North Ash Grove Loop Trail, Spring Mountains Ranch State Park, Southern Nevada

Length:                                0.3 mi.
Width:                                  5 ft.
Surface type:                      crushed stone
Typical grade:                    4%
Maximum grade:              10%
Typical cross slope:          3%
Maximum cross slope:    10%
Obstacles:                            fresh donkey road apples

Red Rock Canyon is the dramatic western backdrop of the Las Vegas valley. Most of Red Rock Canyon is managed but the U.S. Bureau of Land Management as a National Conservation Area. However, a historic section of Red Rock Canyon is at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park off Nevada highway 159, just 20 miles from downtown Las Vegas. 

Spring Mountain Ranch, at the base of the sandstone cliffs, was established in this part of the desert because there was year-round water. That water irrigated pastures and supplied water for the historic Sandstone Ranch. The ranch house, built in the 1940’s, has been the secluded home to celebrities and is now open to the public for tours. There are still cattle in the pastures.

The North Ash Grove Loop trail begins at the parking lot adjacent to the ranch house. There are two accessible parking spaces on a concrete pad right at the house.

The crushed stone trail is edged with rocks to mark the trail. The trail winds down into an ash grove that provides shade in the warn season. There are a couple of benches available in the shade. If you are lucky, you may even see the resident group of Spring Mountain Ranch donkeys. 

It is important to stay on the trail because typical desert vegetation has thorns and stickers that seek out pneumatic tires, if you use an adaptive device that has them. Check out the map at the parking lot trailhead because the adjacent South Ash Grove Loop Trail overlaps and branches from this trail. Signage is missing or is not clear.

Accessible flush toilets are available in the picnic meadow below the ranch house.

This is the only hiking trail in southern Nevada State Parks that has accessible characteristics. The Nevada State Parks’ website for Spring Mountain Ranch State Park shows another trail beginning near the ranch house to Lake Harriet with lower gradient and a loop trail around a reservoir. That trail has been closed for several years because of an endangered species of fish in the reservoir.

See the Nevada State Parks website for Spring Mountain Ranch
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Assessed by Trail Access Project
February 2021
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