The Historic Railroad Trail in Boulder City is a must to check out in Las Vegas. The trail overlooks Lake Mead, and it is where the railroad used run that took the trains into the Hoover Dam with supplies when it was being built.
It is great for hiking, running, or biking. The trail has 5 train tunnels and is 3.7miles long running from the trailhead at the Lake Mead Visitor Center to the Hoover Dam itself. I found that it is an easy trail that is wide but do be cautious if you have young children as there are steep drop-offs with no rails. I’ve hiked a portion of this trail twice with my kids, and I typically make them walk on the mountain side when going through the steep drop off sections.
There is a water fountain and porta-potty at the midway point with a picnic table. This is good to know if you are looking for a turnaround point and what to expect. For us, we sat down had a snack, rested, used the bathroom, and turned around to hike back to the car.
Overall, the views are great, and the tunnels are very neat, especially for the kids. There is signage throughout the trail where you can read the history and see old photographs. This helps bring it to life!
I highly recommend this trail!
Some ideas to pair this trail with for a day trip would be:
Hoover Dam
Lake Mead Recreation Area
Railroad Museum in Boulder City
Lunch at Fox Smokehouse BBQ in Boulder City
Nature Discovery Trail and Rock Garden in Boulder City
The last hike I did at the Historic Railroad Trail, we went to Fox Smokehouse BBQ for lunch to recharge and then took the kids to the Nature Discovery Trail and Rock Garden. The Discovery Trail is a paved trail with large desert animal statues. I brought the kids scooters and they cruised around to let out some steam after lunch. This made for a nice day trip.
Happy Trails!