Sunday, December 1, 2024

South Canyon Bike Trail - 11/30/24

From South Canyon to Hollow Rock Peak Bench

South Canyon Bike Trail

Mountains to west of Mt. Potosi

Hiking Bike Trail
This is the second time that the Around the Bend Friends have done the South Canyon Bike Trail Point to Point or Top to Bottom. It is a fun trail to do and a good one to do on a weekend when the Red Rock Canyon NCA is busy with visitors and tourists. Thirteen hikers came together at the Late Night Trailhead and shuttled up to the Mountain Springs Pass Trailhead. As you will see from the elevation graph below, the hike is virtually all downhill with the exception of one small ascent located below the Hollow Rock Peak bench to the north. The trail begins on an old utility road that parallels SR 160 heading east. Soon, a bike trail forks off to the left and then, again, to the left at the bottom of a hill. This bike trail was constructed a few years ago and we have been using it to aid in the climbing of Hollow Rock Peak. On this hike, we passed the cut-off for the Hollow Rock Peak route and continue on the bike trail. Our trail crossed another abandoned dirt road and passed a large pointy rock as it dipped down and back up to junction with two other utility roads.

Bike Trail

Bike trail above South Canyon

South Canyon Bike Trail

Starting down into Wash
At this point, we were traveling east above South Canyon just outside the Rainbow Wilderness boundary. Across the canyon, we saw more unused utility roads on the hillside. These were constructed when the power lines were installed years ago. The bike trail is very interesting as it travels narrowly along our hillside without too much exposure. When we reached the other end of the hill to our right, the trail continued out a small bench with an overlook just across from Cottonwood Overlook that rises above SR 160 and Potosi Mountain Road. At this point, the bike trail starts descending in a winding sort of way down to the canyon's wash. The wash also exists because of water pouring down from the other side of the highway ... when it pours ... which isn't often! At any rate, the wash has beautiful walls of sandstone in white and red colors. The bike trail, which was well-constructed by local bicyclists, runs in and out of the wash bottom sometimes using huge flat rocks to make the trail as seen below. 

Bike trail built in Wash

Bike trail crossing Wash

Walls of South Canyon Wash

Reaching the desert Trail
We took our break in the wash where there were plenty of big rocks to sit on with a choice of shade or sun. Afterwards, we continued along the bike trail that ran alongside the wash for a while. When the trail crossed the wash one more time, we enjoyed the man-made challenge of the steep flat rock to a wooden bridge. Next, the trail continued on the other side of the wash and on into the desert. The trail crossed a wide part of the wash as it flowed into the flatter desert terrain. It passed a couple of buried old cars and headed straight for the Late Night Trailhead. There are probably two or three trails that could be taken back to the parking lot but we chose the straightest configuration.

Fun bike Challenge

Big red rock next to bike Trail

Crossing the desert on bike Trail

Somebody's long lost Uncle
As we neared the east trailhead of Late Night, the terrain became flat and we stepped up the pace. It was a good group today and there were no problems with slower hikers. It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving so we all had a few extra calories to burn!

Stats: 6 miles; +210' gain; -1686' loss; 3.25 hours

Enjoying the Humor

Las Vegas Strip from bike Trail

North Cottonwood Valley from desert Crossing





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