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Directions: From the Stratosphere Casino head northeast on Las Vegas Blvd about 3 miles and bear right to merge onto US-515/93/95 south towards Boulder City. Follow US-93/95 for 17 miles and then merge onto US-95 South (Veterans Memorial Hwy), headed towards Searchlight. Follow this road about 12 miles until a set of power lines cross the highway. At the power line turn right and head west on the power line road.
06/02/2015 Trip Notes: Today, my friend Harvey Smith and I decided to spend a day riding his 4WD Rhino around Eldorado Valley and the McClough and Highland ranges at the southern end of Eldorado Canyon. For more information on this area, go to my page ... Highland Range Crucial Bighorn Habitat Area. The drive in from US-95 is along a very straight power line road (Fig. 03) that ends up winding its way (Fig. 04) to the top of a hill with five overhead power line transmission towers. This is actually the northern tip of an area that has been classified as the Highland Range Crucial Bighorn Habitat Area. The view from the base of one of these towers (Fig. 01), follows the power line as it runs due north up Eldorado Valley towards the El Dorado Solar Power Plant. Refer to the map in (Fig. 02). After spending some time roaming around the top of this hill taking pictures (Figs. 05 & 06), we decided to head north up Eldorado Valley. Our initial goal was to locate and drive through McClough Pass, located at the upper left of the map in (Fig. 02). Unfortunately, before reaching the power line road that runs through this pass, we turned onto a 4WD road that was headed in the right direction, but ended up becoming more of a very rocky wash vice a road several miles short of the pass. It got so bad that we finally decided to abandon our goal and head back the way we had come. Scroll down to "Trip Notes (con't)" for more pictures.
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(Fig. 03)
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Trip Notes (con't): When we got back to the "hill" (Fig. 07) from which we had started, we picked up another dirt road that ran southwest around the hill and into the heart of the Highland Range (Fig. 08). The further we drove into this area, the more we began to enjoy the unique geology (Figs. 09 thru 11). Notice the large "hoo-doo" like conglomerate tower in the middle of (Fig. 10). The views that we experienced here made up for our disappointment of not reaching McClough Pass during the earlier part of the day. The final picture (Fig. 12) features a grouping of odd and end pictures I took throughout the day.
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