Princeville Lane stretches around the eastern end of Spanish Trail and runs parallel to both Hacienda Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard. The houses that run parallel to Rainbow are in gated courts set back from the street. Each court is made up of around five large houses.
Vintage Court, Spanish Trail
April 26, 2010 By
At the eastern side of Spanish Trail are some of the largest houses in the community. There is a court which is distinguished by having two street names: Vintage Court and Gulfstream Court.
Spanish Trail Crime
April 25, 2010 By
Crime is an unfortunate fact of life in modern day America, but there are a number of ways to mitigate your exposure to it. The most obvious step is to live in an area where there is statistical evidence of low crime, and another is to live in a guard gated community. Spanish Trail delivers both of these benefits, and is thus a preferred choice of the safety conscious. Every house in Spanish Trail is equipped with an alarm which is connected to the 24 hours on-site security team. You will see the private security pick-up trucks driving around at all times, and they have a very rapid response time when alarms go off. Despite this Spanish Trail crime exists.
It is important to remain vigilant even within Spanish Trail’s walls. Walls can be scaled, alarms can be neutralized, and many people come and go to visit the Country Club that the community is built around. If you become complacent and don’t used your alarm then you are taking an unnecessary risk. Whilst Spanish Trail crime is rare there have been a number of high profile cases.
In 1993 casino magnet Steve Wynn’s daughter was kidnapped at gunpoint from here home and held on a $1.45m ransom. The ransom for daughter Kevyn Wynn was paid and she was released unharmed. The not so smart kidnapper was promptly caught after paying cash for a Ferrari in California. Three men were jailed in all: Ray Cuddy, Jacob Sherwood.
Professional poker player Hoyt Corkins had his Spanish Trail home burgled, and the thieves calmly exited the community with two of his cars, a motorbike, poker memorabilia and electronics. Corkins’ irreplaceable World Series of Poker bracelet and World Poker Tour bracelet were taken.
These are reminders to take care even in the safe enclave of Spanish Trail. Since some people have empty second homes in the community, and others are incredibly wealthy, it can be a target of some criminals despite its tight security.
The Springs
March 30, 2010 By
The Springs is on the east side of Las Vegas’s first prestigious guard-gated community Spanish Trail. This is one of the most beautifully landscaped parts of the community, with streams running through back yards, and some great communal space. This video gives you a sense of what an oasis it is from the hectic pace of the Strip, which is just 10 minutes away.
Innisbrook Avenue
March 23, 2010 By
Innisbrook Avenue is part of the Estates West gated area, which is within the guard-gated community of Las Vegas’s Spanish Trail. As you can see from this video this is where some serious money resides. However, Innisbrook runs next to Hacienda Avenue. This is odd as one would expect estate level housing to be further into the community.
Spanish Trail
March 16, 2010 By
Spanish Trail is a guard-gated, master-planned community just 15 minutes west of the Strip. It is build around a 27-hole golf course and has custom homes ranging from 1,300 to 10,000 square feet and over. Often incorrectly referred to as Spanish Trails Las Vegas, the official name of the development is Spanish Trail. The Spanish Trail Country Club remains one of the most prestigious in Las Vegas.
Some of the Golf Course Properties
Spanish Trail was a pioneer in providing a lifestyle experience for wealthy Las Vegans, rather than simply a place to live. Bordered by Tropicana and Hacienda running east to west, and by Durango and Rainbow running north to south, this 640 acre community is like a town of its own, just without any decent shops. For a long time Spanish Trail was the premier Las Vegas address, and today it benefits from having some of the most mature landscaping amongst Vegas’s master-planned communities. In its time it has attracted Prince Jefri of Brueni, baseball player Geoff Maddux, and Andrei Agassi (although he has since moved to Spanish Hills).
Joe Blasco, a Spanish immigrant who arrived in the US at the age of five, was a Las Vegan who made his money in mobile home parks and gravel pits. He acquired the Spanish Trail land from the federal government, probably with the intent of using it for the gravel business. However, having bought the land in 1953 its highest and best use had changed by 1983, when Blasco decided to build a golf-course community.
The community is named after the Old Spanish Trail – an historical trade route which connected northern New Mexico with Los Angeles. The route was 1,200 miles long, and was named in John C. Frémont’s Report of his 1844 journey from California to New Mexico. The name was chosen to acknowledge the fact that the Spanish had known about the route since the seventeenth century.
The design of the new Spanish Trail was modeled on Californian developments and in particular Palm Springs. At the time the community was built it offered the first new golf course Las Vegas had seen in fifteen years. Robert Trent Jones Jr. designed the 27-hole course, which cost more than $10m and was planted with 1,500 mature trees from day one. The course features five lakes with streams and waterfalls, 120 bunkers and sweeping mountain vistas.
One of the major attractions of Spanish Trail in its early days was that it was one of the only guard gated communities, and that it was further secured by eight miles of wall. This hasn’t prevented all crime, with the famous kidnap of Steve Wynn’s daughter being one high profile case, but even today it is one of the safer places in Las Vegas.
The luxury end of Las Vegas’s residential community started with Spanish Trail, and went onto be replicated in multiple developments such as thee neighboring Spanish Hills. Spanish Trail retains a certain old Vegas prestige, and its mature landscaping is not easily imitated. Within the community there are a number of distinct areas: Islands, Gardens, Springs, Courtyards, Carmels, Villas, Estates and Links.
One of The Estates Lanes
There are three Spanish Trail golf courses:
- The Sunrise Course totals 3,426 yards if you tee of from the championship tees, is notable for the ninth hole, which you can see from the clubhouse if you don’t make it onto the course. One of the tricky aspects of the course is the rolling fairways, which means that you can easily end up with a difficult approach shot if you don’t hold your line. If you are looking to card a low score then you need to be on top of your game – the fifth hole was ranked as one of the toughest holes on the PGA Tour back when Spanish Trail Country Club hosted the Las Vegas Invitational.
- The Lakes Course takes it name from the fact that two thirds of its holes have water hazards, including five holes where you have to carry over water to reach the greens. The greens are rather fast, but it will take you over 600 yards to get to them from the championship tees.
- The Canyon Course is 3,576 yards of challenging course. It is desert-landscaped and was completed in 2004. It is the most difficult of the courses, and the combination of bunkers and water hazards push most golfers beyond their handicap.
The country club at Spanish Trails Las Vegas also has twelve championship tennis courts, including one with artificial grass. There is also an automatic ball machine in a practice alley, and a pro shop with everything you need. After a round of golf or game of tennis, there is a pool pavilion which is a great place to relax.