Back in March, President Biden declared Avi Kwa Ame—Spirit Mountain—a new park, so I took another look on my way back to the Rocky Mountain region. (The park is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, so technically it’s not one of the 425 official park units). The park is in the Cal-Nev-Ari bottom corner of Nevada, filling the gap between the southern end of Lake Mead NRA and the Mojave Preserve. Last year I rode my bike through the western part of it on my way to Castle Mountains, past Joshua Trees and Clara Bow’s ranch.

On Sunday, I hiked up the Spirit Mountain Overlook trail to take the photo (above) of the sacred mountain from a respectful distance. The mountain is actually just over the Lake Mead NRA border, but both the foreground and background to the left are in the new park, until Mojave in the distance. I relied on HikingGuy.com for directions, which were helpful, plus the NPS App: save the Lake Mead park info for offline use, then open the map to see your GPS position. There are natural springs up here, so there were birds along the trail. Connecting the parks helps protect the threatened desert tortoise. I saw one crossing Christmas Tree Pass Road when I drove up and again on my way back down (not sure if it was the same one;).