‘It’s mind-blowing’: Exploring Southern Nevada’s mountain biking trails — PHOTOS

Autumn's softer light and cooler temperatures are bringing back the joy of mountain bike rides through stands of Joshua trees, past lava fields and among mountain pines mixed with golden aspens in Southern Nevada.

Evidence of outdoor recreation's continued popularity among residents and visitors can be found this fall in packed parking lots where racks, mounts and truck beds have helped ferry mountain bikes to the dirt paths they're built for.

"I'm always anxiously awaiting the cool weather to get out and ride," said Alison Cormier, a vice president of the Southern Nevada Mountain Biking Association who's ridden locally for three decades. Throughout the heat of summer, she trains indoors, which isn't quite as picturesque or adventurous as riding in Cottonwood Valley, which stretches across desert terrain south of the community of Blue Diamond.

"It has a whole network of mountain bike trails," Cormier said of Cottonwood Valley, which is easily accessible from the Late Night Trailhead off state Route 160. "You've got stunning views of Red Rock, amazing Joshua trees, cactus blooming in the spring. I'm never not amazed at the beauty out there."

Southern Nevada is a terrific spot for mountain biking, she said, because there's plenty of spectacular landscape to pedal through; the area's trails offer a range of difficulty levels; and mountain biking can be a year-round sport, at least for diehards willing to go out early on summer mornings. "We have something for every type of mountain biker," Cormier added.

In addition to the plethora of paths a few miles south of Red Rock's popular scenic drive, local mountain bikers can find official trails at Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area, daredevil options at Boulder City's Bootleg Canyon and higher elevation opportunities at the recent addition of a downhill park at Lee Canyon ski resort (scheduled this season to continue carrying mountain bikers up the chairlift through at least mid-October).

Paul VanBetten, a Las Vegas native and longtime mountain biker, agrees that Southern Nevada and mountain biking mix well together.

"It's a great people-powered sport," he said. "We have great terrain for it and great weather." After logging tens of thousands of hours on Mojave Desert trails, he said he never tires of watching the sun shine on the Red Rock escarpment or reveling in the thrill of a ride.

'It's mind-blowing'

VanBetten got his first mountain bike in 1983, a Specialized Rockhopper with a heavy steel frame and no shocks to ease the impact of rocks and drops in the desert landscape. After admiring his new bike's fat tires, which were novel at the time, he said, "OK, where do we ride this? There weren't any trails."

VanBetten, also a rock climber, and friends began riding their mountain bikes uphill in the area of Willow Springs in what's now Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. In the 1980s, they'd rock climb there and then bike up to and down from a ridge that offers views of the Lovell Canyon area.

A small number of early Southern Nevada mountain bikers would also ride in the area of Black Velvet Canyon, still a popular spot for rock climbing that's south of the Red Rock scenic loop. They would lay tape and ride back and forth in areas they favored as trails. (Such activity is now prohibited by the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees much of the public land used by mountain bikers in Southern Nevada.)

In 1991, VanBetten, now a retired Clark County Fire Department captain, moved to Blue Diamond, and that's when trail building became a priority for him. He and a friend built a single-track trail from Blue Diamond to Black Velvet Canyon along with several other trails in the area. "Word spread, and other bikers started showing up," he said.

Nowadays from September to May, plenty of mountain bikers start their pedaling overhill from Blue Diamond at Late Night Trailhead, where meandering paths sprawl into a Southern Nevada outback that includes Cottonwood Valley and parts of the old Spanish Trail. The trailhead is just off state Route 160, the highway that leads to Pahrump from Las Vegas, about 41⁄2 miles past the turnoff to Red Rock/state Route 159. Late Night Trailhead is marked by a rustic metal sculpture of a cowboy and a couple of burros on the side of the highway.

"To see the sport expand like that and see how many trails are out there now, it's mind-blowing," VanBetten said. "It's cool to see so many people enjoying the trails." He guesses about one-third of the trails in the Blue Diamond area have origins dating to his work 30 years ago.

'Best of both worlds'

About 60 miles from Blue Diamond, Lee Canyon ski resort put the "mountain" into Southern Nevada mountain biking two years ago with the opening of a downhill bike park above the 8,000-foot elevation line. As September wanes, mountain bikers can expect to ride in the golden glow of the quaking aspens reliably found each fall in the Spring Mountains.

Continuing until at least Oct. 19, chairlifts throughout the day carry bikers and their bikes up to dedicated trails heading back down the mountain at an advance purchase price of about $25 for a weekend day (cheaper tickets are offered online for weekdays). As chosen dates approach, prices increase, a common practice during ski season at many resorts.

When Lee Canyon's mountain bike park was in the conceptual stages, Dan Hooper, the resort's general manager, said "an important focus was to make it a really inclusive experience for core mountain bikers and those who have never been on a mountain bike before." The result is a 2.2-mile green trail for beginners and three challenging blue and black trails for experienced bikers.

Riders can bring their own mountain bikes (except e-bikes) to the resort or rent bikes ($69 for adults and $49 for kids). The resort offers an Experience Downhill, which includes chairlift rides, rentals and two hours of guiding experience to help beginners learn the tricks of mountain biking.

Once bikers dismount the chairlift and start pedaling, they are required to stick to Lee Canyon's designated trails. Riding off trail has the potential to harm the habitat of the Mount Charleston Blue Butterfly , a federally protected endangered species. And it will get violators kicked out of the bike park.

"We have a great partnership with the Forest Service," Hooper said, adding that he wants to keep that cooperative spirit strong as the resort continues to make what he calls enhancements. "We want to make sure all of the improvements are done in the right way, minimizing the impact that we're having on the environment."

Demand for mountain biking and other forms of outdoor recreation is growing, he said. "The people are going to come anyway, so why not have recreational areas that are managed responsibly? We're limiting their impact and giving them a safer place to ride." Late next summer, the resort is expecting to open a designated butterfly-protective trail for hikers who wish to take a chairlift up, enjoy gorgeous subalpine vistas and hike back down. Currently, scenic chairlift rides don't allow hikers to dismount.

Hooper, whose mountain bike leans against his snowboards in Lee Canyon offices, said Southern Nevadans are fortunate to have the year-round outdoor recreation options they enjoy. In one winter weekend, he said, it's possible to ski at Lee Canyon on a Saturday and mountain bike near Blue Diamond in 50-degree weather on Sunday.

"We're pretty lucky in Las Vegas to have the best of both worlds," Hooper said.