Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — As is the case with regrettably so many bicycle safety projects, the 19-mile Red Rock Legacy Trail through the Red Rock Canyon corridor was born two decades ago with the death of experienced bicyclist and Las Vegas Metro Police Officer Don Albietz. He was cycling on scenic State Route 159 outside Las Vegas when a hit-and-run motorist killed him in 2005.
It took 20 years, but Albietz’s legacy will endure in the countless bicyclists and users of a trail that was celebrated at 7AM Tuesday with a Clark County groundbreaking. This is a road safety project because State Route 159 has become a busy commuter corridor linking Las Vegas and Pahrump while attracting literally millions of visitors to popular and scenic Red Rock Canyon.
Longtime bicyclist/Albietz friend Heather Fisher of the small village of Blue Diamind off SR 159 gave a stirring speech at the groundbreaking hosted by Clark County Commissioner/bicyclist Justin Jones.
As Fisher aptly put it, the tragic road fatality shattered many people but also united them through the hope of building this ribbon of pavement through the scenic public lands of the Red Rock National Conservation Area.
“The legacy is alive still,” Fisher told a group of Legacy Trail supporters at the model airplane flying site off State Route 159 outside Las Vegas.
Jones said Fisher’s Save Red Rock organization did the early heavy lifting, applying for and winning grants to get this Legacy Trail off the ground. Now, more than $100 million in public dollars will be poured into creating a paved trail from Summerlin to the Red Rock Visitors Center and eventually all the way to Blue Diamond Road/State Route 160.
Today’s groundbreaking will kickstart the trail’s first segment of about four miles or so from Summerlin’s edge to the Red Rock visitors center.
As Congresswoman Susie Lee, a strong cyclist, put it, “This is just the first phase of many phases.”
A remarkable 3.5 million people visit Red Rock Canyon annually, so the paved trail will be an important scenic and safety resource, said M. Ryan Chatterton, Southern Nevada District acting manager for U.S. Bureau of Land Management Nevada.
LVSportsBiz.com covered the A’s stadium groundbreaking on the Strip only eight days ago and if the MLB Athletics sell out 33,000 fans for each of the 81 home games, the total annual attendance for that $1.75 billion stadium is nearly 2.7 million — less than the 3.5 million Red Rock visitors.
Here’s a map showing the trail layout through the Red Rock corridor:
The groundbreaking began with a spirited prayer from Chris Spotted Eagle of the Paiute Tribe who noted that the Red Rock corridor is sacred land and an area where regional tribes would meet. He spoke of Mother Earth and observed, “We need to do better by her.”
