Longboarding the Wetlands Loop Trail

Some people hit the jackpot on the strip in Las Vegas but we hit the jackpot by finding a lot of fun things to do off the strip in the Las Vegas area! In fact, this area has some great scenery nearby as well as exciting hikes and even hot springs. We also enjoyed the skate parks and the pump track in the area. But as far as longboarding goes, the Wetlands Loop Trail is amazing! Not just by things to do in the Las Vegas area standards but from all of our longboarding adventures this one was a lot of fun!

This longboarding adventure in the Las Vegas area is on the paved Wetlands Loop Trail in the Clark County Wetlands Park. There is a parking area at Neighborhood Park where the loop begins.

Near the parking area for the Wetlands Loop Trail, there are restrooms, picnic tables, and a climbing playground. The rock wall here was a fun climb with lots of holds. The shape and angles of this wall allowed for more challenging routes.

The trail begins north of the parking area. The Wetlands Loop Trail outlines the perimeter of the nature preserve. Boards and bikes are not allowed inside of the nature preserve area. Before taking off on the trail, be sure to check out the rock climbing wall and the climbable statues.

Hitting the Wetlands Loop Trail

The trail begins and quickly becomes the divider between the stream and the nature preserve. After about a mile the trail crosses Weir Bridge which goes over the Las Vegas Wash. When we visited (3/2018) the trail was still under construction and from here we had to pass through two gates past a dirt road.

Once we got through the nature preserve and construction area, the trail becomes much more exciting! The pavement here is smooth and seamless which makes for great cruise conditions! Skating the Wetlands Loop Trail is a particularly enjoyable experience for multiple reasons. One being that the loop provides an extremely smooth and scenic path in the middle of the beautiful desert landscape. As you can see from the pictures below, the vastness of the desert shows the many surrounding area mountains.

Not only does this trail have great cruising conditions, but this path steps it up a notch with its many great curves and hills. The hills range from one and two foot drops to larger 20 feet hills. There are even a few areas with hills much larger and steeper.

There are some areas on the trail with awesome back to back hills providing a pump track feel. We really had fun with these sections.

There was very little traffic on the trail, which was another plus. Further, around mile marker 5 the path nears the wash again and the vegetation changes from desert shrubs to larger trees.

The trail continues east through the desert towards some red rock mountains.

Here the trail has views down to the wider section of the wash. Also, there are a bunch of hills in this segment.

Around mile marker 8 was the largest hill that we encountered on the Wetlands Loop Trail. Only a very experienced rider should navigate down this steep and narrow hill. Without helmets we thought it safer to walk down this hill. From here, the path got narrow and steep for about a quarter mile. Then it’s followed by a sharp turn right before a footbridge over the large river crossing.

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Here, neighborhoods and powerlines become prevalent, to be blamed for the name of the next bridge crossing, Powerline Crossing.

the trail turns into a bridge at powerline crossing

Once across the bridge, the trail heads back west. For about a mile, the trail parallels the main road. This is where we struggled to fight the constant 15-20 mile per hour wind. We even had to kick on the downhill sections!

About three miles after the loop heads back west, the paved trail ends at Pabco Trailhead. The trail turns into a dirt road where there is a bunch of construction. As a result, there were trail detours that were difficult to follow.

We had to walk our boards the final 2.5 miles of the loop back to the parking area to finish out the loop. On our way, we passed a big sports stadium where they were setting up for a motocross event.

Besides the unpaved construction part of Wetlands Loop Trail the rest of the loop was very enjoyable, making it a worthwhile longboarding destination.

More of The Lost Longboarder Adventures

All in all, this paved Wetlands Loop Trail is definitely one of our top longboarding adventures that we’ve done so far! Here are a couple other memorable longboarding experiences, one in New Mexico and one in Florida:

Or if you’re in the Vegas area and looking for some off the strip fun check out our in the area articles:

Thanks for reading about our cruise here at the Wetlands Park! We love hitting the trails and seeing new places so if you know of some cool paved trails we should check out on our travels please let us know in the comment section below!

a view of the trail and the plants on the side

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