Mojave Desert

Tour Itinerary

DAY 1: We’ll meet in Lake Las Vegas for our rental bike fitting at 3:00pm and then have our orientation and dinner at 5:00pm. Unpack your bags because we’ll be here all week. Lake Las Vegas is a desert paradise with a 320-acre freshwater lake and 10 miles of shoreline. After dinner, take a dip in the resort’s pool or get a spa treatment to prepare you for the week. 0 miles.

DAY 2: After breakfast prepared by our guides, we’ll leave on our bikes and head for the River Mountains Loop Trail. This beautiful paved path surrounds the River Mountains and offers gorgeous views of Lake Mead and the Boulder Basin.

At times the trail follows an old railroad grade with steep cuts through granite and sandstone. Other times, the trail is wide open and surrounded by desert terrain filled with sagebrush, creosote and cactus. Keep your eyes open for rabbits, quail and roadrunners. After stopping at an overlook for the impressive Hoover Dam, we’ll have a picnic lunch and head back to our resort. 48 miles.

DAY 3: Today, we explore one of the newest members of our National Park Service, Tule Springs Fossil Beds. It became a National Monument just four years ago and preserves the history of the mammoths, lions and camels who once roamed through the area. We’ll stop at Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs to learn more about the archaeological digs that discovered the bones of the mighty mammals before heading back. 35 miles.

DAY 4: After breakfast, we’ll shuttle a short distance out of town to begin our ride on the 13-mile Scenic Drive through Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. You’ll want to stop often to soak up the jaw-dropping views of the red hued rock formations. Then take a short hike to see the Petroglyph Wall, full of art estimated to be more than 800 years old.

Lunch will be on your own at Bonnie Springs Ranch. It was originally built in 1843 as a stopover for wagon trains traveling the Old Spanish Trail to California. Today it is a replica of an old western mining town. At the end of our loop ride, we’ll shuttle back to our resort for a well-earned soak in the pool.  34 miles.

DAY 5: Our ride through the Valley of Fire is the most challenging of the week but well worth it! It is the largest and oldest state park in Nevada and there’s a reason that it’s been the scene of so many movies. The red cliffs glow as if burning when they’re lit by the sun just right.

They’ve served as Mars in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s film, Total Recall, and represented planet Veridian in Star Trek Generations. Today, they’ll be our bicycling backdrop. After exploring Atlatl Rock, Rainbow Vista, Elephant Rock and Echo Bay, we’ll stop for a picnic lunch. The heartiest in the group can cycle the rest of the way to the hotel while the rest of us shuttle back. 38 or 70 miles.

DAY 6: Our last ride of the week takes us on the Wetlands Trail, a surprising name for a bike path in the middle of the desert. The paved path takes us through Wetland Park, created years ago to offset the loss of habitat from the growth of Las Vegas. Today, all water from the valley drains into these beautiful marshlands. You can learn all about it at the park’s nature center. We’ll end our tour with a picnic lunch, say our good-byes, and shuttle to the Las Vegas airport, arriving by 2:00pm. 21 miles.