Overview

Dales Trail is a 2.1-mile segment of the Escarpment Route that runs through open desert along the base of the Wilson Cliffs. Dales Trail runs between the Ice Box Canyon Trail and the Pine Creek Canyon Trail. The trail runs through Pinyon-Juniper Woodland vegetation at a fairly gentle grade most of the way, but it has several short, steep sections; it is quite rocky and hard to walk on; and it seems to twist and jog back and forth far more than is necessary. The south end of the trail cuts across a number of steep ravines, but rather than contour around the back of the ravine, the trail drops into each one and climbs back up the other side. In general, this trail was poorly laid out and is not among my favorites. Fortunately, park benches along the trail encourage you to stop, relax, and enjoy the splendid views.

Link to map. Link to BLM Georeference PDF map file.

Dales Trail connects two trails, so it can be walked in either direction. Here, I describe it running from Ice Box Canyon to Pine Creek Canyon, which is the downhill direction. For hikers going the other direction, see Dales Trail Northbound. The total distance between the two trailheads is about 2.8 miles.

Watch Out

Other than the standard warnings about hiking in the desert, ...this is a moderately strenuous hike requiring careful attention to where you are walking so as not to twist an ankle on the many loose rocks in the trail.

While hiking, please respect the land and the other people out there, and try to Leave No Trace of your passage. Also, even though this is a short hike, be sure to bring what you need of the 10 Essentials.

Getting to the Trailhead

This hike is located along the Scenic Loop Road in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, about 1 hour west of Las Vegas. Drive out to Red Rocks, pay the fee, and then drive about 2/3rds of the way around the Scenic Loop to the Ice Box Canyon Trailhead or the Pine Creek Canyon Trailhead.

The Hike

From the Ice Box Canyon Trailhead (Table 1, Waypoint 01), hike southwest on the Ice Box Canyon Trail, crossing Red Rock Wash and heading towards Ice Box Canyon. Early on, the trail is well defined as it heads towards the mouth of Ice Box Canyon. After about 0.2 miles, the Ice Box Canyon Trail reaches a trail junction (Wpt. 02) where Dales Trail goes south (left), the Ice Box Canyon Trail continues west (straight) into the canyon, and the SMYC Trail goes north (right).

From the junction, turn south (left) on the rocky trail and hike towards Ice Box Wash, which is only 2-3 minutes away. The trail drops into the wash, goes upstream around a big shrub live oak tree, crosses the wash, and then climbs the bank on the far side.

Just across the wash, there is a park bench in the sun where you can stop, relax, and gaze off to the north towards the La Madre Mountains Wilderness Area. While here, notice that there is a lot of tall, dense vegetation in and near the edges of the wash (including shrub live oak, manzanita, singleleaf pinyon pine, sagebrush, and lots of others). As you head south from here, you will quickly leave the wash-vegetation and get onto a sidehill environment dominated by blackbrush and buckhorn cholla, with singleleaf pinyon pine, Utah juniper, banana yucca, yerba santa, Mormon tea, Turpentinebroom, and bunchgrasses. On the sidehills, the vegetation is diverse, low-growing, and dense. The differences in vegetation relate to differences in the amount of soil moisture, soil types, and flash flood tolerance.

The rocky and winding trail runs out across a fairly flat area heading for little saddle that can be seen to the south. Here, the trail is a little easier to walk on, but it still is winding, rocky, and little used. You do, however, start getting some nice view of the escarpment and the mountains (e.g., Mt. Wilson) to the south (Rainbow Mountain Wilderness Area).

After about 0.8 miles on the Dales Trail, there is another park bench (Wpt. 03) in a little pinyon-juniper forest just north of the saddle. This bench also faces north, but it is in the shade of pinyon and juniper trees, with some nice big rocks and red soils, plus lots of mountain mahogany, buckhorn cholla, banana yucca, and blackbrush all around.

From the bench, the trail runs up through the saddle, then works across a hillside (Wpt. 04) with great views to the south down the valley, to the east towards Las Vegas, and to the north towards the La Madre Mountains. This is also about the first place where you can see the Pine Creek parking area.

From this viewpoint, the trail generally runs south as it cuts across a number of ravines. The trail runs steeply down into each ravine and steeply up the other side rather than contour around the hillside. One of the ridges is the highest point on the trail (Wpt. 05), which is reached after about 1.2 miles on the Dales Trail.

From the high point, the trail runs down the hillside for another 0.06 miles to another sunny bench (Wpt. 06) with a nice view overlooking Pine Creek and other points south. Behind the bench is the imposing east face of Bridge Mountain.

From the bench, the trail runs out for another 0.43 miles as it cuts steeply across more ravines until reaching the edge of the major ravine (Wpt. 07) that forms the northern edge of Pine Creek canyon, although the creek still is pretty far off. This point is about 1.65 miles out the Dales Trail.

From there, trail cuts straight down the crest of the ridge to toe, then switchbacks steeply down the toe of the ridge to the bottom of the canyon. The trail cuts steeply up the other side to the top of another ridge (Wpt. 08) that has nice views of Bridge Mountain and the trail on the toe of the ridge behind you.

The trail continues downhill, generally at a gentle grade to a fourth park bench, this one adjacent to Skull Rock (Wpt. 09), which is about 1.83 miles out the Dales Trail. Beyond Skull Rock, the trail switchbacks down another short hillside, then cuts out across the rocky, sandy flats heading south to intersect the Pine Creek Trail (Wpt. 10), which is a total of about 2.07 miles from the start of Dales trail.