Rainbow Springs to Bootleg Spring • Hike • Nevada • All Triplogs • HikeArizona.COM

login for filter options

Dec 23 2012

autumnstars

Guides 26
Routes 21
Photos 562
Triplogs 1,393

female

Joined Jan 04 2011
Las Vegas, NV

Rainbow Springs to Bootleg Spring

Vegas, NV

Rainbow Springs to Bootleg Spring

Vegas, NV

Hiking		Dec 23 2012
		autumnstars • Triplogs 1,393

Hiking	6.40 Miles	1,028 AEG

Hiking	6.40 Miles
	1,028 ft AEG

no routes

Linked

none

no linked trail guides

Partners

partners

kingsnake

Met up with kingsnake for another winter hike. The weather was a bit colder than last year, but quite pleasant for hiking.
From NV-160, we hiked up washes, cross-country, and up a jeep trail toward Bootleg and Rainbow Springs. Although much of the hiking was on FS roads, there wasn't much traffic, and it was quite interesting. Along the way, we encountered several agave roasting pits, which are quite common in this area. Kingsnake mentioned he had never seen one - a first for him. Poked around at Bootleg Spring for a while, mostly following animal trails. The vegetation was pretty much dormant at this time of year, but it would be a very interesting place in the spring. Vegetation at Rainbow Spring was also dormant.
At both springs, there was ample evidence (scat and tracks) of visitation by bighorn. Based on a July trip to this general area, we knew this was a area of bighorn activity, so this wasn't entirely surprising.

In spite of all that, we only saw one jackrabbit and one butterfly. We did encounter a few guys out for target shooting, closer to the start of the hike. Overall nice hike in an area I might have never visited, and got to enjoy some signs of winter - ice and snow.

Edit: The scat was quite different than what I had seen before for bighorn, so I wasn't sure in the field. After looking at the Peterson field guide of tracks and scat, I see that what we saw conforms nicely with the type of scat you see when a bighorn has been feeding at a mineral lick. This suggests that the springs we visited are highly mineralized.

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Bootleg Spring

	Bootleg Spring	Gallon per minute	Gallon per minute
	Good flow. Frozen over approximately 1/4 mile below source.

	Rainbow Spring	Quart per minute	Quart per minute
	A few deeper pools where water could be filtered.

_____________________

"Let it ride / Let it roll / Let it go"

Dec 23 2012

kingsnake

Guides 116
Routes 337
Photos 11,399
Triplogs 894

63 male

Joined Dec 20 2010
Sunnyslope, PHX

Rainbow Springs to Bootleg Spring

Vegas, NV

Rainbow Springs to Bootleg Spring

Vegas, NV

Hiking		Dec 23 2012
		kingsnake • Triplogs 894

Hiking	6.99 Miles	1,297 AEG

Hiking	6.99 Miles	2 Hrs 51 Mns	2.45 mph
	1,297 ft AEG

no routes

Linked

none

no linked trail guides

Partners

partners

autumnstars

My wife and I took our second straight late-December trip to Las Vegas. (Her Christmas gift was a stay at the Wynn, along with a spa treatment.) Visited my step-mom, played the ponies (not too poorly), and of course got in a hike with autumnstars, this year accompanied by her husband Frank. Whereas in Phoenix there's lots of good hikes right in the city, in Vegas they are all 20+ miles away, as it is a basin without any criss-crossy mini-ranges. (The in-city "nature" trail at Las Vegas Springs preserve is a cheesy, concrete-laden, imitation of the Desert Botanical Garden / Papago Buttes. :oplz:

)

Being a natural planner, and the lover of maps that I am, I put together a route with three or four possibilities for getting up to Rainbow Springs, which is on the west side of the range which hosts Mount Charleston and Red Rocks. Other than tramping straight north from the biker bar in the hamlet of Mineral Springs, the routes all consisted of following jeep trails/washes southwest-to-northeast across the basin, followed by a short bushwhack up an intermittent creek to either Rainbow Springs, Bootleg Springs, or both.

Telling one wash from another was a bit confusing, but they were all easy travelling, with much evidence of shooting and horses. We eventually found ourselves in the very lush creek leading to Bootleg Spring, which was protected by an old corral. (And, according to Sara, bighorn sheep, as indicated by tracks, tree rubbing and poo ... lots and lots of poo.) The creek was covered by an ice sheet, but was steadily flowing. From there it was a short jaunt past some agave burn pits to Rainbow Springs. It too was covered with mounds of long grass, but the water was not so obvious. Then we took a short trip up the sandstone overlook, to see where we had come from. Other than a short, steep, up & down cut across the tower hill, it was stroll back to Highway 160.

It was a pleasant hike, but for some odd reason my quads were killing me by Monday evening. :-k

Culture

Culture [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Trail Signs and Markings

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Bootleg Spring Potosi Mountain

_____________________

http://prestonm.com : Everyone's enjoyment of the outdoors is different and should be equally honored.

WARNING! Hiking and outdoor related sports can be dangerous. Be responsible and prepare for the trip. Study the area you are entering and plan accordingly. Dress for the current and unexpected weather changes. Take plenty of water. Never go alone. Make an itinerary with your plan(s), route(s), destination(s) and expected return time. Give your itinerary to trusted family and/or friends.

username		X
password		X