Located about one hour north of Las Vegas, these two adjacent properties protect the headwaters of the Muddy River, and comprise restored habitat for two native fishes: the Moapa White River springfish and the Moapa dace.
Both were endemic to these watersheds, but became endangered to exotic species introductions. They are mostly isolated to these headwaters, now, where warm water springs seep to the surface.
Near the very headwaters, themselves, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has built some glass-sided viewing areas, where you can see these fish in their restored habitat.
The available walkable area, even between these two sites, is pretty minimal, so you probably don't want to build your entire day around a visit out here. But if you're already heading to other wildlife refuges to the northwest of Las Vegas, or coming back from Valley of Fire or points northwest, this is a nice stop. Vault toilets and picnic tables are available, here.
It's usually pretty lonely around here. When we arrived, there was only one car in the fair-sized dirt parking lot for the wildlife refuge, but the small paved lot for Warm Springs (Southern Nevada Water Authority, SNWA) was overflowing. By the time I finished walking around Warm Springs, however, that lot was completely empty.
Not a lot of birds to see when I was there. I assume there are specific seasons when they visit, or maybe more when it's hot, and the water is more welcoming to the local birdlife.
To get here from Las Vegas, you'd take I-15 north, to exit 90. That's NV-168. Head west for 7.1 miles to Warm Springs Road (sign for the Wildlife Refuge -- The other brown signs along this road were for entering or leaving the Moapa Indian Reservation). Turn left. Low speed limit, here, and pretty narrow, but still paved.
Turns out this hike was largely the same, initially. My first attempt, I stayed lower, and did not find Leotine, but did find myself on the creek, above the last dropoffs, leading to Thalehaha. First time there, I think. So I went down there, snapped the small waterfalls in this gorge, snapped a shot of some people, preparing to rapel down Thalehaha, then worked my way back up to the "trail."
From there, my numerous attempts kept ending in impassable thickets, and led to much backgracking, ascending, descending, and more deadends. Kind of frustrating. I finally admitted I needed help (the first step!), and pulled out my phone and launched the Alltrails app.
I was convinced I had gone the wrong way because I did a lot of vertical climbing, and I did not recall having to gain so much altitude on my successful gos. Pulling up the map, the app showed a trail heading towards a point marked for Leontine some distance back below. So I headed the way my phone indicated, until I neared the trail split, then turned back north. This put me on to an overlook, where I could finally see Leontine.
Even from the overlook, I was not entirely sure of the way down. But I followed the logical descent, and found myself with some ropes, which told me this was the place. Some of those ropes even looked familiar. :D
The descent seemed steeper, and with fewer handholds than I recalled. I think erosion has made the descent more difficult, to the point where the ropes are almost a necessity, and not just a handy assist.
I'm not sure if a similar fate (erosion) caused my former route to the Leontine overlook met a similar fate, but it did seem like it took a steeper ascent to reach the more or less lateral trail to the overlook.
To get around this barrier, you need to attain the height of that "V." You do that by heading straight across the gorge and climbing that up about ten feet, then turning back upstream. The rock closer to the "V" is grippy enough that you can safely traverse this section, despite being on the edge of that aforementioned ten-foot drop.
I then tried an alternate way back up to the Leontine overlook, that would bypass the two short "scary" segments, but that was stymied by cliffs. So I made my way back down, navigated the two difficult sections with relative ease, and completed my climb up the ropes. Happily, there was no oncoming traffic. No one else coming or going down to Leontine while I was there.
Really beat, and soaking wet, by the time I was done, regardless of the official distance. Part of the wet was from the water, since the bit near Leontine does include some splash-zone scrambling. Also some splash in the area above Thalehaha, when I contemplated scrambling up the next level (I elected not to). I also scurried under lots of brush, probably still wet from the recent rains. Fortunately, I think the recent cold weather put the ticks to bed, so no ticks found, when I got home. But soaking wet. The shower at home felt good.
A quarter mile or so later, I reached the familiar water tank and windmill. Then I turned right, and walked along the boundary fence for the next two miles.
So, this year, I poked around Redstone a time or two, and, of course, Valley of Fire (still need to blog). Then I took three hikes in various parts of the Bowl of Fire, which was all new to me, and kind of exciting to "discover." I also hiked up to Northshore Peak (not to be confused with Northshore Summit), which was also a kick.
Had I gone right at the split, the road would have met up, but it would have brought me closer to signed and posted private property. According to Bird and Hike, even the trailhead my way is private, but it was not signed, and there was no fencing or other indicators that I could not proceed up the wash, here. Hopefully, this means the access dispute is settled.
The only place I veered from a ducked route was where there was a narrow gap in the ridge. The duck had you going up near the top, only to drop down, in the notch. I saw no advantage to doing that over just giving up the altitude earlier, then working up the less-steep route back to the ridge.
By contrast, for much of my hike to the ridge, I heard voices, and eventually spotted a man, trying to coax his female friend to follow him up the scree of the very steep north face of this Anniversary Peak.
My Alltrails app says I walked 10.8 miles, and gained 1621 feet, that day. Five and a half hours on the trail, nearly five of them moving. Pretty slow going, because of the steepness, the poking through the narrows, and the walking on sand. But a great hike, that's for sure!
