Best Hikes Las Vegas: The Greatest Views, Wildlife, and Desert Strolls

I may be showing my age, but I have a bias towards gathering information from books rather than the internet. In this case, I think my bias betrayed me. The major value of this publication is it provides, for those who are not familiar with the area, context and comparisons between three hiking areas near Las Vegas: Spring Mountain, Valley of Fire and Red Rock Canyon. There is also a nice ten-page Introduction explaining the local history, climate, flora and fauna. Each trail is presented clearly, with a full-page map. However, the brief accompanying text for each trail is mostly devoted to general hiking tips or ecological observations rather than specific or useful information about that particular route. When I checked online, which you should anyway, since these parks are implementing entrance reservation systems, my disappointment grew because the trail names and maps are freely available for download there! Between that and the excellent visitor centre and trailhead panels, at least at Red Rock, I found I did not need to pack this book.