By Deborah Wall, Outdoors

One benefit of living in Southern Nevada is the opportunity to explore little-traveled backroads winding their way to uncrowded outdoor adventures. It’s too bad that heat discourages this activity in deep summer, but even then you can have a great time if you prepare carefully, start early in the day, and choose the right road.

One of the best for a summer jaunt is the Mormon Well Road, originally a pioneer wagon trail on what is now the 1.5 million-acre Desert National Wildlife Refuge. This gravel road starts about 26 miles north of Las Vegas, four miles east of U.S. Highway 95 near the refuge’s Corn Creek Field Station.

About 43 miles of this trail will bring you across the scenic Sheep Range to exit on U.S. Highway 93, the road to Alamo and points north, just a couple of miles south of State Route

A corral built by Mormon pioneers in the early 1900s can be found with a short hike from Mormon Well Road in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Deborah Wall.

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By Deborah Wall, Outdoors

Those new to hiking, or merely new to hiking in Southern Nevada, are sometimes surprised to find out how much of it can be done within a short drive of Las Vegas. If variety is the spice of hiking, hikers in our region are living large.

They can choose between deep, narrow canyons, high peaks, lush riparian areas, fiery sandstone formations, and even historic sites.

Right now is one of the best times of year to hit the trails, second only to blooming spring. Temperatures have cooled off and there is less risk of thunderstorms than in summer.

One of the handiest haunts for valley-based hikers is Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, west of Las Vegas.

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