Get app for trails in southern Nevada

 

Neon to Nature is an online tool that will help you find walking and bicycle trails throughout Southern Nevada. There are over 1,000 miles of trails here in the valley. Each trail listing includes trail information and photos, along with detailed map descriptions of the trail’s location, length, and various amenities.

The Neon to Nature app is available for your Android device on Google Play and for your iPhone on the Apple App Store. Download the free app for your mobile device to find trails near you! 

Happy New Year

Blessed by lovely weather this week, I reset the odometer for a new year and managed to log an initial 45 miles of short commuting trips. Can you guess what one of my resolutions is? For you locals (Las Vegas), hope you have investigated the RTC Club Ride program. What a great incentive to take the time to green up our environment. (I'll let you know if I win anything this year.)

Bike trails in North Las Vegas

We don’t have to go far to find multi-purpose paths where motorized vehicles are not allowed. Right here in North Las Vegas there are 24 miles of paved trails in Aliante that are open to the public as well as the (currently) 5.5 miles of paved trails along the Las Vegas Wash. This will soon be almost doubled when a new trail opens along the Las Vegas Channel from Deer Springs Way to Craig Road. Eventually the two trails will meet, cross I-15 on a dedicated bike bridge and continue to Pecos and Lake Mead. These trails are great for walkers, joggers, skateboarders, roller-bladers, wheel chairs, strollers and cyclists. This recently published story in the Northern/ Aliante View includes a map and more details.

Google Maps adds Bicycle Routes

Have just discovered (thanks to my hubbie - I really don't have time to think recreation this month) that Google Maps has a great feature (can it be new? or maybe we just never noticed it before) that shows bike routes anywhere in the country. Go to Google.com, click on Maps along the top left corner, then when you see the USA map, open the More options in the top right corner and click Bicycling. Then start drilling down anywhere in the country.

I experimented with NLV first and it seems that the light green lines are bike-friendly/bike-lane streets and the dark green lines are dedicated bike trails. I also discovered that Google will give directions between two points using either car, public transportation, walking or bicycling. And you can adjust these little maps if you want to go by an alternate route.

Using this knowledge I explored other trails and areas I am familiar with. Everything rings true unless a route has two designations (i.e. path in a state or national park) and in those cases the bicycle designation seems to take second place (doesn't show on the map). No matter, this will be a great first step in planning any future trips.