- Spring Mountain Ranch State Park
- Valley of Fire State Park
- Ice Age Fossil State Park
- Cathedral Gorge State Park
Spring Mountain Ranch State Park
How to see Spring Mountain Ranch State Park
Spring Mountain Ranch is very intriguing and something about this park draws you in. There’s a lot of history at the Ranch and it’s beautiful in its’ own regard. It’s located about 35 mins from the Las Vegas Strip. The entrance fee is $10 per car with a Nevada tag and $15 for visiting cars. There are hiking trails, picnic tables, and a visitor center in the Ranch. There is a theatre stage on site and in the Summer and Fall, you can see featured plays/performances or movies. Details for tickets and features are online under Super Summer Theatre or on their social media page. We haven’t seen a play or a movie yet but hoping to check it out soon!
I enjoy bringing the kids here to picnic and hike. We have visited a handful of times and it’s usually not too crowded. There is a big field by the picnic tables if the kids want to run around. We usually hike the Overlook loop, which is about .8 miles. The views are great, with a look out point, and a few other points of interest. Sometimes we add on a portion of the Lake Harriet Loop trail for added mileage. There are other trail options besides these two trails, so definitely lots to explore. It’s easy to spend a minimum of a half day at this park.
The mountain views on the trails and looking for ducks and other animals near the water features usually entertain us! There is also a cemetery on the Overloop Loop and that usually starts up a conversation. We often see Burros at this park, especially towards the end of the day. The kids enjoy the mystery of what we might see.
After you learn some of the history at the Ranch, you begin to imagine what it must have been like all of those years ago to be way out there in the desert, before Las Vegas was built out. It definitely gives you a different perspective as you hike through the park. To me, there is something really captivating about this state park. I can’t put my finger on it, but hope you feel the same if you take a visit!
If we venture to this park on a family outing, we enjoy driving a little further down the main road (Charleston Blvd/SR 159) to the small town of Blue Diamond. We like to pull off for lunch or a beer at Cottonwood Station. This restaurant is small and has a great vibe. Many cyclists and mountain bikers stop off here to fuel up. Sometimes we also stop at the Blue Diamond library and I let the kids see if there are any take-and-make activities or used books for sale.
Valley of Fire State Park
Our daytrip to Valley of Fire State Park
Valley of Fire is a Nevada State Park that cannot be missed. It is located about 1.5 hours from Las Vegas and makes for a perfect day trip. The entrance fee is the same as the other State Parks, $10 per car for NV residents and $15 for out of state. This park offers some pretty epic views, lots of hiking trails, wildlife sightings, picnic areas, points of interest, historical petroglyphs, etc. We did a full day trip and still didn’t get to see everything!
We packed a lunch, so our general itinerary was that we arrived mid-morning, checked out the Visitor Center, then found a picnic table for an early lunch along the drive. After eating we did our first hike.
Stop 1
Our first stop off after lunch was the Rainbow Vista Trail. It was very sandy, but so nice! We visited in late October, and it was still quite hot. This trail didn’t offer much shade, but in the cooler months, that could be quite nice. Regardless, it was still a great trail, and we enjoyed the hike and exploring.
The Rainbow Vista trail is also great for kids! It wasn’t too difficult, and my kids enjoyed schlepping in the sand and climbing on the low rocks.
This was the one wonderful spot on the trail that we had a brief moment of shade and could really enjoy and embrace the beautiful red rocks and scenery. The hike was well worth it!
After hiking the Rainbow Vista Trial, we then drove to our next pinpointed stop. Look at the Big Horn Sheep we came across along the way! Amazing!
Stop 2
Our next stop was White Domes Loop. It was also a sandy trail with some steep stairs, but overall worth seeing. As a bonus there are also some leftover movie set artifacts on this trail! The kids enjoyed seeing that and reading a little bit of the history.
Stop 3
After we got our fill on the White Domes Loop, we headed to our next stop with was the Atlatl Rock. The picture shows the stairs up to the Petroglyphs.
To the right is a picture of the Petroglyphs. It was amazing to see the old drawings! And then you think, how did they even get up there?! Or what must the land have looked like that long ago to have enabled the drawings to be in that spot.
Overall, the day trip out to Valley of Fire was really enjoyable and I highly recommend to anyone visiting the Vegas area looking for something to do or as a local looking for a weekend activity. There was a good mix of recreation to be had and general sight-seeing.
Ice Age Fossils State Park
Our experience at Ice Age Fossils State Park
The Ice Age Fossils State Park is newer to the Las Vegas area and opened in January of 2024. Because it is new, it is very nice and well-kept thus far! The entrance fee is $3 and is taken inside the Visitor Center. We visited on a weekend in January, and it wasn’t too crowed. It was pretty windy and a little cold, so maybe that kept the crowds down. Overall, we spent about a half day at this park. First, we explored the exhibits inside the Visitor Center and then ventured outside for the hiking!
First up was the Megafauna Trail, where there are informational plaques along the way, coupled with visual representation of the Megafauna that used to inhabit the area. It’s pretty wild and not exactly what you’d expect given what the landscape looks like today.
After reading all about the ancient inhabitants, we then took the Connector trail in order to get to the Big Dig trail. The Connector trail looks like there is nothing around (as pictured to the left), so it was exiting when we reached the Big Dig trail and got to the see the points of interest there!
The Big Dig trail was fascinating! I had no clue this trench of excavation was going to be around the corner. It was pretty neat to be in the trenches where the dig took place, and where the site was explored and examined for ancient fossils and other findings. The informational plaques really paint the picture of what took place in the different sections. All so very interesting!
We didn’t do a lot of research before heading to this State Park, so we didn’t really know what to expect. To our surprise it turned out pretty fascinating! It proved the point of how it became notable enough to be a State Park! I definitely recommend checking this one out if you have a few hours or a half day. I’m not sure how many times we will return, but it’s definitely good to check out at least one time.
Cathedral Gorge State Park
Our brief experience at Cathedral Gorge
I mentioned Cathedral Gorge in my Great Basin National Park post, as we stopped off at this park on the way back to Las Vegas from the Great Basin. It’s a perfect pairing to the Great Basin or would make a great day trip from Las Vegas! We stopped at Cathedral Gorge over Labor Day weekend, so it was still quite hot. I definitely recommend exploring in the morning or evening of the hotter months or going in a cooler month. It’s beautiful, but there isn’t much shade or anywhere to hide from the heat. It was a good thing we planned this park as just a brief stop, because it was too hot in the middle of the day to explore further.
The entrance fee is $5 for NV residents and $10 for non-NV vehicles, and it was taken at a self-serve kiosk on the way into the park. There are bathrooms available in the park and some picnic tables. There also appeared to be camp sites available.
We did some minimal hiking, since this was just a pitstop on our way home. There were several stop off points within the park, each appearing to have a point of interest and trails that you could explore. There were some slot canyon type sections at the Moon Caves, but honestly it made me a little nervous with my kids. I wasn’t sure how far back they went, and I couldn’t tell if there were trail markers, so I was concerned that we could get lost. It might have gone nowhere at all or might have been really cool, but we didn’t explore further. I would recommend reading up on that more if you want to check out the slot canyon type trail sections.
It was neat to see the unique rock structures at the Moon Caves. But since we weren’t going into the slots there wasn’t too much more to explore. With that, we moved on to another section in the park!
We stopped at the next section up, which was the Cathedral Caves and Water Tower. This photo was taken on the Miller Point trail, just past the water tower and was pretty easy and flat. We briefly explored, just going out and back for maybe about 30 mins.
There are other trails and areas that we didn’t explore. You could easily spend more time here and do a half or a full day at this park. Since this was just a stop off for us, those 2 stops concluded our exploring for the day. It was nice to stretch the legs and see something new.
My recommendations and takeaways for Cathedral Gorge are that:
1. Either, time it so that you can stop in a cool period of the day or make a day trip of it in a cooler month so that you can really explore the full park.
2. Explore all of the hiking trails and take a lunch! There are 5 hiking trails at this park. I feel like we missed out on exploring other “gem” areas in the park because we did allot enough time there. The Juniper Draw loop is 3 miles and looks to cover much of the park.
3. Check out the Visitor’s Center when you are there. We went right past it with our time constraint, so I’m sure we missed out on some history and fascinating information that could have enriched our whole experience.
Happy Trails!