Black Mountain Preserve Plans Along MacDonald Highlands
October 15, 2026
October 15, 2026
"We will be taking advantage of the trails that have been carved out from people just using the area," Amie Wojtech, Henderson's park planning manager, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in June. "We'll bring those up to city standards and use those, as opposed to creating new trails."
That sentence describes the planned Black Mountain Nature Preserve better than any rendering does. The city is turning roughly 1,300 acres of its own land, bounded by Horizon Ridge Parkway and I-11, into a formal preserve. Most of the route network will come from paths hikers have already worn into the hill. For anyone who lives on the slopes of MacDonald Highlands, the trails out the back door this fall are, for the most part, the trails Henderson plans to adopt.
The pre-final plans for the preserve were on the agenda for the Henderson Parks and Recreation Board's October 7, 2026 meeting for possible action. Staff recommended approval, and park planner Dan Fowler was listed to present the update. The board's vote has not yet appeared in a public record we could find. The trail summary in the meeting packet is already public, though, and it reads like an inventory of what is on the ground now:
Improved trails outnumber new ones three to one. People have hiked this city-owned land for years, mostly on informal "social trails," according to the Review-Journal. The plan keeps that layout and adds structure: surfacing, signs that put names on routes people already know by habit, and interpretive panels on ground they already cross.
The design firm framed the work the same way. In a letter to the city, Doug Prouty, a senior landscape architect with Lage Design, called the preserve "a low-impact development" that "will protect sensitive plant and animal species while promoting outdoor exploration and learning," the Review-Journal reported. The design sheets show the new hiking trail with a natural-gravel surface, which matches the plan's light touch.
The preserve will add a formal trailhead, which the hill has never had. The city's design-review application, received June 8, 2026, places the trailhead at Buckhorn Street and Palisades View Drive. It describes the site as the northern end of the McCullough Range. The June filing and the October packet describe the trailhead's amenities in slightly different terms. Together they list:
The other new feature is a pair of named destinations. The exhibits mark Natural Overlook A at an elevation of 2,320 feet and Summit Overlook B at 2,671 feet. The summit overlook sits 351 feet above the lower one. So the preserve offers two kinds of outing: a shorter walk to a viewpoint, and a climb to the top.
The city's application also shows how closely this land meets the neighborhood. Its list of assessor parcels for the project includes lots in MacDonald Highlands Planning Area 18, Phases 4 and 5. Nearby subdivisions on the same list include Black Mountain Vistas, Montenegro Estates and Big Horn at Black Mountain Condominiums. The documents we reviewed do not say how far the Buckhorn trailhead is from any MacDonald Highlands gate. Until the city publishes a final map, the parcel list is the clearest public record that the preserve and the community share a boundary.
The project is still in design. A $5.5 million grant from the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act pays for it. The city is targeting construction for early 2027, and Wojtech said she hopes to open the preserve officially by the end of that year, according to the Review-Journal.
That means this fall's hiking season, starting now in October, takes place on the hill as it has always been. The routes are informal, unsigned and reached without a formal trailhead. The city's project page lists natural-surface trails, trailhead parking and restrooms, native revegetation, interpretive signage and scenic overlooks as planned features. Apart from the informal paths themselves, none of these has been built yet.
The plans also leave some questions open. The trailhead drawing includes a dog-waste station and a bike rack. However, the preserve plans we reviewed do not set rules for dogs, bicycles or hours, and they give no total trail mileage. For reference, Henderson's general trail guidance sets city trail hours at 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., with unlit trails open dawn to dusk. It allows pedal-assist electric bicycles and bans throttle-powered electric motorcycles. Whether the preserve follows those defaults is still undecided.
The name causes confusion. The Black Mountain Trail, BLM 404, is a separate hike. It starts at the Shadow Canyon Trailhead in Anthem, uses the Anthem East Trail, and climbs to a 5,030-foot summit over 7.56 miles round trip, according to the trail guide at birdandhike.com. The preserve's highest planned overlook is at 2,671 feet. The two summits differ by more than 2,300 feet of elevation, and the trailheads are in different parts of Henderson. When a neighbor mentions hiking Black Mountain, ask which trailhead they used.
The preserve matters to MacDonald Highlands for more than its own trails. The city plans to link it to Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area, Hidden Falls Park, the Amargosa Trail and the McCullough Hills Trail. Each of those already has a formal entry, so this fall you can reach the wider network from its established ends.
Amargosa Trail. The city describes it as 10 miles, mostly paved, with a natural-surface section for mountain biking. Its four trailheads are:
McCullough Hills Trail. The trailhead is at 295 Mission Drive, with unpaved routes for hiking and biking. The preserve's design submission names this trail as its link to Sloan Canyon.
Sloan Canyon. The Bureau of Land Management's Sloan Canyon page still says Nawghaw Poa Road and its end-of-road parking area are closed through November 11, 2026. The Petroglyph Canyon and 101 trails are rerouted, and parking has moved to Democracy Drive. We found no newer notice. Check the BLM page again after that date before planning a visit from the Nawghaw Poa side.
Once the Buckhorn trailhead is built, Black Mountain will link to all of these places.
Land on the edge of a preserve is valued differently once the edge is mapped, signed and given a trailhead. At Cynthia Lauren Huff, we follow plans like Black Mountain's through every city filing, so homeowners and buyers in MacDonald Highlands understand what is changing on the hillside behind them. Schedule a private consultation and tour to look at the preserve's boundary from the ground.
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