Goodsprings Nevada (On the way to Vegas)

[FJsRKool]

This was a great side-trip on the way from California to Vegas. I have always wondered what was out there on the other side of some of the big hills on the way to Vegas, and now I know!

My wife and I decided to start exploring possible side-trips to make the long drive to Vegas more enjoyable, and I think we hit the jackpot (no pun…or at least not much pun intended) at the town of Goodsprings

Here is the overall Google earth view of the route. At the bottom right is Goodsprings, and the top right is Highway 160 (Blue Diamond Blvd).



After leaving Goodsprings, there are two routes you could try...We took the first one, in red. It connects to the other route, and saves some time.


Trip highlights
We stopped at Primm (Stateline) to top off the gas tank, and then headed north on Highway 15 to the offramp for Jean/Goodsprings. Goodsprings is not quite a ghost-town, but has no services other than a Saloon, so make sure to get gas either at Stateline or the town of Jean by the freeway.



From Jean, its about 10 miles on a paved 2 lane road to Goodsprings.



Make sure to check out the old Cemetary on the outskirts of town, and then of course you have to stop in at the Pioneer Saloon.



It’s a cool old Saloon with a small store next door, and a great patio for drinks or even a barbeque. They sell steaks in the store, and you can use their grills to cook your own steak. The folks there are nice. A guy named Terry works in the store on Friday/Saturday and Sunday, and he was a wealth of info about many other side trips that are possible with Goodsprings as your base.

We departed the Pioneer Saloon and headed out on Pacific Ave, past the firestation and then turned left. From this point you can see trails leading off in several directions. We found one close by to the left, that went up a small hill.



From the top of the hill we had a better view of where all the trails went. Then we headed back down the hill and found the dirt road we wanted.

Kingston road could take you to the city of Pahrump if you keep on it. Before we really got started, we came to a Y in the road.



We took the road to the right, which is a nice 3 or 4 mile drive to the top of Wilson Pass, where all the transmission towers are. It is a really fun, winding drive with some great views.







When done looking around, we went back to the Y in the road and took the one to the left.

About 7 miles in on Kingston road, the landmarks and turns in the road looked like those that we wanted, and we found the turnoff (if you can call it that) that we were looking for. There are two routes from Kingston road that you can take to get across to Potosi Mtn Road. We took the first route (closest to Goodsprings). The 2nd is a little further down the road, and on the Topo maps and Google earth, looks like it goes almost the entire way in the river wash.

Anyway, the route we took partly follows the power poles along the way. It basically is plowed, but not in great shape. <p>



Its not too bad, but definitely more than just a washboard road. Shortly after turning onto the trail, the path was “blocked” by a pile of rubble that looked like it was placed there to keep people out. No problem to get around that. It was smooth sailing from that point on. There are a few side trails you could take if you had the time. <p>





(PS...that's my wife smiling in the passenger seat).



About half way through, the road hits a river-wash, and this will take you to the place where the red trail connects with the green trail (Potosi Mtn Road).

<p>

The river wash got narrow here and I got a bit more desert pinstriping.



From here out the road was more like a washboard road, and we made better time for a while. Also the climate changed along this part from low-desert to more mountain-like.






Then the trail becomes a river wash again.



Apparently I had missed a place where the trail turned, but the river wash still had a place to climb out to meet with the trail.



Then the trail becomes a very wide plowed road, that still could be flooded when the rains come, but it was nice this time.





Not too far after this area, the trails drops you directly onto highway 160 in the Red Rock recreation area about 10 miles off the 15 freeway. The 160 turns into Blue Diamond Blvd, which crosses the 15 by the Silverton Hotel and Casino.

The entire trip from Jean to Goodsprings, to the top of the mountain, back down again, and then around to the Red Rock area took about 3 hours at a very nice leisurely pace....oh yeah, that did include time for a drink at the Pioneer saloon, and a tour of the Clark Gable and Carol Lombard Memorial wall in the Saloon.

[FJR Colorado]

First-class photos and documentation--thx!

[chichid65]

Thank you for sharing the wonderful pics. My hats off to you and your wife for exploring, did ya guys see anything "out of the ordinary" around the Pahrump area? Just curious. it truly looked like a wonderful trip.

[FJsRKool]

chichid65 previously said:

Thank you for sharing the wonderful pics. My hats off to you and your wife for exploring, did ya guys see anything "out of the ordinary" around the Pahrump area? Just curious. it truly looked like a wonderful trip.

We never made it to Pahrump. We plan to make it there in the future. My folks have been there several times, as they live in Vegas and do some offroading themselves in their jeep. In fact the same weekend they made it through Wheeler pass, which gets up to around 8000 ft in elevation. There's a lot of snow there now, so it might not be passable.

[FJC8871]

Great post. Next time I got to vegas I may take this route.

[yapbunzai]

Last year the wife and I drove through the same area looking for a more scenic road to the Vegas area. She suggested going off the 15 from Jean and we ended up in the same area around Goodsprings. I don't recognize a lot of the pics you took, the road looks more washed out than before.

BTW, did you see any wild horses? There used to be a large herd there but it was thinned out by BLM due to a wildfire that burned off most of the food supply there in the valley. When we went thru there were only three left, I always wondered if they made it. Here are a few pics from our excursion...


feral horses just outside of goodsprings, nv


looking for a trail near rainbow quarry


coming down from cottonwood pass


view of red rock canyon area from cottonwood pass


yeah, i know... but this is before the fj!

[BIG AL]

On my way to Ouray Co. 2008 rally thanks for the info

[1/2mill90]

Nice picts!!