Las Vegas, Nevada, built its reputation as a mecca of vice buried deep within a desert landscape nobody was paying much attention to. What was once a hotbed of organized crime and petty criminality is now a den of monolithic buildings funded by private equity groups that design every aspect of your stay for monetization. The iconic Las Vegas strip has become boring.
Every night’s stay carries an annoying and unnecessary resort fee; gambling odds are no longer in your favor, and slot machines are algorithmically rigged against you; parking costs extra, everywhere, all the time; shows are tired exercises in repetition, not entertainment. The resort next door is often a mile away through vast corridors and navigating confusing pedestrian traffic lanes, and there’s not a single affordable meal you’d actually want to eat in any of those massive buildings. One starts to wonder what the point of Las Vegas even is, anymore.
So I ventured off the strip - but not to the Fremont Street experience, or Hoover Dam. No, we went the other direction entirely, into the desert itself, looking for a different type of fun. I was in town for the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, but spent a day driving over rocks, across dunes, and speeding through washed-out basins - and I wouldn’t do it any differently. In fact, this may be my new normal for visiting Las Vegas.
Behind the scenes
Full disclosure: For this off-roading trip, I was a guest of Pirelli. Like my foray into Death Valley with Pirelli, the company wanted to show off its new Scorpion XTM AT tire. Many tire manufacturers host these sorts of trips, but what sets Pirelli apart (in my experience, at least) is that guests aren’t ushered through a manufactured course. Pirelli arranged for some Jeeps, put its Scorpion XTM AT tire on them, and off we went.
There was no manicured course. In fact, we were encouraged to deviate from the path our lead truck forged if we felt so inclined. Pirelli believes so fiercely in its Scorpion XTM AT tire that it was willing to dump me into the desert and asked me to figure it out on my own. Thankfully, I have plenty of experience driving off-road.
If there’s one thing I found impressive about the Pirelli Scorpion XTM AT on this trip, it’s that we never had to let any air out of the tires to get traction. We ran them at the manufacturer’s recommended PSI for the fitment on our Jeeps all day. I could have aired down and gotten better traction on the rocks, sure, but I didn’t need to. For me, the Pirelli Scorpion XTM AT is simply the best tire for drivers who drive both on and off-road.
Off-roading, Las Vegas style
Nellis Dunes sits about 25 minutes northeast of Las Vegas, covering over 10,000 acres. It’s a popular destination for off-roading, with a lot of the terrain carved by ATVs. My time off-roading at Nellis Dunes came just after heavy rains, adding a layer of complexity to the day. ATV paths are their own hiccup for larger vehicles, but a freshly washed desert is even more treacherous.
I spent most of my time in Nellis Dunes traversing dunes. Our guides cautioned us that the rains had reset the trails, and we should expect slippage and sliding on the sands. It was akin to driving uncharted territory. Our vehicles handled everything well - no slipping or sliding - and we definitely went places within those dunes with the expectation we may have to help dig each other out.
Nellis Dunes is approachable, even for novices, but can be challenging enough for more experienced drivers. It’s a sort of “choose your own adventure” destination for off-road driving. You can keep it relaxed and tinker in the wide-open dunes, or you can venture up steeper hills that ramp up the difficulty level quite a bit. Whatever you choose, you’re never going to be in imminent danger. Sure, you might get stuck, but that’s to be expected. If you prefer a hosted experience, several ATV tours are available for touring Nellis Dunes.
Deeper into danger
As we exited Nellis Dunes, we ventured into Valley of Fire State Park, about an hour further away from Las Vegas proper. Here we found more challenging trails, including rough, rocky uphill climbs and washed-out riverbeds freshly disturbed by recent rains. Where Nellis Dunes is a grab-a-beer-and-have-fun park of dunes, Valley of Fire will sober you right up - and quickly.
Valley of Fire doesn’t seek permission, nor does it ease you in. Past the gorgeous scenery (and there are plenty of spots to pull over to be awestruck by what you see) lie harrowing, rocky trails that seem designed to strand those with egos too outsized for their skillset. On our journey, we saw one burned-out truck off the side of the road. I’m sure there are others just like it deeper in the park.
Here, I challenged myself, the Jeep Wrangler I was driving, and Pirelli’s Scorpion XTM AT. I know rain only makes the paths look calm; beneath the trail's facade, the earth is still finding its footing, so I imagined pushing the vehicle just a bit further and getting ever-so-stuck in some riverbeds. I ventured off the path laid for me several times, expecting to radio for guidance, if not a shovel and some extra hands to help me out of a jam. We were, after all, on tires with full air after fresh rain on some challenging trails.
I didn’t get stuck, and we moved on to deep, rough, rocky hill climbs. Rocks as large as the tires themselves jut out from smaller, sharper rocks that seem destined to pop at least one Scorpion XTM AT tire on the day. We climbed rocks, we sped through sandy trails, and we waded through wet creek beds. We slipped into four-low, four-high, and sometimes even left it in 2WD to see what would happen. We never let air out of our tires, which you really should do at least on the rocks we were driving over, and still had no issues traversing any terrain laid out ahead of us.
Final thoughts
Tires are fascinating in their own way. An immense amount of research and development goes into a critical component that most of us don’t think twice about until it’s time to replace them - and then we obsess about them. During my time in Las Vegas, we spent more time talking about the Scorpion XTM AT’s on-road performance than its off-road prowess. It’s hard to believe a tire that handles such a wide range of terrain without compromising performance is also quiet on the highway. Maybe Pirelli really did make the best all-around tire on the market.
Off-roading is fun, and getting away from the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas to bury tires in the sand was a welcome reprieve. I appreciate that you can opt for the approachable fun of Nellis Dunes, or get into some real trouble in Valley of Fire State Park. Both are less than 90 minutes from the Strip, too. I’m not even sure I can walk to the neighboring casino in less than 90 minutes, nor do I care to try. Take me to the desert with a sack lunch and a few water bottles instead, please.
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