Cottonwood Trail System

Decided to capitalize on the decent weather while I could and headed out to the Cottonwood trails for the first time last night after work. Amazing terrain. There was one, long section of just flowy, banked downhill. The uphill coming out of the parking lot was vicious with the 30 mile wind blowing into my face. The hill should have been easy but the wind would literally blow me to a stop. It was blowing so strong that when I undid the forks on the roof carrier the wind blew the bike down onto the top of the car.

Since it was my first time out there I kept it simple. I had planned on a 7 mile loop before dark but I must have missed the correct turnoff. Ended up doing about 5 miles with a few backtracks here and there. I can see that I'll be spending a lot of time out there over the next few weeks. I hear the stuff on the south side of the road is pretty good. I think I'll take a look at it this weekend.

I took a few pics to show the trail. Enjoy.

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Where is this Cottonwood trail in relation to Las Vegas ?

Nice! Looks like a cool trail. Great pictures. :popcorn:

The Cottonwood trails are just west of Vegas, near Redrock. They are pretty awesome. We are going back out tonight after work. We stayed north of Blue Diamond Highway but I hear the trails are pretty awesome on the other side, but it looks steep! It's only a 30 minute drive out there from my house, conversely Bootleg is 15 minutes. Not bad.

Here's the map of the vegas area to give an idea of where it is;
Attachment 44935

Here is the BLM trail map that I've used. It's confusing. There are so many trails everywhere, crisscrossing each other. They are all marked but all they say is RAIL with an arrow. No name or distance, or master map. Oh well
Attachment 44936

Thanks for the map on the trails. I lived in the mission hills area of Henderson back in the 70's and early 80's.

We went back out Friday night after work to do the loop we had originally looked at. Ended up doing 8.5 miles this time. A funner loop for sure. Tons of downhill and a nice gentle 2 mile long uphill at the end. A few more pics and a new map.

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Thats realy cool, i am taking a bunch of boy scouts out there Tues night for some evening riding. I think we might try to do that trail that you just posted. Any hints or guides on what to look for and what direction you took. Thanks.

I love this area now, anytime I go to Vegas I go west and ride my bike all day long...both sides of the blue diamond road offer some great riding, if I were taking scouts though, I think I would go to blue diamond and ride the trail system from there. We park at the bike shop and ride out...lots of great trails to choose from and the crew at the shop are always willing to tell you the best trails...

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Originally Posted by canyonguru

Thats realy cool, i am taking a bunch of boy scouts out there Tues night for some evening riding. I think we might try to do that trail that you just posted. Any hints or guides on what to look for and what direction you took. Thanks.

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RESURRECTION COMPLETE! We ride out there at least twice a week. I didn't realize we had Bogleyites here in town that mtn bike. We should get together. We have been doing a night ride every Sunday night out there. This past week we rode at Cottonwood Saturday, Sunday night, and then we rode out at Bootleg Tuesday night.

That is nice, I need to come down there and ride, I was planning on visiting my bro in law in the near future.