Las Vegas. Home of extraordinary nightlife, gigantic hotels, huge pools and superstar acts. There are great restaurants, roller coasters, Raiders football, theaters and, of course, casino after casino.
Beyond the glitz of the strip stretches the starkly beautiful Mojave Desert.
Maybe you’ve driven through it without realizing it’s a place that offers one of the most unique experiences available in the Vegas area, thanks to EAGLERIDER, the world’s largest motorcycle rental and touring company.
When you find yourself in the vicinity of Las Vegas with time to spare between loads or during your 34-hour reset, EAGLERIDER invites you to hop on a UTV or motorcycle for the ride of a lifetime.
Your next adventure starts now.
I had the pleasure of experiencing the adrenaline-pumping UTV thrill ride recently. (Check out the video at the end for a few highlights of the journey.)
My two colleagues and I began the tour with a pick-up at our hotel — compliments of EAGLERIDER.
Don’t worry about how you might fit your rig in their parking lot; they’ll come and get you wherever you are (within reason). A quick ride delivered us to the incredible 40,000-square-foot, air-conditioned EAGLERIDER establishment.
With plenty of gear for riding or swag to commemorate the day, the place was clean, bright, and welcoming. You could even grab a cup of coffee.
Our Mojave Desert adventure was perfect.
The tour check-in was efficient, the required safety video was quick — and before we knew it, we’d been outfitted with helmets and were on the shuttle, heading to the tour’s starting point at a tiny town called Goodsprings some 35 miles Southwest of Vegas. There, we hopped into well-equipped UTVs just begging to give us a ride we’ll not soon forget.
Our guide was Tyler. While I’m sure EAGLERIDER has many fantastic guides, I’m not sure any would top him. He was serious about safety; but he was also fun, and he was clearly there to make sure we got all we could out of a unique afternoon.
We began at the famous Pioneer Saloon, which has the charming distinction of being “the oldest bar in the Las Vegas area.” The wooden floors and metal ceiling — plus three bullet holes adorning the walls from a decades-past shootout between a card dealer and a crooked player — lend an air of history unmatched in the area.
I was ready to give the tour a 5-star rating right then and there, and we hadn’t yet fired up an engine. If you’re a history buff, you’ll love that this is where they begin the ride.
Once it was time to start, we buckled into our Polaris RZR XP 4 1000 Ultimate UTV.
These babies are equipped with advanced comfort technology to take the edge off the jolts and jarring of the trail (although it’s not nearly as nice of a ride as your Pete 589).
Our full-face helmets had fresh air ventilation tubes and mics for comfort and easy communication between passengers and with our guide.
And so it began — a two-hour tour over about 50 miles of rugged terrain that consisted of more rocks and brush than dirt. It was rough. It was dusty. It was bumpy.
And it was fantastic.
Tyler led the way in his UTV, sharing cool information via our radio connection about the desert, the landscaping, the plant life and animals, and even some interesting stories about the nearby town of Goodsprings (population 150) and the most famous plane crash in the area:
Actress Carole Lombard and 21 others died in 1942 after their plane crashed into Mount Potosi, part of Nevada’s Spring Mountains. Locals say that Lombard’s husband, Clark Gable, spent days putting cigars out on the bar of the Pioneer Saloon while search parties looked for signs of survivors, to no avail.
We maintained a speed of about 25 mpg, which was challenging considering the severity of the rocks we were cruising over. You know obstacles are sizeable when you’re instructed to be sure you hit them with the “meat of the tire” to avoid a mid-desert flat.
Onward we rode, over small hills and big, around curves and dogleg turns, and through rockface allies so narrow you could reach out and touch a wall on both sides simultaneously.
A surprise rainstorm the day before added a few deep mud puddles to the mix, and we splashed right through most. What’s a rugged UTV ride without a little mud on the face shield?
The entire ride was nothing short of exhilarating and fascinating.
The views of the mountain range and the seemingly endless desert, with Vegas barely visible in the distance, were breathtaking.
Sprinkled liberally among the harsh landscape were Joshua trees — gnarled and beautifully ugly, they serve as food and shelter for many of the Mojave’s birds and animals, including the currently threatened (just shy of endangered) Desert Tortoise.
We had to promise a firstborn child should we happen to see and interfere with one … but alas, that elusive creature was never seen. Our lament over missing a tortoise sighting soon vanished when we came upon a beautiful wild white horse. She was absolutely stunning! We learned she was one of a pack of 12 to 14 wild horses often seen on tours.
We almost didn’t want the ride to end.
With unruly hair, covered in a layer or six of dust, pinked by a couple of hours in the sun and wind, and already reliving every twist and turn, we arrived back at the Pioneer Saloon.
While Tyler cleaned up the UTVs, we meandered inside for a quick beer and one of the best burgers I’ve ever eaten. There are so many options — the Cowboy Burger, It’s So Gouda, Hangover Burger and even the A$$hole Burger (the names are as unique as the toppings). All the burgers were cooked on an outdoor grill while we sat at a table beneath a covering nestled among the trees.
After eating, we strolled through the 100+-year-old building and envisioned all the people who’d been there before us.
Tyler continued his superior customer service with a lift right back to our hotel in Vegas. Our trip was a bit longer than usual because we stopped for extra photos and video, but from pick up to drop off, the excursion typically lasts four to five hours. And they’ll be some of the best you’ll spend during your off time.
Book your own adventure!
Truck driving is a challenging job — but one of the perks is seeing the country in a way most never will.
Do yourself a favor: The next time your reset or PTO takes you to the Vegas area, carve out a half day and get out to the desert for this tour.
Or, if two wheels are your thing, you can enjoy a motorcycle ride completely on your own (rent a bike from any of EAGLERIDER’s 150+ locations and go solo wherever the wind takes you) or enjoy a self-guided (or guided) motorcycle tour. And if you’re a U.S. military member, EAGLERIDER is happy to give you a 10% discount.
From a free-spirited cruise on your own to a joy ride up Route 66 to a Blue Ridge Blues and BBQ tour and 67 other tours in between, you’ll enjoy the open road in a whole new way.
Megan Cullingford Hicks is The Trucker Media Group General Manager. She started at Trucker’s Connection magazine after graduating from college with a degree in communications, thinking she would do this until “something better came along.” Nothing did, and over the next quarter of a century, Megan rose from assistant editor to editor and then to general manager with an array of duties ranging from writing her monthly column Viewpoint to penning various feature articles to general operations, business development, and digital implementation, thus gaining her the unofficial title “ringmaster.”
