Posted: 02/09/2007--25/11/2008 || Rate this Article: 3 || Views|| Sign In || Register ||Hello Guest
Ka-Ching! Nevada is known world-wide for its gambling casinos. The lure of easy money, the wildly whirling lights of slots, the sound of dropping coins clattering and clicking together, and the roll of the dice attract visitors to try their luck at the tables. While Nevada resorts are increasingly family-friendly, offering arcades, wild rides, and shows for all ages, there are countless activities that will take you and your family out of those dark casinos and into a different world.
Do you like the outdoors? Try hiking at the Red Rock Canyon National Conservatory, just twenty miles west of Las Vegas. The Valley of the Fire State Park, located fifty-five miles northeast of Las Vegas, has several trails with magnificent views of mountain and desert scenery. The Lake Tahoe area offers hiking at Spooner Lake/Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park and at the Tahoe Rim Trail. You can also hike the Carson Range at the Ophir Creek Trail/Davis Creek County Park or the Mount Rose Wilderness Area, a short drive from Reno.
Sandboarding is becoming an increasingly popular sport. The Sand Mountain Recreational Area, twenty-five miles east of Fallon, has six hundred foot high sand dunes to navigate. The Armagosa Big Dunes, fifteen miles east of Beatty, cover about five square miles of sandboarding challenges. Both locations also allow some off-road vehicles, so boarders must keep an eye out for their own safety.
What do you think about ichthyosaurs eating mining towns? Of course, dinosaurs wreaking havoc in small towns only happens in B movies, but you can really imagine this happening at the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park. Nevada was once under the ocean, and ichthyosaurs, nasty forty-ton fifty-foot carnivores, swam the seas in this area. You can tour an ichthyosaurs fossil bed with park rangers from Memorial Day through mid-November at this State Park. You can also tour Berlin, a mining silver and gold mining town that boomed and busted right after the turn of the twentieth century, with park rangers. If you plan ahead, you can tour the Diana Mine, restored to its original condition, by reservation on weekends during the summer months.
Plan to take a tour the Hoover Dam, the third largest dam in the world. Completed in 1935, the Hoover Dam keeps the Colorado River from flooding in Southern California. In the process of controlling the River, the Dam formed Lake Mead, a popular boating location. Make sure and take the time to visit the exhibition center at Hoover Dam to get additional information about this architectural marvel.
Visit historic Virginia City during their International Camel Races during September. Participants come in from all over the world to compete, riding, or trying to ride, camels for one hundred yards. Not interested in camels? Ostriches, emus, and bulls are also ridden during this week-long event. The races are hilarious! Since you are already in Virginia City, explore the towns roots as a mining city. It will be well worth your time.
Every year at the end of January, Elko hosts the annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, a reunion of cowboys for a week-long demonstration of folklore, yarns, and songs. There are workshops, including ones on leatherworking, horsemanship, and blacksmithing. The week celebrates cowboys unique contributions to the past of not only Nevada, but of the United States.
Nevada offers visitors much more than just casinos. It has cowboys, dinosaurs, old mining towns, races, and the great outdoors. Plan your next trip to include seeing all of these, and more.
Print article ||
Send to friend ||
Publish this Article ||
Author feedback ||
Add new Comment ||
Article Comments
