Aliante Loop Self-Guided Tour

Map of Aliante Loop Temporary Trail with interpretive stops.

NPS Image

Trail Overview

While the Aliante Loop temporary trail offers year-round scenic views of Mojave Desert scrub habitat and the Las Vegas Range, wildflower blooms in spring and summer are a sight to see. Views of the upper Las Vegas Wash can be seen in the northern half of the loop trail.

The descriptions below of each of the four stops can also be found by scanning the QR codes along the trail. Most smartphones are able to scan QR codes by opening the camera app, placing the QR code within frame, and clicking the link that appears.

 

Self-Guided Tour

 

A teratorn flies over the Upper Las Vegas wash with a twelve-foot wingspan 23,000-18,000 years ago.  Herds of mammoths, horses, camels, and bison travel through spring-fed streams in search of food and water.  The Las Vegas and Sheep ranges stand tall above the valley floor.

NPS Image | Julius Csotonyi

Stop 1

Water plays an important role in the Pleistocene to recent environments of Tule Springs Fossil Beds. During this time, between ~570,000-8,500 years ago, groundwater springs appeared on the landscape as seeps, pools, streams, and wet meadows that trapped windblown sand and mud to form the sedimentary deposits of the Las Vegas Formation. These sediments also preserve periods of drying, erosion, and soil formation, indicating that these desert wetlands were affected by global climate changes. The Aliante Loop Temporary Trail begins at the flat-lying light-colored sediments formed in older marshes and leads to mounds of dark gravels formed in stream beds that cut through the older wetland deposits. Wind and water have carved these deposits over time to form gentle hills, sheer walls, and dramatic washes. These ancient wetlands were once lush habitats for Ice Age animals. In turn, the remnants of these ancient environments provide the modern habitats for Mojave Desert plants and wildlife.

 

A male Phainopepla rests on a tree branch.

NPS Photo

Stop 2

Look for red, green, or brown fibrous clusters of desert mistletoe (Phoradendron californicum) tangled among the branches of catclaw acacia or mesquite trees. Desert mistletoe is partially a parasitic plant because although it produces its own energy through photosynthesis, it relies on its host tree to provide water and nutrients. The translucent red berries of the desert mistletoe are a favorite food of the silky flycatcher, or Phainopepla (Phainopepla nitens), a glossy black or dark gray bird with a crest of feathers on its head. Digested mistletoe berry seeds in this bird’s droppings help spread mistletoe to other trees across the desert. The habitat for both desert mistletoe and the silky flycatcher has decreased as city development spreads, so they are rare to spot in developed areas of the Las Vegas Valley.

 

The Las Vegas Bearpoppy can be the size of a quarter, up to the size of a basketball. The jagged, fuzzy, blue-green leaves stand out from other desert plants. Bearpoppies flower in the spring, but they are perennials.

NPS Photo | Lauren Parry

Stop 3

Mojave Desert plants can thrive in high temperatures, and without much rain or shade. This desert plant community also provides vital food and shelter for native wildlife, including rodents, rabbits, birds, and reptiles. Have a keen eye and look out below! The Las Vegas bearpoppy (Arctomecon californica) is critically endangered in the state of Nevada and the Las Vegas buckwheat (Eriogonum corymbosum var. nilesiican) is a Bureau of Land Management recognized sensitive species. Urban development has fragmented and degraded the habitat of these plant species. Protecting these plants from trampling, off-roading, and competing invasive plants will help prevent them from going extinct.

Citizen Science Station

How can you help? Anyone can be a citizen scientist! Citizen science is the voluntary involvement of the public in scientific research. The data you collect as a citizen scientist can assist professional scientists and resource managers in their studies to better understand the park’s natural resources.
Join our citizen science project by photographing these plants following the instructions on our Chronolog time lapse station. Your photo, and photos from other citizen scientists will be used to document changes in our native and invasive plants through months and seasons to inform scientists at the monument. Email captured photos to: [e-mail] with the subject line “TSF-101”. You will receive an email back with a link to view the time-lapse.

 

Darker gravels (foreground) and lighter tan badlands (background) were formed in different wetland environments thousands of years ago.

NPS Photo | Andrew Cattoir

Stop 4

Distinct from the darker hue of the gravels that formed over ancient stream beds, the highly eroded topography visible here and throughout Tule Springs Fossil Beds are what remain of older Ice Age wetlands. The expansive wetlands and streams preserved in the Las Vegas Formation were subjected to intense weathering and erosion as the springs dried and the local climate became more arid. Over time, flowing water here in the upper Las Vegas Wash carved through the soft sediments of the Las Vegas Formation to expose sediment layers and fossils. This process continues to this day, allowing researchers to study the changing wetland habitats, plants, and animals through time.

 

When the sun set over the Upper Las Vegas wash, many animals would wake from their daytime rest to hunt or forage for food by moonlight. Two saber toothed cats groom each other after a successful evening hunt. Ancient spring-fed streams flowed between rolling hills 16,000-14,00 years ago.

NPS Image | Julius Csotonyi

Stop 5

Thousands of fossils have been found in the Las Vegas Formation belonging to mammals, reptiles, fish, snails, birds, and plants that used to live here thousands of years ago. The most common vertebrate fossils (animals with a backbone) identified at Tule Springs are from Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus columbi), close relatives of living elephants with long, curved tusks. Extinct camels, giant ground sloths, several species of horse, deer, bison, and even sabertooth cats lived in this desert wetland habitat. What happened to these Ice Age plants and animals?Many species of animals went extinct, and the cause of this extinction is still under scientific investigation. Several species of plants and animals survived this extinction, such as juniper trees (Juniperus californica), pinyon pine (Pinus monophyla), and waterfowl, but they shifted to more suitable habitats after the Tule Springs area became too arid and warm for them. Some plant and animal species, such as globemallow (Sphaeralcea sp.), coyotes (Canis latrans), rabbits (Lepus sp.), and rodents have remained part of the Tule Springs ecosystem for thousands of years.