Historic Railroad Trail on Lake Mead

We had read about this bike trail on Wheeling It’s blog, and since it was just up the road from the RV Park we’re staying at, we definitely wanted to check it out. 

The trailhead is at the intersection of AZ-93 and Lakeshore Drive, just inside the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, and the bike path continues through the park, passing right by our campground.  Bryce took a solo ride last Thursday, including the 2 miles from the campground to the trailhead.  That portion of the ride is on a nice wide, paved path, but steadily uphill . . . so when Bryce and I set out on Friday, we decided to load the bikes into the back of the truck and drive up to the trailhead parking lot . . . that turned out to be a good decision!

The trail is an old railroad bed that follows the Lake Mead shoreline all the way to Hoover Dam, passing by the Lake Mead Marina,

and through five old railroad tunnels.

The tunnels were really cool,

 

and we had some great views of the lake!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was overcast that day, but the clouds provided some welcome relief from the high temperatures!

Bryce found a shortcut that he just had to try . . .

 

It was a nice day, and we made it almost all the way to the dam, although we stopped at the top of the last hill.  We’d already seen the dam, so no reason to ride down there!

We turned around and made our way back to the beginning of the trail.  We were almost back to the parking lot when we had our little mishap!

 

 

 

There’s a large gate at each end of the trail, which get closed and locked at dusk, and the wind had blown the gate at the beginning of the trail closed more than it had been when we first went through.  Bryce got through and warned me to be careful because the opening wasn’t as wide as it had been earlier.  The words were barely out of his mouth when my handlebar clipped the gate, and I landed face-first in the gravel!  Ouch!

Luckily, neither me or my camera were broken in the fall, and I ended up with just a scraped up elbow and bruised leg.  I was done on the bike, though, so we were really glad that we had driven up to the parking lot rather than riding the 2 miles up . . . and Bryce got to drive the truck for the 1st time!!