A popular boating, swimming and weekend-camping destination for local residents, it’s less than an hour’s drive from Las Vegas to the most visited northern section of the 1.5-million-acre Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Within this protected area of the almost unbearably dry Mojave Desert are Lake Mead, which extends 110 miles toward the Grand Canyon, 67-mile-long Lake Mohave, which runs along the Arizona–Nevada border, and miles of spectacular desert around the lakes.
While most visitors come to Lake Mead for the water, there is a handful of hiking trails, too, most of which are short. At Grapevine Canyon near Lake Mohave, for instance, a quarter-mile jaunt takes you to a petroglyph panel, but if you want you can boulder-hop further up the gorge, which cups a ribbon-like stream trickling down from a spring. Longer routes include a 3.7-mile trail along a historic railway line with five tunnels that links the Lake Mead Visitor Center to Hoover Dam. The most challenging hike in the park follows a 3-mile trail down 800ft to a set of hot springs in a slot off Black Canyon (this one's not recommended in summer).
