Jeep tours offer intimate way to learn more about Southern Nevada’s wildlands
Against the backdrop of bold, red sandstone monuments of Red Rock Canyon west of Las Vegas, you may catch hints of pink against the beige desert — blooming wild rhubarb, mariposa lily and beavertail cactus. But there’s something larger you may notice from time to time, a brighter pink than any flower: a Pink Jeep.
Pink Jeep Tours run rain or shine, heat or snow in wildlands all over Southern Nevada. From Hoover Dam to Red Rock and Valley of Fire, the guided trips take fewer than a dozen guests on a discovery tour. For locals, there’s the opportunity to learn something new about public lands; for tourists, it’s a convenient way to see a major sight; and for new residents, it’s a great introduction to what may become their next favorite spot.
Pink Jeep Tours, which operates in Nevada, Arizona, Missouri and Tennessee, is part of Herschend Family Entertainment (the same company that runs Dollywood). According to John Fitzgibbons, president of parks and Pink Adventure for the company, the company was founded by Don Pratt, a real estate developer in Sedona. A pink hotel in Hawaii inspired him and his wife to paint the Jeeps pink in 1960.
Since then, the company has served more than 8 million guests.
‘The secret sauce’
Many of those guests were in Las Vegas, where tours began 25 years ago. And many of those Las Vegas guests have met Mike Metzger, the company’s longest-serving local guide.
He shows no signs of slowing down. At 78, the certified interpretive guide constantly relays information to a small group in the back of his Jeep, leads short hikes and sounds smart as a whip with his well-rehearsed jokes throughout the tour.
When our November tour began, Metzger used the drive from Palace Station to Red Rock to share details of the natural and modern histories of the Las Vegas Valley. He gives the lay of the land from Red Rock’s geological history to the development of Summerlin to the future of Lake Mead and everything in between. That day, 26 of the company’s 30 local Jeeps were scheduled for tours. All of the Jeeps are off-road capable, but not all stray from the road.
The company trains guides for four to eight weeks, according to Fitzgibbons. Over his many years working for the company, Metzger has learned more and more, though he came into the company with some knowledge of natural history. Red Rock is his favorite tour stop.
“I love the colors up here. It’s astounding … the geology up here is just incredible, how this all happened. It’s amazing, beautiful,” he said.
What stands out at each of the stops along the scenic route: Metzger has a profound knowledge of ethnobotany, or traditional knowledge of native plants. At each hop-out, he showed the group a few plants and explained how Indigenous groups in Southern Nevada used them.
The combination of the guides’ knowledge and the small number of guests per tour is what Fitzgibbons calls “the secret sauce.”
“Each one of the guides have got their own passion, (their) own thing that they totally love and kind of overemphasize when they go out on tour,” he said. “But what’s great about that is that you can go out today with Tamari, go out with Steve, and it’s going to be a different tour, and it’s maybe the exact same tour, but their knowledge is based on where their passion is and comes out in different ways. And I think whether it’s a local or a tourist, they capture all that. They also help feed off of what people’s passion is.”
Along the route, Metzger pointed out Mormon tea, a wild plant used by Native Americans to treat reproductive issues, and cat claw acacia, used for flour and meal. He points out wild rice, desert trumpet, white sage, wild grape and knows all of them. He shares tales of wildlife sightings in between photo opportunities.
“Most companies will hire somebody they think knows something. We hire people we think are good guides, then we train them,” Metzger said.
‘That was cool’
The four-hour tour starts at $109 per child and $119 per adult. Children under 3 are not permitted. Around Las Vegas, tours take visitors to Hoover Dam, Valley of Fire State Park, Death Valley National Park, Zion National Park, Eldorado ghost town and the Strip (with an optional helicopter tour add-on). Beyond Las Vegas, tours are offered in Sedona, Arizona, the Grand Canyon, the Smoky Mountains, and Branson, Missouri’s Ozarks.
During the November tour, which locals populated, Metzger took the group to the Red Rock Canyon visitors center, which many of the guests hadn’t seen before. The center features modern, informative displays about Red Rock, as well as a large desert tortoise enclosure.
“I didn’t know any of this was here,” freelance journalist Stacey Gualandi said. “I feel kind of stupid I didn’t come here before.”
Metzger said he gets a decent split of tourists and locals.
“It’s surprising,” he said. “I’ll get people who live here that go, ‘I always wanted to see that.’ The other day, I had one who had never gone to Hoover Dam. And they lived here, and they took a Pink Jeep Tour to Hoover Dam. That was cool.”
Fitzgibbons said he only sees the company growing. And near Las Vegas, there’s no shortage of beauty to explore. But it’s not just wildlands. The company announced in December a different kind of expansion: a night tour of the Strip. The three-hour, history-focused tour includes stops at the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign, a drive down the Strip and into downtown’s Wedding Row, as well as Fremont Street and a stop at the High Roller observation wheel.
And they’re not the only Jeep out there. Las Vegas Rockcrawlers is for tourists looking for more extreme Jeep or ATV tours focused on terrain grappling, boulder traversing and not as much interpretation of the land. Then there’s Discover It Yourself, or DIY, a self-guided adventure from Las Vegas in a fully-equipped Jeep. This company offers secret locations, planned romantic getaways, basic gear and emergency support.
Contact Kristen DeSilva at kdesilva@reviewjournal.com. Follow @kristendesilva on X.
