Update: Primm Valley Resort & Casino is currently the only hotel open in Primm. Whiskey Pete's casino is open but the hotel isn't. Buffalo Bill's is completely closed.
Seven Magic Mountains is a public earthwork art exhibit only twenty minutes north of Primm. It has become quite the attraction in recent years with visitors drawn to its colors, large scale, and contrasting desert landscape.
The exhibit is conveniently located only ten miles south of Henderson. It's a popular attraction for Las Vegas area residents and tourists alike.
Seven Magic Mountains is located on Las Vegas Boulevard, in flat terrain, the Ivanpah Valley. The exhibit is a five miles north of Jean.
Visitors at Seven Magic Mountains
The art, which was created by renowned Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone, is large-scale and features seven 30 to 35 feet totems. They are comprised of colorful boulders stacked on top of each other.
Seven Magic Mountains is one of the largest scale public art exhibitions of its kind in decades. The massive art uses a total of 33 boulders and ranges from four to six boulders in each of the seven stacks.
The average weight per boulder in the exhibition is about 40,000 pounds. The largest single boulder in the exhibit weighs about 56,000 pounds.
Vibrant Colors in the Desert
The Seven Magic Mountains have bright colors including pink, red, purple, magenta, and yellow. The seven boulder totems are not too far apart from each other and between them are Creosote bush, Yucca, and other Mojave Desert vegetation.
In addition to the vibrant, eye-catching boulder totems, at Seven Magic Mountains you can also take in the contrast of the nearby desert terrain, mountains, and deep blue desert sky.
Jean Dry Lake Bed and view the McCullough Range, whose peaks rise more than 2,000 feet above the valley floor are in close proximity to Seven Magic Mountains.
Sheep Mountain, Bird Spring, and the Goodsprings range are also in the area.
The exhibition originally opened in May 2016. It was originally to be on view for only two years. That was subsequently extended to five years.
Due to the popularity of Seven Magic Mountains, Rondinone’s desire is to keep the artwork at its current site. As of 2022, the exhibit remains open to the public.
Seven magic mountains is a great place to stop to enjoy the stunning colors, do photography, fly your drone, or just get out into the desert wilderness.
Seven Magic Mountains at Sunrise
Seven Magic Mountains is conveniently located off I-15 via Exit 12, the Jean exit. It’s the fastest way to reach the exhibit if you’re heading north from Primm and California.
Seven Magic Mountains is five miles north of Jean on South Las Vegas Boulevard. The exhibit takes only seven minutes to arrive from Jean.
If you’re coming from Las Vegas or Henderson, you’ll want to take Exit 25 off I-15 and then take Las Vegas Blvd South for eight miles. It’s a ten-minute drive from Exit 25 to Seven Magic Mountains. South Las Vegas Blvd runs parallel to I-15 in this section.
The Seven Magic Mountains are open to the public. The parking lot is paved. There is no parking fee, it’s free to view the exhibit, and no reservations are necessary.
Seven Magic Mountains has a Las Vegas address. However, the exhibit is nearly thirty miles south of downtown Las Vegas.
Creosote Bush Around Seven Magic Mountains
Temperatures at the exhibit between the months of May and October can be extreme. It can also be chilly during the winter months.
Please take precautions and bring water and the supplies you need. You can learn more about the area’s weather on our Primm climate page or scroll below for the current temperature in the area.
The paths in and around the Seven Magic Mountains are unpaved. Stay on the trails to avoid damaging the desert vegetation. Also, be on the lookout for wildlife including snakes and the endangered Mojave desert tortoise.
There are no facilities at Seven Magic Mountains. There are bathrooms, food, and gas stations in Jean. The exhibition is on the site of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administered land.
The Art During Rare Winter Snow
Seven Magic Mountains was a massive earthwork art project that was more than four years in the making. It was a complex project that involved non-profits, government agencies, and private supporters and contractors.
It took a small army of supporters to bring Rondinone’s vision and the project to life.
Photography is permitted at the exhibition for non-commercial use. There are no organized tours offered. However, there are tour companies in the Las Vegas area that offer Seven Magic Mountains as a tour stop.
If you want to see Seven Magic Mountains by air, there are companies that offer mini Hoover Dam aerial tours combined with a flight by Seven Magic Mountains. There are also all-terrain-vehicle operators in the area.
Another nearby attraction is The Last Spike, which is a historic point where the railroad spike that connected Salt Lake City to Los Angeles in 1905 was placed.
The Last Spike is only 1.5 miles south of Seven Magic Mountains on South Las Vegas Blvd.
Other spots worth a visit within fifteen minutes of Seven Magic Mountains include Terrible’s Roadhouse (a giant convenience store and gift shop) in Jean and the historic Pioneer Saloon in Goodsprings.
To learn more about the making of Seven Magic Mountains and the story behind Udo Rondinone's incredible art, please see the video below.
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