South Oak Creek Trail is a 5 mile hike through desert shrubbery with great views of the red stripes of Mount Wilson. The hike is a relaxed walk but can be tricky to route find.

South OAk Creek Trail – Hiking Guide

Trail Distance: 5 miles
Elevation Gain: 600 ft.
Terrain Rating: Rocky. Trail finding can be annoying so download offline maps
Hike Time: 2 hours
Dog Friendly: Yes
Recommended Seasons: All but Summer can be hot so start early

Trailhead: Oak Creek Trail, just south of Red Rocks (with no fee!). Trailhead here

WHY HIKE South Oak Creek Trail

The Oak Creek Trails are the first trails you hit after you pass Red Rock Canyon. Unlike the park, the Oak Creek Trail hikes are free / don’t require a pass. This also makes them super popular. The parking lots fill up quick on the weekends.

I personally like the Oak Creek Trails because they give you beautiful views of the Red Rocks and are a good quick hike in the morning or late afternoon without having to spend a whole day in Red Rocks. You have a few options when you come here, you can either hike North Oak which starts at the Middle Oak lot and is a couple hundred feet North, or hike South Oak.

I like hiking South Oak more than North Oak because there are fewer people on it.

Both of the trails realistically have super similar landscape and roughly take you to the same spot, but you’ll have a lot more of the trail to yourself on South Oak.

WHEN TO HIKE South Oak Creek Trail

Like most hikes in the Red Rocks area, South Oak Creek Trail in Las Vegas can be hiked year round but I always recommend Fall – Spring. If you want to hike in the summer, try to go early in the day or later in the afternoon.

There is little to zero shade on this trail and it gets hot quickly.

South Oak Creek – TRAIL NOTES

The trail starts at the parking lot and is super straightforward for the first part. You’ll walk on some nice red rocks and get beautiful views of the mountain the whole way.

About 1 mile in, you will start to see different splits of the trail taking you off course. You will want to stay on the left most trail as you hit some other trails – don’t get trapped into taking the side trails. Finally at 2 miles, you will hit the base of the mountain.

Now if I have one tip for this hike this is it – instead of doing a loop which Alltrails suggests, just go back the way you came. There is very little benefit of doing the full loop but there is a lot of risk. The trail on the loop back is not maintained very well and you and your dogs can get caught on cactus. Also some of the small trails can lead to nowhere and then you have to move around thorny bushes to find a trail again.

So take the same way back and you will have a super nice, wide, maintained trail to get back. If you go this way, your hike will be closer to 4 miles instead of 5.

Recommended Gear

See below for some of my recommended gear for this hike. I also recommend you bring a good amount of water. In the summer, plan to bring 2L of water. Otherwise 1L of water is sufficient.

Have you hiked South Oak Creek Trail before? What did you think?

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