Southwest - Need Vegas Ride Recommendation

A friend and I are going to be passing through Las Vegas in mid-February with our road bikes and hoped to get a 3-4 hour ride in, since neither of us have ever cycled there.

Is there a challenging, classic ride or two in the area that you could recommend?

We're staying at the Hilton - it would be nice to ride from there if possible, but not a big deal if it makes more sense to drive someplace to start the ride.

Well there are MANY places to ride in the area. I assume that being a 3-4 hour ride you are talking around 50 miles. The loop around the lake is a real nice ride. Great views and about 60 miles from the Green Valley area where I live. I would not ride from the Hilton as that is in the middle of town and to me would pose some unecessary bodily risk. On the complete other end of town is red rock which again is a real nice ride and beautiful views of the red rock mountains. If you started up near Charleston/215 and proceeded up Charleston, include "the loop" and continued on down to Blue Diamond and back around I believe would be about 60-70 miles (don't quote me on that as I never ride on that side of town). Check out www.luv2bike.com (http://www.luv2bike.com) which has some info on local rides and links to other sites which include rides. Also take a look at www.greenvalleycyclists.org (http://www.greenvalleycyclists.org) . This is the club I belong to and on the website there are listed rides with some maps and directions.

Charleston Boulevard is very heavily travelled. If you go west towards Red Rock, try Alta about 1/2 mile north of Charleston. It is now the designated bikeway replacing Charleston. Try googling on Las Vegas Century Ride and you may find the 50/64 mile ride that goes to Red Rock State Park on NV 159 at the west end of town. The 13 mile Red Rock loop is very challenging. Do not try to ride NV 160 Blue Diamond Road (NV 160) back to town. It is OK out where it connects with NV 159 but there is major construction beginning about 3 miles west of I-15. It is heavily travelled, narrow, and very unsafe for quite a few miles. I was on it last weekend in a car and thought I wouldn't ride it for any reason.

Check out www.rivermountainstrail.com. It is the website for a trail that runs from Lake Mead Drive at least as far as Railroad Pass, maybe farther by now. It has 2 or 3 killer hills just as you start at LMD but gets better within a mile or two. No water along this part so take some with you. I know you can use local streets and bike paths to get to it because I rode it as part of a 50 mile Scout merit badge ride last year but I don't have maps for the route we used. You might be able to get bike route maps at www.rtcsouthernnevada.com. It is the regional transportation commission website and they are responsible for the bike paths in Clark County.

I did a nice 15 miler in Boulder City starting at Hemenway Park, just sorta made up a route, one could easily make it longer and there are some interesting hills if you have any interest in that. It's a nice town, and I'd recommend a stop at the Boulder Dam Brewing Company for some post ride calories.

A friend and I are going to be passing through Las Vegas in mid-February with our road bikes and hoped to get a 3-4 hour ride in, since neither of us have ever cycled there.

Is there a challenging, classic ride or two in the area that you could recommend?

We're staying at the Hilton - it would be nice to ride from there if possible, but not a big deal if it makes more sense to drive someplace to start the ride.

Hey I had some friends from the forums (safety and advocacy) section come to Vegas over the summer....they also stayed at the Hilton :) We did the red rock area........up Charleston did the scenic loop and back. If you care to ride with myself and a few others - PM me.

Asia

This sounds excellent. Are you taking notes Spovegas?

Wow, thanks to everyone for the awesome response! Seems like Red Rock is the crowd favorite - I think we can't not do it now. Time for me to go to work on google earth/maps. If you haven't already pieced it together, Mtn Mike is the friend I will be in town with. We're really looking forward to checking out the great riding and WEATHER in Vegas! (Low of 7 deg here in Spokane tonight. Brrrr.)

I hope your mid-February weekend in town is not this one. The weather here has been terrible (for Las Vegas it has). The forecast for the entire Valentines Day - President's Day weekend has been for on and off rain with the temperatures in the 50s. Beware of riding in the rain if it gets any more than a light rain. The streets get flooded very easily when we get a decent rain. Not fun to ride in and potentailly dangerous.