The Ice Age land on the northern edge of Centennial Hills runs on a short public season, and in 2026 most of it falls in one month. Between October 10 and October 30, Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs and the Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument next door host a rescue fundraiser, the monument's biggest on-site event of the year, a free park entry day and a fossil program for Nevada Day. The monument's ranger events listing shows no other fall dates.
The timing has a reason, and knowing it explains when you can actually use these places.
Why the Calendar Bunches Up Now
The National Park Service says plainly that it doesn't run on-site programs at Tule Springs in summer because of the heat. The monument also has no visitor center, shade structures, water-refill stations or restrooms. In practice it's open desert with trailhead kiosks, so there's nowhere to wait out a 105-degree afternoon. Ranger programs only become possible once temperatures drop.
They haven't dropped all the way yet. The National Weather Service forecast on the monument's conditions page on October 3 called for a Sunday high near 95, a Wednesday high near 97 and no day below 91 through the following Saturday. So early October still means morning hikes, and the events below mostly start in the morning.
The park service's general program page lists ranger-guided hikes, B.A.R.K. Ranger hikes for people with dogs, Junior Ranger Day and urban astronomy programs, and it says hikes need advance signup. As of this week, none of those has a fall 2026 date on the NPS calendar. Pleistocene Palooza is the one scheduled program on monument land.
October, Date by Date
| Date | Event | Where | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Oct. 10, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Bunnies Matter Rescue Fall Festival | Bunny Barn, Floyd Lamb Park | Game tickets $5 |
| Sat., Oct. 17, 9:30 a.m. | Pleistocene Palooza, National Fossil Day | Parking area at N. Durango Dr. and W. Moccasin Rd. | Free |
| Thu., Oct. 29, 4 to 7:30 p.m. | Ward 6 Haunted Harvest | Centennial Hills Community Center/YMCA and Centennial Hills Library, N. Buffalo Dr. | Free |
| Fri., Oct. 30, Nevada Day | Free entry day | Floyd Lamb Park | Free |
| Fri., Oct. 30, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Nevada Day fossil program | Nevada State Museum Las Vegas | Free |
The Bunny Barn kicks things off
Bunnies Matter Rescue holds its Fall Festival at the Bunny Barn inside Floyd Lamb Park on Saturday, October 10, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The flyer lists games, gifts, crafts and raffles. Game tickets cost $5, and you can buy them that day or preorder them. The flyer doesn't mention an admission charge for the festival itself. The rescue accepts credit cards, PayPal and Zelle, and its listed contact is Denise at 702-353-4198.
Pleistocene Palooza is the main event
On Saturday, October 17, the park service holds Pleistocene Palooza for National Fossil Day. It's free, it's for all ages and dogs are welcome. The listing promises working scientists, fossils you can see up close, live animals and a Junior Paleontologist program. The fossils at Tule Springs are between 100,000 and 12,500 years old.
The event is in the parking area at North Durango Drive and West Moccasin Road, with visitor parking on the northeast side of the intersection. For most of Centennial Hills, that corner is the closest way into the monument.
The two published schedules don't match. The NPS listing says it starts at 9:30 a.m. and runs three hours. The page from Protectors of Tule Springs, the monument's philanthropic partner, lists 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Plan around the park service's three-hour window. With no shade or water on site, arriving close to 9:30 is the practical choice anyway.
Two days, two different crowds
The Ward 6 Haunted Harvest runs Thursday, October 29, from 4 to 7:30 p.m. at the Centennial Hills Community Center/YMCA at 6601 N. Buffalo Drive and the Centennial Hills Library at 6711 N. Buffalo Drive. The city's listing has a knights-and-dragons theme, with trunk-or-treating, a castle maze, face painting, a puppet show and a scavenger hunt. Sponsors are Ward 6 Councilwoman Nancy Brune, Arbor View High School, the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, Real Dinosaurs and the YMCA. It's free, and the city says to bring a bag or bucket for candy.
The next day is Nevada Day. Floyd Lamb Park is free to enter, and Protectors of Tule Springs runs a free program from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Nevada State Museum Las Vegas, showing Tule Springs fossils from the museum's collection. The museum is a drive from the neighborhood, so you could fit the fossils into the morning and the park into the afternoon.
Floyd Lamb Park Switches to Its Shorter Hours
October is also when Floyd Lamb Park changes schedules. From April through September it's open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. From October through March it closes at 5 p.m. That's three fewer hours a day, all of them in the evening, so after-work walks around the ponds now need to happen by late afternoon.
What's there doesn't change with the season. The city lists walking and jogging paths, fishing ponds, horse trails, reservable picnic areas, barbecue grills, historic areas, mountain bike trails, a pump track for BMX riders, a volleyball court and the restored Hay Barn. Unlike the monument next door, it also has restrooms, which makes it the easier half of the pair for a long morning with small kids. Fishing still requires a license from the Nevada Department of Wildlife.
After October 30, the park's remaining free entry days are November 26, which is Thanksgiving, and December 25.
The Las Vegas State Tree Nursery, run by the Nevada Division of Forestry, is also inside the park. Its fall inventory list is dated September 17, 2026. The nursery's page still shows summer hours, Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and hasn't posted fall hours or a sale date. Call ahead before you drive over for fall planting.
The Trailheads You Use Stay As They Are, For Now
Outside of events, Centennial Hills households get into the monument through two unimproved loops. The NPS trails page lists the Durango Loop from the Durango/Moccasin kiosk at 1.7 miles for the short loop or 2.25 miles for the long loop. The Aliante Loop runs 2.5 miles from the Aliante Parkway kiosk.
The monument's first permanent, accessible trail is going in across the valley from here. Construction began in August 2025 on the 3.3-mile Tufa Trail in the south unit, in North Las Vegas. The plans call for bilingual wayside exhibits, tactile models and wayfinding maps, and the park service expects to open it in 2027. D.R. Horton is designing and building it at no cost to the park under a 2018 land exchange between the National Park Service and the City of North Las Vegas. The trail borders the builder's Villages at Tule Springs community on the park's southeastern edge. Protectors of Tule Springs secured more than $70,000 from the Federal Highway Administration's Recreational Trails Program to help pay for it.
At the groundbreaking, Superintendent Amanda Rowland said:
"The trails will direct visitors to a well-marked, accessible trail with engaging exhibits that promote stewardship and prevent sensitive resources from becoming trampled or disturbed."
The park service says the trail area protects the only Ice Age braided rivers "frozen in time" in North America. It also covers habitat for the Las Vegas bear poppy, Las Vegas buckwheat and the Mojave Desert tortoise. The Durango and Aliante loops don't get those features, so until 2027 a Centennial Hills hike at the monument stays what it is today, an open desert loop that starts at a kiosk.
The construction closure covers the south unit below Grand Teton Drive, between Tule Springs Parkway and North Fifth Street, and the park service says the trailheads remain open. That alert was last updated in October 2025, so check the Alerts & Conditions page before heading to the North Las Vegas side.
The last date on this year's calendar is December 19. Protectors of Tule Springs lists it as the monument's birthday, marking the 2014 law that created it, but hasn't announced a venue or program.
Robert Plummer has lived in Las Vegas for more than 50 years and has watched the northwest edge of the valley grow right up to the fossil beds. If you're curious how open space like Tule Springs and Floyd Lamb Park figures into what homes nearby are worth, Robert Plummer is glad to talk it through, whether that's over coffee or at the Durango kiosk on Palooza morning. Make It Happen — Contact Robert Today.
