Red Mountain Loop (Bootleg Canyon) - 1/27/18

Red Mountain from West Leg

Las Vegas and Spring Mountains from Skyline

Lake Mead from Red Mountain Peak

Connecting with West Leg

 Within the eroded ancient volcano of the River Mountains is a world class bike trails park named Bootleg Canyon Bike Trails Park. Located in Boulder City, NV, the park holds large events in bike racing. When the park is quiet, hikers are welcome to hike the trails along with a few recreational bikers. Today, ten hikers parked at the trailhead at the base of the zip line on Canyon Road. The road continues up through the canyon from here changing to a dirt surface. The story goes that Bootleg Canyon was used to transport illegal moonshine during the prohibition. There are still a few ruins of moonshine stills located within the canyon.

West Leg Terrain

 There was a very stiff cold wind as we started out this morning. We were not expecting it but hiking tends to warm you up and so that's what we did ... quite fast at first!

First of Many Swoopy Bike Hills

 Up the canyon hill to the left, we connected with the West Leg. (The trails in the park are simply called by name without the implied "trail" following it.)

Canyon Road parallels our Trajectory

One of Many fun little Scrambles

 The West Leg has beautiful multi-color terrain as it winds in and out of side canyons along the dirt road below. In the past, we have seen bighorn sheep on this trail but those sheep were probably sheltered from the cold this morning, out of sight. About the time that we circled around the end of the canyon and came to the junction sign in the photo below, the official zip line bus came tootling up the road. We all waved and yelled unintelligible stuff to each other. It sounded like they were excited and in good spirits! We hiked on up the road a little ways and turned left onto Skyline.

Trail Sign at Trailhead Junction

 There is an obvious reason this trail is called Skyline! Yes, not far along the trail the skyline view of Las Vegas and the snowy Spring Mountains came into view.

Skyline from Skyline

 We could also see River Mountain, the highest peak in the River Mountain Range.

Eroded Caldera from Skyline

We love Janet!

 The eroded ancient caldera also spread out before us. Nearing the end of Skyline, we curved around to the right where the Red & Black Saddle came into view below. There was a couple on the trail going to the Black Mountain Overlook and they waved. Once we were up to the parking lot trailhead where the trail climbs up to the start of the zip line, we took a look at the gate across the road further up. Our original plan was to descend on Power Pole but that requires squeezing around the forbidding gate. Again, we found ourselves staring at a "No Trespassing" sign. Okay. Okay. We'll find another way to descend. Just not sure whether these signs were meant for hikers that are only going 1/4 mile up the little road to catch a trail off the side of the mountain.

Watching a Zip Liner

 But, these days, things are a little different than they used to be. Past the gate, at the top of the mountain, there is a huge radar/antenna/whatever that is used by the airplanes. Pretty important. (More important than an empty Boy Scout summer camp. Just sayin'.)

Setsuko on the Peak

 So, we climbed up the trail to the peak area where that bus load of zip liners were getting their instructions. Yes, they were now quiet.

Taking a Break out of the Wind

Starting down Armageddon

 We watched the zip liners take off then proceeded on up to the peak where we found shelter from the wind and took our snack break. While we ate, we watched the group start their zipping going two by two. We also made our plans for a different descent on the front side of the mountain instead of on the back. After the break, we started down the Armageddon. Almost immediately, we started the trend of very steep down! We were not in a hurry because most of us needed a little extra time with the steep terrain. From the Armageddon, we connected with Snakeback. Snakeback is a bike trail used often with the park's downhill competitions.

More Armageddon

 We went carefully and slowly with each obstacle hill. Rounding a corner, we came into view of the "BC" sign on the hillside that you can see from the highway below.

A Common View on our Descent

 Here, we turned to the left and took a quick right onto Gstring. (We didn't name these trails!) Gstring follows the top of a narrow ridge ... until it doesn't! Then the trail swoops big time!

Passing the "BC" sign as we left Snakeback

A Steep Gstring Swoop

 We were losing elevation very fast and on the lookout for the Upper Lake View trail that runs perpendicular to Gstring. With an educated guess, we found Upper Lake View and turned right. This trail did some swooping, too. Then it started settling down. The zip liners were over our heads for most of the 1.5 mile descent. We yelled up to them hoping they were having as good a time doing it as we were at watching them and hiking our steep dive off the mountain. Next, we waltzed right into the zip line trailhead where we had started. Fun morning!

5 miles; 1000 feet elevation gain; 2.75 hours

Another Swoop on the Upper Lake View

Calmer Hiking on the Upper Lake View

The "BC" sign from Upper Lake View