This is a nice and fairly easy 4 mile in and out round trip hike on Mt. Charleston, with less than 1,000 feet of elevation gain. I just love these trails that take you into the narrowing canyons. Take Hwy 95 to Route 157W towards Kyle Canyon. Drive 17 miles on Route 157 and the trail head is on the right side, just before the Spring Mountain Visitor Center. Free parking is available on the left, across the street from the trail head.
The trail starts off as a 4 foot wide gravel path with an easy but steady incline all the way to the end of the 2 mile trail. The trail provides a lot of shade, crosses a small dry creek bed a few times and gets a cool windy breeze. Along the way there are a few fallen trees that you just can't help but to challenge your balancing skills. Boys will be boys. From the start, you see the canyons in the distance ahead. Slowly, they get closer and closer and you get the feeling of being watched from far above. At 1.5 miles the trail narrows between the 200 foot canyons on both sides of the trail. Here is what this trail is all about... I love this section. Oh and here is where the trail gets a little steeper. At 1.8 miles, the canyon walls are 6 feet apart. On our trip in March there was snow on the tail in this section. So be prepared for the temperature change. At 1.86 miles the trail seems to dead end at a HUGE boulder known as 'Obstacle Rock'. http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/fletcher-canyon-las-vegas?select=3SSZkX6AuNLZkAQz8h7cCw&utm_campaign=www_photo_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)
On my first trip here, I climbed over the fist rock and up to the second rock, and then headed back. On my second trip, I climbed over both of them leaving my hiking partner on the other side since they were not as adventurous. Shortly after those huge rocks the trail branches off, stay to the left which leads up to the North Trail Loop towards Mummy Mountain. You can actually make a looped trail back to Route 157, but you end up about 5 miles from the Fletcher Trail head. But I was running out of daylight and turned back after a half of a mile. That's when I remembered going down very smooth and slippery HUGE rocks is very thrilling! I always forget 'What You Go Up... You Must Go Down'! Shortly after I got down from these rocks the sun went down and we had to switch to headlamps. This trail is also a great nighttime hike! You will loose cell phone reception on this hike but you can still use the RunKeeper app to track your hike. What a great little hike!