Las Vegas Mixtape v34: Poolside With Train, New Chinatown Gem, and Boardwalk to Paradise — Track #3: Red Spring Boardwalk @Red Rock Canyon area

Track #3: Red Spring Boardwalk @Red Rock Canyon area

Stroll along the Red Spring Boardwalk for maximum serenity. (Image: Vegas 411)

Five years in to living in Vegas, I’m still amazed whenever I discover fantastic new places that have been here all along. I also frustratingly wonder why I didn’t receive “the memo” about their existence. Case in point: the Red Spring Boardwalk in the glorious Red Rock Canyon/Calico Basin area.

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Strolling on this user-friendly, half mile-long wooden boardwalk—built around a meadow fed by a small spring—is energizing and relaxing. Good thing it’s elevated, given the (uh) rattlesnake habitat below.

Never mind the snakes below. (Image: Vegas 411)

Enjoy the views of the sandstone mountains and get instantly smart by reading the museum-like panels that describe the area’s birds, animals, and plants, not to mention the “rock art” images on the “walls and boulders that may be over 6000 years old.”

There’s free admission and parking—it’s definitely a place to seek shelter from the predicted recession. You can also hang out under a shade pavilion and at one of the picnic tables. Another option: drive further down the road and eat at the fast-casual, but distinctive Cottonwood Station in historic Blue Diamond village where the panini sandwiches reign supreme.