On May 18, 2004, Ken and I decided to hike the Railroad Tunnel Trail at Lake Mead. This is a fairly easy hike of 4.4 miles with no elevations to conquer. It's more like a pleasant walk with good scenery. The trail is actually the railraod bed used to transport workers and equipment for construction of the Hoover Dam in the early 1930s. The ties and tracks are long gone. Five tunnels were blasted out of the colorful rock and are part of the accessible trail. There are good views of the lake along the 2.2 mile path. After the fifth tunnel, a fence prohibits you from entering the secure area of the dam.
We parked on a very breezy morning at 5:30am in the parking lot of the Alan Bible Visitors Center and easily located the gate to the trail. We noticed once again how low the lake was from the prolonged drought. The marina was far out from its original location. After completing the 4.4 mile roundtrip, we took a tunnel under the road to follow the path in the opposite direction. We followed this for about a mile to the point where it makes a left turn heading uphill to Boulder City. The entire railroad trail was lined with creosote bushes in bloom. Along the way, we saw a few jackrabbits, huge ant colonies and were delighted to see a family of quail. There were about 8 peeps trailing the parents. Hearing our approach, the mother quickly hid the young in a thick bush. Both parents then parted in opposite directions chirping as if to lead us away from the newborns. After we were well out of distance, they returned to gather the "family unit". We took the scenic route back to Las Vegas and spotted two future hiking options and got a good picture of the Strip from high up on Lake Mead Blvd.
Following are pictures with some comments.
This marina keeps moving out as the water level falls.
View of the first two tunnels.
End of the trail.
Barrel cactus grow on the hills.
Wonder what Ross Perot is doing these days.
The male quail tries to lead us away from the brood.
Good view of the city from the east end of Lake Mead Blvd.