Trails in Red Rock Canyon offer superb views.

If you’re planning an RV trip to Las Vegas, you don’t have to park your rig in the city or a crowded suburb while you enjoy the action. The Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area on Route 159 west of downtown offers secluded dry-camping in a spectacular setting, yet is a mere 10-minute drive from stores, restaurants and casinos.

Civilization barely intrudes on this wonderland so close to a city of 536,000 people. Terrain blocks a view of Las Vegas and development from the campground, although a slight lightening of the nighttime sky to the east reveals their presence. And except for the occasional sound of an aircraft, no city or highway noise reaches the ear from the sites. Just the usual campground sounds. And the evening yips of coyotes. Bobcats and bighorn sheep also find the 96,000-acre Red Rock Canyon wild enough for a home.

The visitor's center is at the start of the scenic drive.

Sandstone red is not the only color that makes the area so eye-pleasing. Various shades of sandstone beige, the grays of the Spring Mountains, and the greens and yellows of plant life are on the palette as well. You can learn about the associated geology—and the area’s flora, fauna and archeology—in the visitor’s center two and a half miles from the campground. The center is also the starting point for Red Rock Canyon’s most popular activity, a 13-mile scenic drive. At various points along the one-way drive are overlooks, trailheads and picnic tables. Archeology fans will want to check out prehistoric pictographs, petroglyphs and rock shelters on a short spur off the road at the Willow Springs Picnic Area. My wife and I had lunch at Willow Springs a few feet from one of dozens of ancient agave roasting pits in Red Rock Canyon.

Of course, you can make the scenic drive on a bicycle rather than in your dingy or tow vehicle. Leashed pets are allowed on all 19 trails accessible from the scenic drive.

Those trails were one reason my wife and I lingered here for a week three years ago, when we had intended to stay just a few days. An avid hiker, I wanted to do all 19 before we left. Also, we liked the idea of enjoying the bountiful outdoors during the day and scooting into the city at night for a show or a buffet dinner at a casino. We just completed our second visit, and again we extended our planned stay. It’s hard to get your fill of this place.

A 15-minute hike from the campground shows the proximity of Las Vegas.

Both of our visits were in November, when nights were cool (elevation at the visitor’s center is 3,720 feet) but the days sunny and warm. The campground is closed from June through August due to high heat and low usage. Although utilities are unavailable at the $10-a-night, no-reservation sites, restrooms and faucet water are nearby. During both our stays, rock climbers in tents occupied most of the sites in the main camping area. Smaller RVs can fit in many of the 52 back-in sites there, but large units will need one of five sites set aside for them in a separate unpaved parking lot several hundred yards away. That section is where we put our 30-foot fifth-wheel each time. With an open site arrangement, it offers much more privacy and elbow room than the main camping area does, as well as better views of desert and mountains. During stay number one, several wild burros wandered by our trailer.

Larger RVs have a separate camping section from the main area in background.

The large-RV section is set off from the main area by a gate, which you must open and close as you come and go. (The gate is intended to keep out tenters.) So we can honestly tell friends back home that we stayed in a gated RV community at the edge of Las Vegas.