26 miles
Total time = 5 hours
Total elevation gain = 3,526 feet
Crossing this of my to do list = priceless

Google Earth route pic

[bighit8]

I am riding there this weekend. I work in Vegas Every Friday. I saw those canyons when I flew into Vegas on Friday,. I normally drive so the aerial view was nice.I have a local guide, so I will post an RR and route!

[maxwell]

Very cool!

Thanks for the great pics!!

[CalEpic]

Nice RR. I've ridden out there quite a bit. You've only scratched the surface on the trails in the Cottonwood area. As long as you keep your bearings on the two highways it's nearly impossible to get lost. Great night riding there in the summer.

C

[Solo]

Originally Posted by CalEpic

Nice RR. I've ridden out there quite a bit. You've only scratched the surface on the trails in the Cottonwood area. As long as you keep your bearings on the two highways it's nearly impossible to get lost. Great night riding there in the summer.

C

I did see a lot of off shoots from the trail that may require a follow up ride.

It's funny that I never felt lost, I always knew where I was (for the most part), knew where I wanted to go, the challenge was how to get from here to there.

[CalEpic]

Here is a map of the Cottonwood area trails. The map is not the best but it should give people an idea of what's out there. Not much in the way of tech riding but the scenery is very nice.

http://www.barta-nv.com/imagelib/sit...g&target=_self