| Name: | 20. Cottonwood Valley | |||
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| Description: | “Late Night Parking Lot” (with restrooms and interpretive facilities)is a major trailhead for the extensive Cottonwood Valley Trail System. This area is known throughout the mountain biking community as one of the best biking areas in the country. There are over 125 miles of interconnecting single-track and an 11-mile race loop. Individual trail descriptions can be somewhat difficult to provide for this area due to the interconnected trails, but the trails are well-marked, and maps can be found at strategic locations.
At the “Late Night Parking Lot” there is also an information kiosk for the Old Spanish Trail, which passed through the Cottonwood Valley. New Mexicans carried out most of the trade business along the Old Spanish Trail. They took wool blankets and other wool products on foot and horseback to markets in southern California. They returned to Santa Fe with large herds of mules, horses, and sheep from California. New Mexicans called the trail the Camino de California; Californians knew it as the Camino de Santa Fe. In 1948, George Brewerton, a young military officer, traveled along the trail from Los Angeles to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Brewerton passed one of the last New Mexican mule caravans, which he described: “Imagine upward of two hundred Mexicans dressed in every variety of costume, from the embroidered jacket of the wealthy Californian, with its silver bell-shaped buttons, to the scanty habiliments of the skin-clad Indian, and you may form some faint idea of their dress.” Early travelers attempted to find the shortest and safest routes between water sources. This portion of the trail through Cottonwood Valley began at Cottonwood Spring near what is now the town of Blue Diamond, and ran to the springs at Mountain Pass in the Spring Mountains, twelve miles west. In Southern Nevada, highways frequently run alongside the original route of the Old Spanish Trail. Because early European explorers used Native American guides to help them cross unknown lands, they often traveled upon ancient foot trails. In this way, modern routes grow out of earlier trails. |
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| Category: | Any | |||
| Latitude: | 36.0329582891 | |||
| Longtitude: | -115.3973865509 | |||
| Proximity: | 25 | |||
| Audio: |
20redrock_vo_cottonwoodvalley.mp3 |
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© eParkGuide LLC, 2009