101 Scenic Drives to Hiking Trailheads in the Southwest

The 101 free maps listed below were hand-built by Tom Herbertson, based on the driving directions provided by Deborah Wall in her book Base Camp Las Vegas: 101 Hikes in the Southwest published by Imbrifex Books in August 2017. All of the maps start in downtown Las Vegas at the corner of Fremont Street and Las Vegas Blvd in Las Vegas, NV 89101 and provide the best driving routes to each of the 101 trailheads described by the author in the book. Some of the driving directions in Deborah’s book differ in the starting place, but for the purposes of these maps, all start in downtown Las Vegas. And to make the maps more useful, Tom has combined directions to a few of the adjacent trailheads onto one map.

Special Note: When these maps were created, some of the roads were subject to snow and seasonal closures and and so some of the routes might not always follow the directions in the book to the trailheads, because the underlying Google database prevents us from creating maps on roads with construction or seasonal closures. But the route shown on the maps is as close to the author’s instructions as we could get them.

You can use these maps as is, or add your own additional points of interest by registering for a free account on RoadTripAmerica.com. If you don’t already have an account, you can register here. The account is free and allows you to customize, save, and share maps. Please read the instructions below this list for more info on how to use, customize, save, and share your maps.




**The numbers, below refer to the hike numbers in Deborah’s book, (e.g.: 001 is Hike #1)**

Scenic Drives to Hikes in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
001 Red Spring Interpretative Trail in Calico Basin
002 to 007 Red Rock Scenic Loop, Red Rock Canyon NCA
008 First Creek Canyon,

Spring Mountain State Park
Photo by Deborah Wall

Scenic Drives to Hikes in Mt. Charleston and the Spring Mountains National Recreational Area
009 to 013 Spring Mountains Visitor Gateway, Mary Jane Falls, Cathedral Rock, Big Falls, and Fletcher Canyon
014 to 015 Robbers Roost and the Bristlecone Trail

Scenic Drives to Hikes in the Lake Mead Recreation Area
016 Railroad Tunnel Trail
017 to 019 Fortification Hill, the Liberty Bell Arch and the Black Canyon National Water Trail
020 St Thomas
021 Bowl of Fire
022 to 023 Grapevine Canyon and Spirit Mountain

Scenic Drives to Hikes in some other Nevada State Parks
024 Spring Mountain Ranch State Park
025 to 027 Atlat Rock, Mouse’s Tank and White Domes Loop Trail in the Valley of Fire State Park
028 to 029 Hikes in Kershaw-Ryan and Cathedral Gorge State Parks
030 Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park

Petroglyphs in Sloan Canyon
Photo by Deborah Wall

Scenic Drives to Hikes in some other Nevada Public Lands
031Sloan Canyon’s Petroglyph Trove
032 River Mountain Hiking Trail
033 to 035 Bridge Spring Trail, Keyhole Canyon and Wee Thump Joshua Tree Wilderness Area

Scenic Drives to Hikes in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge
036 to 037 Corn Creek Visitor Center and the Hidden Forest

Scenic Drives to Hikes in the Basin and Range National Monument
038 to 039 White River Narrows and the Mt. Irish Petroglyph Site

Scenic Drives to Hikes in the Great Basin National Park
040 to 041 Wheeler Peak and the Alpine Lake Loop Trail

Scenic Drives to Hikes in the Ruby Mountains
042 to 043 Alpine Lakes and the Ruby Crest Trail

Angels Landing in Zion NP
Photo by Deborah Wall

Scenic Drives to Hikes in the Death Valley National Park
044 Zabriskie Point to Golden Canyon
045 Bad Water
046 Telescope Peak
047 Darwin Falls
048 A Racetrack for Rocks
049 Eureka Dunes
050 The Alabama Hills in Lone Pine
051 West Side Road
052 China Ranch

China Ranch, an oasis in the Mojave
Photo by Deborah Wall

Scenic Drives to Hikes in the Mojave National Preserve
053 to 055 The Rings Trail, Rock Springs Loop and Teutonia Peak Trail
056 Lava Tube
057 Fort Piute
058 Amboy Crater

Scenic Drives to Hikes in Zion National Park
059 to 065 Pa’rus Trail, The Watchman Trail, Angels Landing, Riverside Walk, Zion Narrows, Grafton, Huber Wash
066 Kolob Arch

Scenic Drives to Hikes in Cedar Breaks National Monument
067 Alpine Pond Trail
068 to 069 Winter Yurt & Banker Creek Trail

Scenic Drives to Hikes in Bryce Canyon National Park
070 to 072 Fairyland Loop Trail, Mossy Cave Trail and Bryce Canyon in Winter

Bryce Canyon via snowshoes
Photo by Deborah Wall

Scenic Drives to Hikes in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
073 to 075 Calf Creek and Peek-a-boo and Spooky Slot Canyons
076Willis Creek and Bull Valley Gorge
077 Hackberry Canyon

Scenic Drives to Hikes in Capitol Reef National Park
078 to 079 Fremont River Trail and Capitol Gorge

Scenic Drives to Hikes in Canyonlands National Park
080 to 081 The Maze and Horseshoe Canyon

Scenic Drives to Hikes in Arches National Park
082 to 083 Delicate Arch and Landscape Arch

Scenic Drives to Hikes in Grand Canyon National Park
084 to 085 Bright Angel Trail and Rim Trail
086 to 090 Cliff Spring Trail, Greenland Lake Trail, Widforss Trail, Uncle Jim Trail and Rim to Rim
091 Toroweap/Tuweep

Antelope Canyon
Photo by Deborah Wall

Scenic Drives to Hikes in Other Arizona Highlights
092 Lee’s Ferry and Lonely Dell
093 Antelope Canyon
094 Monument Valley
095 Canyon de Chelly
096 to 099 Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater, Wupatki National Monument, and Slide Rock State Park.
100 Palm Canyon/Kofa National Wildlife Refuge.
101 Chloride Murals.

Please note that each map includes the described route from the book and 3-4 of the RTA attractions found along it. You can add additional attractions from the book or points of interest of your own choosing to the maps.

After registering, you will be able to customize any and all of the 101 maps listed above by navigating to “Advanced Maps” (in the navigation bar at the top of every page) or clicking here.

    On the left hand column of the “Advanced Maps” page you will see some tables labeled as follows:

My Maps
My Custom Places
My Routes
My Drawn Routes
RTA Map Library — this is where you will find the list of maps that correspond to the routes in the book.

All the routes described in Base Camp Las Vegas: 101 Hikes in the Southwest are labeled like this: West BCLV-##-Hike Name Closest Town (where ## represents the hike number associated with that map). So, the first one you will see in that list is called “West-BCLV-001-Red Spring, Red Rock Canyon NCA, Las Vegas, Nevada” The easiest way to see all 55 maps which provide the routes to each of the 101 trailheads is to use the bclv in the keyword search box on the RoadTripAmerica.com MapCenter page.

If you click on the blue line under the number next to the word “West” it will open the link to the route.

Some key elements to note:

1. If you click on the blue flag labeled “1” you will find a description of the route and details about long it takes to drive this route.
2. The icons that have little colored flags are RoadTrip Attractions published by RoadTrip American contributing writers. They are not specifically related to Pete KJ’s hiking guide, just a quick means of getting to the trailhead.

You can save this RTA Library map into your personal collection of maps. Here are some general instructions about how to do that:

To modify a RTA Library Map and Save it as one of your Personal Maps:

Click on the number link. At this point, you can add your personal Custom Places and then save whatever is on your screen as a map. Just click the “Save Map” button. The map’s name will now appear in the “My Maps” box in the left-hand column.

To create a new map based on the original RTA Library Map + some new places that you’d like to add, you will be using the RTA Custom Maps “Waypoints” system. The Waypoints system is explained in greater detail on the Advanced Maps page — look for MAP INSTRUCTIONS.

Once you have added any new Custom Places, you would save the new map that you just created. Note: The resulting blue line route might not follow the exact route of the RTA Library Maps because there is a limitation on the number of waypoints available (23 waypoints plus the beginning and ending locations) but you can use the RTA flags and your new Custom Places markers as those waypoints and choose your new starting and ending locations. The resulting map will be very similar to the original RTA Library Map. (For more information about using the “Waypoint” system, see post #1 in this thread.)

And if you need help with any of this, please get in touch with us via email to map.center.support@roadtripamerica.com. You can also join the map discussion on the Trip Advice Planning Forum.

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