TRIP OF THE WEEK:
Christmas Tree Pass Road great for spring hiking
Christmas Tree Pass Road near Laughlin offers beautiful scenary. Illustration by Mike Miller.
The Christmas Tree Pass Road near Laughlin provides cool-season hiking, picnicking and exploring just minutes from one of Southern Nevada's fastest-growing communities. The primitive 16-mile route reveals stunning desert scenery and fascinating glimpses of prehistory as it loops through an area sacred to regional native people.
Christmas Tree Pass lies within Lake Mead National Recreation Area about 90 miles from Las Vegas. The road through the pass forms a loop connecting the highway to Laughlin with U.S. 95. To reach it, drive south through Searchlight on U.S. 95 to the Laughlin turnoff onto Highway 163. This scenic route to the Colorado River town twists through a pass in the rugged Newberry Range topped by 5,600-foot Spirit Mountain, a peak important in local American Indian lore.
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About 15 miles from the junction with U.S. 95, watch for the graded Christmas Tree Pass Road to the left. As it heads north and then west, the road to the pass provides access to informal picnic sites near sightseeing rock formations. Rough side roads snake off toward areas near Lake Mojave.
Accessible by passenger cars for the first few miles, the road gets rough as it climbs into the pass, requiring high-clearance or four-wheel drive vehicles. The pass gets its name from the scatter of pinyon and juniper trees along the route, some decorated with cans, bottles and shiny pieces of metal. Once through the pass, the road improves. Followed the whole way, the Christmas Tree Pass Road returns travelers to U.S. 95 about 14 miles south of Searchlight.
Even in a dry year like this one, a few wildflowers appear along the Christmas Tree Pass Road during March and April. Flowers appear later at higher elevations in the pass. Joshua trees and yuccas start now to produce blossoms, while cactus plants follow the first flush of spring blooms.
Look for flowers along south-facing roadsides or washes where they get additional water from runoff and warmth to germinate seeds. They also favor sites among the rock formations where they benefit from runoff, extra warmth and protection from desiccating winds. Take photos but resist the temptation to pick wild flowers. Left in place, they produce seed for future flower shows.
Other desert natives appear with the spring sunshine. Several kinds of rattlesnakes leave their dens at this season to hunt after long winter naps. Don't forego the scenery and flowers on their account, just keep their likely presence in mind. Watch where you place hands and feet and listen for warning buzz or rattle. Give them wide berth, keeping pets on leash and children close.
A couple of miles after turning on the graded road, watch for the short spur to the left marked Grapevine Canyon. At the end of a parking area, a half-mile foot trail heads along the edge of a wide wash toward the tumbled boulders of a canyon created by an intermittent creek and seasonal flood waters. In a year of plentiful rains, the creek runs out of the canyon to disappear into the gravelly wash.
The huge boulders at the mouth of the canyon bear the imprint of ancient cultures. Painstakingly incised in the stone centuries ago by aboriginal artists, petroglyphs cover the rock faces, one of the best displays of ancient rock in our region. The etched symbols probably indicate the significance of the site to early people because of its reliable water and because of the religious traditions associated with nearby Spirit Mountain by several Yuman tribes along the Colorado River. The sacred area today enjoys distinction as a Traditional Cultural Property and listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Grapevine Canyon invites exploration. Following the water upstream toward its spring in the mountains, visitors encounter plenty of challenges. A trampled path indicates where others found their way through the grasses and tangled grapevines for which the canyon is named. Hikers must climb over boulders to continue. Close to the watercourse, stones polished by floods create treacherous, slippery footing. When temperatures begin to climb, all that exertion leads to splashing in some of the deeper pools among the rocks. Inviting as it seems, the water is not safe to drink without treatment. Hikers need to carry bottled water.
