Diamond in the Rough – Cottonwood Valley Trails
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The Late Night Trail is just one of a network of trails in the Cottonwood Valley Trail System.
Though we’ve lived here in Las Vegas for nearly four years, I’m always amazed at what we don’t know about the area. A good ‘for instance’ is our recent discovery of the Cottonwood Trail System in Blue Diamond, Nevada, about 40 minutes drive from home in the southwest side of town.
Cottonwood Valley Trail System Map shows a network of walking, cycling and horseback riding trails.
Why we didn’t discover it sooner, we have no idea since it’s adjacent to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area which we visit frequently. Nonetheless, last time we were hiking in Red Rock Canyon, we chatted briefly with another hiker who asked if we’d been to Blue Diamond. We hadn’t and made a note to check it out… which we promptly forgot to do. On our way back from Death Valley a couple of weeks ago, however, we passed by several trailheads in Blue Diamond that looked interesting and remembered our conversation. This time we actually followed up and decided to hike there last week.
Red Rock Canyon in the distance provides a colorful backdrop to the Mojave Desert landscape.
The Cottonwood Valley Trail System is a network of interconnecting paths and loops used by hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders alike. The vivid colors of the Red Rock Canyon in the distance provide an awesome backdrop to the trails which wind and wend their way through rough, rugged Mojave Desert landscape. Joshua trees, yucca, mesquite and cholla dot the hard-packed, rock-studded ground and the views were splendid.
A portion of the Old Spanish Trail wends its way through the Cottonwood Valley.
Interestingly, a portion of the Old Spanish Trail, an early commercial trade route c.1829 between Santa Fe, NM and Los Angeles, CA wends its way through the Cottonwood Valley. The Californians called it the Camino de Sante Fe and conversely, the New Mexicans called it the Camino de California.
It’s still too early for this year’s desert bloom. We only spotted a single desert marigold along our path.
The area is known for wildflowers and wildlife, in particular wild horses and burros, progeny of pack animals abandoned by miners decades ago. It’s still a little early for this spring’s desert bloom although we did see one desert marigold. We could hear birds, but only saw a lone mountain chickadee close up.
A mountain chickadee surveys the landscape.
There are numerous signs on the nearby highway warning drivers of wild horses and burros on the road, but we had yet to see one. We scoured the hillsides, looking for wild equine and finally our diligence was rewarded. We counted nine wild burros grazing on a rocky slope far above us, oblivious to our presence.
Wild burros along the Late Night Loop Trail
The entire walk was only about six miles, but it was a good introduction to a new network of trails we might try in the near future. It’s considered a ‘moderate’ walk, but we found it fairly easy walking with a steady incline in the beginning and then lots of ups and downs en route… nothing too onerous and the landscape more than made up for the work.
