KTMrad 516 Posted June 3, 2007 Sometimes my job has some great perks and allows me to get paid for riding....... I had to work in Las Vegas for a week and I knew my schedule would give me extra time during the day to go riding after work, so I drove to Vegas with the 950 in the back of the truck. On Tuesday, I got off at 11:30am, so went for a nice 6 1/2 hour ride in the afternoon. I rode 5 miles from Alfred's house to Red Rock Canyon and up over the mountain pass in the dirt. Here's why it's called Red Rock Canyon..... Heading up the pass, view back through Canyon towards Las Vegas This pass was always pretty rocky with some tricky, rocky sections.....here's one of them Alfred said the pass had some severe washouts from heavy winter rains 2 years ago, I'm deciding which way to go here....... Luckily I found the bypass route that the 4 wheelers had blazed around the severe washout The 4 wheelers filled in some of the huge holes with smaller rocks, making it easier to get through the boulder field Another section I had to pick my way through......talk about fun !! The washouts never seemed to end Took a break after Red Rock Pass, heading towards Lovell Canyon and Trout Canyon Had to ride out to the pavement for a few miles, since it was too tricky to find the dirt route Alfred had taken us on previously to Wheeler Pass. After a few miles of pavement, I took the graded dirt road up towards Wheeler Pass, ended up making a wrong turn somewhere and came to a locked gate.....knew this wasn't the right way There was a lot of snow on the sides of the dirt road, I hoped I could make it over Wheeler Pass. I went back the way I came, and took the first turn I figured would head towards Wheeler Pass.......it all didn't look familiar to me, then I took another turn and the trail started to get narrower, rougher and less used. It was a fun trail though, deep, pebble sized rocks and gravel in a wash, so I had a blast gassing it around the corners, getting the bike sideways Here's where I had to stop, walk a little ways up to see what was ahead.....not good, it was not something to attempt by myself and figured it probably dead-ended anyway, so I had to turn around. Passed through a tight, narrow part where the canyon walls went straight up Got back out to the main dirt road, headed north and finally found Wheeler Pass road. Stopped at what remains of the old Charcoal Kilns, leftover from the mining days.... Too bad signs must be posted like this.....some people ruin it for everyone...... The road to Wheeler Pass is always fun, here's a bunch of photos at the pass I wanted to take a break, but it's always really windy at the pass.....I had to park the bike so the wind wouldn't blow it over. I continued on to a better spot for a break. Here, there was snow leftover on the east side of the pass The snowmelt created a stream running down the trail The east side of the pass is always rocky, this year was a bit rougher...I stopped to survey a washout below........from a distance, it looked pretty rough, but as I got up to it, there was another bypass around it Time for a break near Cold Creek, with awesome views of the mountains Ahhhh, cool & refreshing, reminded me of my Alaska Trip Heading towards the mountain community at Cold Creek, I saw 3 different herds of wild horses...... When I stopped for a photo of this herd, they got spooked and started galloping away from me Approaching the pavement, the sun was going down and I was treated to some awesome views of the sky, with the sun lighting up the desert around me, so I took a bunch of artsy-fartsy shots OK, enough with the bike posing ....here's just the mountains I wanted to do one more dirt loop, but it was getting dark, and for a change common sense kicked in...I remembered what can happen when I go for that last dirt loop at night by myself. So, from here I had to ride pavement all the way back, about 50 miles........but the dirt had made it all worth it !! It was a nice, little 140 mile ride. I'll be taking the bike up with me next week again to Vegas......perhaps I'll try the same loop backwards....it will be more challenging in the other direction !! There's a lot of great dirt riding around Vegas....and did I mention, I love my job ?!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
