Fortification Hill
Fortification Hill
4.5
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This six-mile trail offers views of the Spring Mountains, Las Vegas and Lake Mead.
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
4.5
3 reviews
Excellent
2
Very good
0
Average
1
Poor
0
Terrible
0
Mike A
Reading, PA39 contributions
Jul 2015 • Couples
We did a bunch of hiking while in Vegas (we are beginners but have done a lot of trail/road walking just not hiking/boulder scrambling), figured we would give this a shot, seemed, simple, 4 mile round trip up a hill and back down. Saw a review and rundown a hiking website.
Getting there is not tough, just bumpy, about 5 miles off the main highway on a very bumpy dirt/gravel road, we made it just fine in our Mazda 5 rental, 4 wheel drive is (recommended) but unless it has rained, not necessary, especially if its a rental and not your car. It's not a well traveled trail, the start is marked but that's it, don't expect a snack bar at the end.
We always start early AM and it was nice and cool (77*). Two options to start, (1) wash trail (2) ridge trail, TAKE the RIDGE TRAIL. We opted for the wash trail and honestly got a little off trail (again we are novices), we new from the review we saw before we needed to get to an outcrop of "funny rocks", not sure why they were funny because they didn't really saw anything. After about 40 min, we noticed we were about 4 washes over from the funny rocks, so we did a lot of scrambling, climbing and sliding to get back over to the correct ridge and took the ridge trail from there. It is steep going up, the ridge trail is gravel and rock, not maintained but much easier to spot than going the wash route. We continued up to another boulder at the base of the cliffs, from there you skirt along the cliffs to a small climb and then the summit, we where short on time so we turned around at the boulder. The boulder is exactly 1/2 way up the trail at 1 mile, another mile to the summit.
Ratings for trails are always subjective to the rater, we saw this one rated "moderately difficult" and we would agree, not a lot of climbing over boulders and such but steep and rocky.
A good trek if you're not in a hurry.
As a bonus on the way out saw a family of big horn sheep relaxing in the early morning sun (dad, mom and 2 kids) and also saw a wild mule, we named him Ralph, he may be wild but I don't think he was a stranger to cars, he walked right over to use and gladly ate an apple right out of my hand.
Getting there is not tough, just bumpy, about 5 miles off the main highway on a very bumpy dirt/gravel road, we made it just fine in our Mazda 5 rental, 4 wheel drive is (recommended) but unless it has rained, not necessary, especially if its a rental and not your car. It's not a well traveled trail, the start is marked but that's it, don't expect a snack bar at the end.
We always start early AM and it was nice and cool (77*). Two options to start, (1) wash trail (2) ridge trail, TAKE the RIDGE TRAIL. We opted for the wash trail and honestly got a little off trail (again we are novices), we new from the review we saw before we needed to get to an outcrop of "funny rocks", not sure why they were funny because they didn't really saw anything. After about 40 min, we noticed we were about 4 washes over from the funny rocks, so we did a lot of scrambling, climbing and sliding to get back over to the correct ridge and took the ridge trail from there. It is steep going up, the ridge trail is gravel and rock, not maintained but much easier to spot than going the wash route. We continued up to another boulder at the base of the cliffs, from there you skirt along the cliffs to a small climb and then the summit, we where short on time so we turned around at the boulder. The boulder is exactly 1/2 way up the trail at 1 mile, another mile to the summit.
Ratings for trails are always subjective to the rater, we saw this one rated "moderately difficult" and we would agree, not a lot of climbing over boulders and such but steep and rocky.
A good trek if you're not in a hurry.
As a bonus on the way out saw a family of big horn sheep relaxing in the early morning sun (dad, mom and 2 kids) and also saw a wild mule, we named him Ralph, he may be wild but I don't think he was a stranger to cars, he walked right over to use and gladly ate an apple right out of my hand.
Written 10 July 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Chester D
Las Vegas, NV142 contributions
Oct 2013 • Business
I was born and raised in Las Vegas and have never seen the top of Fortification Hill until I saw it from the sky. Now I have a better understanding for why they chose this mountain for their defence. What a great place to visit if you get a chance.
Written 9 October 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Debra S
South Deerfield255 contributions
Oct 2014 • Couples
We thought this sounded like the perfect hike - off the beaten track and good views. We drove 3 miles in our Dodge 1500 - no signs and we had poor directions so we turned around as the road continued to become more gravelly (we were afraid we would get stuck). We discovered later, we had another 2.8 miles to go (if the trail was marked.) So, we cannot comment on the hike itself.
Written 30 October 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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