Walking the Acastus Trail & McWilliams Campground
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The weather’s been hot, hot, hot in Las Vegas and we escaped once again to Mt. Charleston and the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area. We chose a different campground this time… McWilliams in Lee Canyon.
At ~8,500’ (2590m), the campground is hilly and all ‘up’, but most of the campsites are level. With 75 available sites, we had no trouble finding a first come-first serve site and staked our claim for a couple of days. Surrounded by white fir and Ponderosa pine, the site was shady and cool with a reasonable amount of privacy. The camp has flush toilets, fresh water, and trash collection. Unfortunately, only one of the fresh water taps was working, but we had brought sufficient fresh water so it wasn’t a problem. The rates have just increased to $25/night, $12.50 with a Senior pass.
Surrounded by white fir and Ponderosa pine, the site was shady and cool with a reasonable amount of privacy.
We weren’t alone in our campsite. There were several cheeky ground squirrels that alternated between sunning themselves and skittering around our feet looking for handouts and dropped crumbs.
Birds lit in the nearby trees, checked us out, then went about their business… sapsuckers, robins, hummingbirds, noisy Steller’s jays.
We’d noticed the Acastus Trail when we visited the Spring Mountains Visitor Center a few weeks before, and since we were feeling particularly lazy, an easy trail sounded ideal to get us off our duffs without overdoing it.
Named after the Spring Mountains Acastus Checkerspot, a rare orange butterfly endemic to the Spring Mountains, the Acastus trail is ~3.5 miles long out-and-back.
Spring Mountains Acastus Checkerspot - Photo credit: USFWS Scott Page- UNLV
We picked up the trailhead for the Kunav Huveep Trail at the Visitor Center and connected to the Acastus a short distance later. Except for a few spots, the gravel trail is pretty level, well-marked, and very easy walking.
There’s a whole network of trails that lead from the Spring Mountains Visitor Center. Take your pick!
Cement benches have been placed along the path along with a myriad of interesting interpretive signs describing the flora, fauna, geology and unique ecological systems within the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area.
Benches and interpretive signs provide rest and education along the trail.
The Spring Mountains area is considered a ‘sky island’, a real geographical term (not just from the Legend of Zelda) describing “a mountain range that is separated from other mountain ranges by distance and by surrounding lowlands of a dramatically different environment.” In this case, the Spring Mountains rising up out of the Mojave Desert provide a cooler, high-altitude environment that supports several different plant biomes and several endemic species found nowhere else in the world.
It’s really quite interesting passing through these different plant biomes and observing the vast differences in flora along the way. Illustration source: Sky Island Alliance
I spotted some flowers we’d never seen before. The Giant Blazingstar suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the path.
A Giant blazingstar appeared in the middle of the gravel trail.
As we continued up the trail through the Kyle Canyon Wash, low shrubs and desert-like plants gave way to aspen groves and pine stands. We passed through the Kyle Canyon Picnic Area, which also serves as a campground during the summer months.
As part of FDR’s New Deal programs, the CCC was established in 1933. It was the CCC that subsequently established the first Forest Service in the Mt. Charleston Area. The CCC's main goal was to improve America's public lands, parks, and forests and as such was responsible for building roads and trails as well as assisting in flood-control and soil conservation projects. The CCC’s legacy has been noticeable in so many of the national parks we’ve visited. We saw several of the CCC camp buildings from the 1930s still in use along the trail. Signs with old black & white photos provided a peek at life at the camps back in the 1930s.
At the end of the trail, we turned around and retraced our steps. Funny how the return trip always looks so different than the outbound trip. All in all, we accomplished two things… an easy walk and an education at the same time. I think we need a nap. How’s that for lazy?