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This page last updated on 04/17/2018
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02/07/2013 Trip Notes: Lake Mead National Recreation Area's Northshore Road is always a beautiful day's drive that provides a variety of geological sights. The forces that created this landscape are revealed in the exposed rainbow-colored layers of rock in every direction. For this location (Fig. 01), begin looking for hiking and photography signs just past the 20-mile marker while driving north on Northshore Road. At 20.5 miles, the parking area for this trail is on the left side of the road. Even though we stopped here once before for a restroom break, we didn't have the time to take the hike. The round-trip loop trail climbs 200-feet from the parking area to the top of a distant bluff (Fig. 02) and offers a small taste of the many beautiful geologic wonders of this region. This dramatic northwest panoramic view (Fig. 03) provides glimpses of the Muddy Mountains, the red Aztec sandstone rocks of Bowl of Fire, Bitter Springs Valley and the Virgin Basin. The domes of whitish rock in the middle of the picture are gypsum.The view in (Fig. 05) is looking southwest from the trailhead at the parking lot. The final view (Fig. 06) is a close-up I made with my zoom set to 20X – compare this to the upper right corner of the landscape view in (Fig. 03). The last two shots are of a few of my fellow hikers (Fig. 07) and of Bill (Fig. 08), the driver of our van.
Hike Summary: The trailhead elevation for this hike is at 2,383-feet. This well-defined .6-mile trail runs northward at a gentle incline that gradually gets steeper. About five minutes out, the trail forks to form a loop. Both trails lead to the summit. The left fork is a short steep trail with very loose gravel (Fig. 04). The right fork is more than twice as long, but is a much more gentle, constructed trail. I hike up the left trail and found it moderately difficult and would recommend using the right trail to reach the summit (Elevation 2,573-feet). Because this trail is too short by itself to constitute a daytrip, combined with other stops such as the Redstone Loop Trail/Picnic area and Rogers Spring, etc, it can still make for a nice daily outing.
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