Las Vegas Downtown/Freemont Running Route

Click here for route map
Length 5.7 km (3.5 miles), terrain flat

Las Vegas Running Routes:
The Strip  
Downtown  
University of Nevada
Red Rock Canyon
White Domes, Valley of Fire 
Fire Wave, Valley of Fire

For more running routes, see the Route List page.

If you're staying in the downtown Las Vegas area, here's a route for you. Or even if your hotel is on the southern Strip (Las Vegas Boulevard), you might want to head downtown to see the old Las Vegas, the one with the 50's charm: the great neon signs that have greeted generations of fun-seekers. The casinos here are smaller and a bit shabbier than the modern palaces down the Strip, but they have their own flair. I was back in town this last week, and I thought I'd give this route a try.

NOTE: It's easy to get downtown: just take one of the RTC buses that head up north to Freemont Street every 15 minutes.

Downtown Las Vegas isn't what I'd call a running-friendly place, with its web of busy streets, lots of commercial property, and total lack of parks. But this route takes you through some of the most scenic parts of downtown, plus heads through the quieter residential neighborhoods southeast of downtown.

NOTE: see the Destinations Tips page for tips about spending your free time in this great town!
 
This route starts in the heart of downtown, at the corner of Main Street and Freemont, in front of the Plaza Hotel/Casino. Right in front of you stretches Freemont Street, the center of Las Vegas' original gambling area. This area slid into a steady decline for decades as the southern Strip eclipsed its glitter, but the city has made an effort to revive it by roofing over the whole street and turning it into a pedestrian zone. The curved roof serves as the world's biggest projection screen at night. They call it the Freemont Street Experience.

The Freemont Street Experience, after a rain, with smoking Vegas Vic

The makeover worked pretty well, and the area is now fairly alive and well.

Head southeast on Freemont, past Binion's Horseshoe (Las Vegas' oldest gambling establishment, I believe) and a few more famous casino/hotels, like the Golden Nugget, the 4 Queens and the Pioneer Club (now just a souvenir shop).

When you come to Las Vegas Boulevard (the Strip) the Experience ends, and Freemont turns into a normal street, open to cars. But there, along the next block, the city set up some historic neon signs of long-torn-down casinos.

Freemont Street signs

Head straight out along Freemont. After about 9th Street, the street starts to go downhill a bit. This is now a fairly run-down neighborhood, a bit funky, but I consider it safe for jogging. But it will give you a bit of a view into Las Vegas' darker soul: home to many a shattered life, stranded in Vegas, end of the line. But if you go to Vegas, you want some adventure, don't you?

Heading down Freemont

In just 3 more blocks you'll turn right on S. Maryland Parkway, to head southwest. This street is a bit more residential already.

The street curves a bit to the left before crossing the busy Charleston Boulevard. Cross Charleston and run through the little Huntridge Circle Park that sits in the middle of the road. This is about as big as the parks get around here, and it marks the beginning of the quite pleasant John S. Parks neighborhood.

House in John Parks neighborhood with Stingray

The neighborhood is refreshingly normal, full of little middle-class bungalows from the 1960s. You could certainly come back here for more runs to explore the whole neighborhood. It stretches from the Strip in the west to Freemont in the east, and from Charleston Boulevard in the north to St. Louis Avenue in the south.

At the end of the park, turn right to run west on Franklin Avenue. 

When you get to S. 9th Street, turn right. We are now on our way back home.

Run until the street makes a turn to the left and becomes E. Park Paseo.

Cactus garden on E. Park Paseo

Run the one block to N. 8th Street, where you turn right and cross Charleston again, going north.

When you reach Gass Avenue, turn left and run the 2 blocks to 7th Street, where you turn right again.

Seventh Street is one of my favorite streets in Las Vegas. It has lots of trees, and is full of little old 1950's 2-bedroom bungalows. Most of them have been converted into lawyers' offices, showing its proximity to downtown. The entire downtown is full of lawyers' offices, bailbondsmen and pawn shops (the "Gold and Silver Pawn Shop" of History Channel's Pawn Stars fame is just a couple of blocks west of here on the strip), again revealing the turbulent state of many of the town's visitors and inhabitants.

Along Sevenths  Street

At Clark Avenue, turn left to run the four blocks to the Strip (Las Vegas Boulevard again), just so you can run a bit along this road, even though it isn't very interesting here. This is where the real downtown begins, with its courthouses, banks, county- and federal buildings.

NOTE: As an alternative route, keep running on 7th Street one more block to run past the very cool Las Vegas High School building, then turn left on Bridger.)

Historic Las Vegas High

Turn right on the Strip and run the one block past the federal building to Bridger Avenue, where you turn left. There is one of Las Vegas' many wedding chappels on the corner, the "Wee Kirk o' the Heather", although there is no sign of Scottish heather for the next few thousand miles or so, as far as I've noticed. There are other, tackier, chapels in town, looking more like converted Taco Bells than glamorous wedding venues.

The Wee Kirk Wedding Chapel

On Bridger, you'll run past typical downtown banks and county buildings for 5 blocks until you hit the very unscenic Main Street. Here, you turn right and run the two blocks back to the start of the run at Freemont.

Along Bridger Avenue

Las Vegas, Univ. of Nevada Running Route

Click here for map

Length: 7 km (4.3 miles), terrain flat

Las Vegas Running Routes:
The Strip  
Downtown  
University of Nevada
Red Rock Canyon
White Domes, Valley of Fire 
Fire Wave, Valley of Fire

For more running routes, see the Route List page.
 
If you've already run the Strip (Las Vegas Boulevard) in Las Vegas a few times (see article, Las Vegas, the Strip Route), you might be ready for a change of scenery. If you are located at the north end of the Strip, meaning anywhere north of Sahara Avenue, there are quiet residential neighborhoods to the east where you can easily wind your own way up and down the various streets: see the Downtown running link above.

NOTE: see the Destinations Tips page for tips about spending your free time in this great town!
 
But most hotels are located at the south end of the Strip, and there are no quiet residential neighborhoods around at all. The side streets aren't very interesting for running: most side streets towards the west are concrete canyons, and some, like Flamingo Road, are 10 lanes wide! Also to the west, you quickly hit the I-15 freeway, so there is only one choice if you want a quieter neighborhood: head east to the University of Nevada campus.

Campus walkways in the evening twilight

The campus is a mile (1.6 km) east of the Strip, going out Harmon Avenue. You can also get there by running east on Flamingo Road or Tropicana Avenue, which run along the north- and south-edges of the campus, but these are both busier streets than Harmon, so that's the route we'll try here.

The University of Nevada Campus Route
Start out at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue, at Planet Hollywood and the Harley Davidson Café. Just run straight east on this very unscenic road. When you see the Hofbräuhaus on the right side, you're just about there. You will run straight into the campus, with athletic fields to each side. The intramural fields on the right are also used for the yearly rodeo championships.

A bit blurry, but you get the idea: nice and quiet!

Run past the gyms on the left side. When their parking lots end, turn left and run past the gyms and suddenly you will find yourself in another world. A long, landscaped walkway goes off the the right, full of singing blackbirds. Run eastwards along the walkway until you come to the Fine Arts Gallery at the end. Turn right here to run south along the next green, landscaped walkway.

Plaza in front of the Fine Arts Gallery

The walkway ends at a spot with an amphitheater in front of the Student Union. Keep running south, to the right of the Union, to the next larger road, University Road. Turn right here, heading west. In just a couple of minutes you will run into Gym Road, where you turn right to head back north, past the huge library on the left side to Harmon Avenue, which you can recognize by its strange electrical transformer sitting directly in the middle of the street, creating a traffic circle.

Turn left here and head straight back to the Strip.

Las Vegas, The Strip Running Route

Click to see route map

Length: 8.6 km (5.3 miles), terrain flat

Las Vegas Running Routes:
The Strip  
Downtown  
University of Nevada
Red Rock Canyon
White Domes, Valley of Fire 
Fire Wave, Valley of Fire

For more running routes, see the Route List page.

Having grown up in Florida, I was prepared to hate Las Vegas: a giant tourist-rip-off full of tacky amusements in what was once a beautiful piece of nature. I'd seen too much of that already. But somehow, I can't help loving Las Vegas, too. It's just a place full of fun-loving, normal folks, just out to have a few interesting nights-out. Everyone is pretty relaxed and good-natured about it, the shows are great, and some of the developments, like the Aria Resort, are beautifully done. Even if a lot of other stuff IS pretty tacky, what the heck.

The Strip at night in Las Vegas

A more immediate problem for runners, and all other pedestrians, is that Las Vegas is definitely NOT very pro-human in its transport system. Every second street corner along the southern Strip totally lacks a pedestrian crossing, and you have to go up high stairways to cross the cars from above. One such pedestrian bridge ended abruptly at the entrance to the Treasure Island casino, and I just kept running inside, past the slot machines to get back out to the street. The same thing happens at the Belaggio, the hotel of hotels in Las Vegas. So, if you can handle that, then a run along the Strip during the cool mornings is just the thing to balance the crowds and blinking lights that will surround you this evening.

NOTE: see the Destinations Tips page for tips about spending your free time in this great town!
 
Otherwise, there are no real parks or quiet streets to run in the town center: the freeway of I-15 blocks access from the west, and the only park-like spots are fenced-off golf courses.

NOTE: If you have a car and free time (I had neither on this trip), you can drive 20 miles (30-km) west, out to Red Rock Canyon and run/hike in glorious nature. I would definitely try this, if possible, so see the link to the Red Rock run!

Morning runner along the Strip

Most of the big casinos and hotels are on the south end of the Strip (Las Vegas Boulevard) nowadays, so that's where we will start this run. And because there is hardly anywhere else interesting to run, we'll just do a simple run up and down the street. I have to say, this is an interesting street. And this is where just about everyone runs in the mornings. We'll just regard the various pedestrian bridges as hill work.

Las Vegas Strip Route
We have to start somewhere, so we'll do it at the corner of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard, where a lot of hotels are bunched up: the Tropicana, the MGM Grand, New York New York, Hooters and the Excalibur. We'll just run north, up one side of the Strip and back south down the other side.

NOTE: I assume that if you are there in the abundant hot weather in the summer, you'll have enough sense to run in the early mornings to avoid heat-stroke.

Running the Strip in the morning

We'll try to take advantage of the spots where hotels have added some landscaping away from the street to enjoy a few quieter spots along the way.

Starting at the giant lion in front of the MGM Grand, on the east side of the street, we'll take off. With the Manhattan skyline and Statue of Liberty across the street, as well as a Brooklyn Bridge without Brooklyn, off we go. We'll pass the Hawaiian Market and the Harley café, with the gargantuan City Center project on the left.

After Paris and its Eifel Tower and Arche de Triomphe, you'll see a landscaped courtyard in front of the Bally Hotel, with the fake waterfalls. Do a short loop there.

Paris, Las Vegas

Then you'll have to run up to the first pedestrian bridge, over 10-laned Flamingo Road. Then you'll find yourself running beneath pink billboards at the Flamingo Hotel touting the Donny and Marie Osmond Show. Hey, aren't they about 85 years old now? They must need the work to pay for the monthly plastic surgery.

The majesty of ancient Rome at Caesar's Palace is evident across the street, with its Colosseum and the Forum. A block later, and Venice rises up on the right side, with a simplified version of St. Mark's Plaza, but strangely lacking the canals.

And, in my eyes, even more majestic is Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, blaring out my kind of music.

We'll just keep running north to Circus Circus Drive, cross the street there, then run back south again. But you could really turn around anywhere you feel like it, of course. If you continued northwards, you'd run through the northern end of the Strip, where the old downtown gives it a feeling of the old Las Vegas of the 1960s, with fewer gargantuan projects (find the downtown route here).

The route as it winds through the Treasure Island casino

Heading back south on the west side, there are more opportunities to get a bit away from the direct street traffic and noise. At the Mirage Hotel, you can run behind the lagoon, where you can see, smell and feel real plants among the fake boulders (don't they have enough real ones in the area?)

Running through Caesar's Palace

And at Caesar's Palace, the Bellagio and New York New York (run over the Brooklyn Bridge) you can run a bit away from the street through their landscaped property.

And once over the Brooklyn Bridge, you're back at Tropicana, and the end of this fun and interesting run.