Nevada

Terrain // Campsite | Cost // $20/night | Our Rating // 7*

Overview

In our last blog, we talked about all the city life we experienced while visiting Las Vegas. We weren’t expecting the incredible number of nature views close by. We made a few trips out to a couple of parks in Las Vegas. First, Valley of Fire State Park, and the second, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. It was refreshing to get out in nature between work and the hustle of city life.

*Note, this post is a little different setup than our others. The rating above is specifically for Red Rock Canyon Campground. The nature views between these two parks were easily 10/10.

Valley of Fire

The Valley of Fire State Park is an incredible, colorful outdoor destination in Nevada, about an hour outside Las Vegas. It’s filled with hiking trails and stunning red and pink rock formations. The drive alone is worth a visit. We did the Fire Wave, White Domes, and Seven Wonders Loop, which equaled about 2.5 miles. These trails weren’t overly marked, so we ended up hiking out of our way a few times. It’s $10 / carload for Nevada residents and $15 for non-residents. We could have easily spent a whole week here and will definitely have to come back and boondock outside the park.

Red Rock Canyon

Red Rock Canyon features a one-way 13-mile scenic drive, hiking trails, and camping. Timed Reservations are required for vehicle entry to the Scenic Loop. Reservations are available online, along with daily entry passes. It’s insane that this park is located 25 minutes outside of Las Vegas. It was one of those places where my jaw dropped as soon as I saw the mountain. Since it was close to town, we decided to stay for a few nights at their campground. The campground was nice, but they don’t have amenities other than hole toilets. Honestly, it wasn’t worth paying $20 per night. The next time we’re in town, we’d probably try to find some BLM land that’s close or head over to Valley of Fire instead.

Calico Tanks Trail

On New Year’s Day, Michael, Caleb, Brianna, and I decided to power through our hangovers and checked out some nature. As soon as we started, we came up to this big round rock, and Brianna said, “I wanna go up.” So up we went, and we saw some insanely gorgeous views right off the bat. This was a little over 2 mile, out and back hike. There was a little scrambling to get to the top, but the view of the Calico Hills was so worth it. The whole hike there and back was beautiful and was the perfect way to start 2023.

Ice Box Canyon Trail

After leaving Caleb’s apartment, we spent 4 days at Red Rock Canyon Campground. It was mostly a “recovery” period as we returned to the swing of things living in our camper again. After work one day, we hiked Ice Box Canyon Trail. This one was a little tricky to follow on All Trails, so we’re glad we had the map downloaded to stay close. At the end of the trail, there was actually water flowing in a small waterfall!

Tip:

Having a trail map is so helpful. There are some hikes out there, that are a bit more obscure to follow along with. We ended up subscribing to the Pro version of All Trails, and it’s been so dang helpful. If you haven’t heard of All Trails, it’s a company with over 400,000 trail maps. They’re a pretty cool company that does good things for the environment as well. When you sign up for All Trails, 1) they’ll plant two trees for us, and 2) you’ll have access to all of the trails in their arsenal. You don’t even have to pay for it!