Las Vegas Is Not Only About Gambling and Partying, Check Out the Natural Beauty
Las Vegas is not only about gambling, partying and making certain that everything that you do there stays there: it’s just mostly about those things. The city offers a diverse range of entertainment, including online casinos similar to เกมสล็อตยูฟ่าเบท. If you’re feeling a little grimy from the previous night or need to soothe your hurt pride from losses incurred at the blackjack table, take solace in the knowledge there’s a wealth of natural beauty and interesting side trips at your disposal. Last week I discussed the underappreciated gems off the Strip — but if you’re willing to travel a bit farther, the rewards become a lot more beautiful. The Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and the Grand Canyon are among the most popular — but here are a few more options that are both less obvious and, in some cases, a lot closer.
Heading Out of Town
Why can’t more restaurants be like Jamms? Every diner has found herself in this predicament: hungry for breakfast, you order a giant omelet or stack of pancakes that is too large for an actual human to consume and inevitably you eat way too much. At Jamms, that’s not an issue. You can order mini versions of many breakfast entrees — omelets, pancakes, Benedicts, etc. — and leave both full and with your self-respect. For $5 I had an excellent “small plate” version of a Babalama omelet, with bacon, tomato, avocado and Cheddar. I saved enough stomach space that I was also able to enjoy the onion and savory Parmesan “pot of bread” (a moist, savory pull-apart loaf with the texture of a fluffy biscuit) I got for free with a Yelp check-in. Bonus frugal tip: Tag Jamms in your social media post and receive 10 percent off your bill.
Valley of Fire
This state park, the largest and oldest state park in Nevada, is about an hour’s drive from Vegas. The trip there is dreadfully boring for the first 30-plus miles up I-15, but once you turn off onto the Valley of Fire Highway, the enjoyment begins: It’s a gorgeous drive to the park. Not only that but it’s a fun drive, a serpentine trek through the desert, full of dips and dives. (Mind your speed: there are rangers on patrol.)
The final descent into the park — you’ll know it when you get there — is worth the $10 price of admission alone. As you drive down, slowly being enveloped by the looming red sandstone formations, it feels like, well, like entering a valley of fire. There’s not really a better way of putting it. One inside the 24-square-mile basin, the brilliant pink, ocher and umber colors are truly transporting; it’s how you imagine Martian terrain might be. I was near Elephant Rock when the sun set and tourists were being ushered out of the park, and so was forced to discontinue my hiking. I look forward to returning, though — if only to experience again the drive into the valley.
Mount Charleston
It’s not even close to being the tallest mountain in the state, but Mount Charleston is somehow the eighth most prominent peak in the entire country, if that kind of thing interests you. What that essentially means is that the mountain seemingly pops up from out of nowhere. Less than 40 miles out of Las Vegas, Charleston Peak, as it’s also known, feels like a completely different world. For one thing, it’s cold. And there’s snow — lots and lots of snow.
It’s also phenomenally pretty, the air is clean and crisp, and you won’t believe that mere hours ago you were trying to convince a bouncer at Tao to waive the cover. There’s a nice hike that begins at the parking area of the campground, as well as a big sledding hill that some kids were enjoying. If you’re planning to climb the roughly 4,000 additional feet to the summit, come with the right equipment. “It’s gonna be snowshoes and crampons all the way up,” the woman working at the visitor center told me. “A guy tried it today but he turned back because the snow was up to here,” she said, indicating a line at her stomach. The 10.3-mile North Loop trail will take you all the way to the top, if you’re up to the task. (A fire compromised parts of the South Loop trail, the path typically taken.)
Red Rock Canyon
No, not Red Rocks, the place on which John Tesh once inflicted his music, but the nearly 200,000-acre Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, just 15 miles west of Las Vegas. The gorgeous rust-colored outcroppings of sandstone are the most obvious attraction — the auburn cliffs, some thousands of feet high, look down on Joshua trees, agave and other flora and fauna of the eastern Mojave Desert. There’s hiking, camping, bouldering and sheer face rock climbing, and, if you’re more the stationary type, a 13-mile scenic drive that loops around the canyon.
Admission to the park is $7 per vehicle and $3 for pedestrians. If you’re feeling extra frugal, though, you can make a turn onto Calico Basin Road, just northeast of the main entrance; slowly zigzag north and west until you find yourself at the end of Sandstone Drive, and park your car in the lot there. (You’ll know when you’ve reached the end. There won’t really be anywhere else to go.) Several hiking trails of varying degrees of difficulty are now at your disposal: Layer up (it’s hot in the sun and surprisingly chilly in the shade), grab your water bottle and enjoy the beauty and vivid colors of the ancient rock formations.
Blue Diamond
This isn’t so much a day trip as a quaint place to stop while visiting Red Rock Canyon. Blue Diamond was once primarily a company town, housing workers from the nearby gypsum mine. Now, in addition to being home to roughly 300 people, this sleepy town is a charming throwback that’s also a sojourn for hikers and tourists looping around Route 159 through Red Rock. Blue Diamond is also well-known in the mountain biking community and a jumping off point for a number of good trails — I didn’t rent a bike there but if I had, I would have gone to McGhie’s, where mountain bike rentals begin at $45 per day, helmet and water included. It didn’t take me long to survey the town on foot, which I recommend you do. At the heart of Blue Diamond is the Village Market and Mercantile, a general store that doesn’t appear to have changed one iota since it was built in the 1940s.
Henderson
Casinos comp their patrons’ drinks all the time, but that usually comes in the form of light domestic beers and watery cocktails. There’s no need to settle for swill, though, as the last several years have seen Vegas catch up with the craft beer craze that has already overtaken the rest of the country. Tenaya Creek, Hop Nuts, and Banger Brewing are all mainstays in and around downtown Las Vegas. It’s in Henderson, though, the second-largest city in Nevada and a mere 20-minute shot down I-515, where you’ll find some of the area’s most exciting alcoholic newcomers. Bad Beat Brewing and CraftHaus Brewing, which are right next to each other, are at the center of the area’s self-styled “Artisan Booze District,” which also includes a distillery and winery. The feeling in the area is slightly more industrial park than artisanal neighborhood, but the quality of the drink makes up for the lack of charm.
Bad Beat and CraftHaus both have tasting rooms in addition to brewing facilities. I spent a fun evening at Bad Beat the same night Maria Ho, a poker player who is No. 11 on the women’s all-time money list, happened to be shooting a video there. I enjoyed a Gutshot, a delicious, dry Irish Stout, as well as a light, crisp Bluffing Isn’t Weisse hefeweizen. (If you haven’t already guessed, beers at Bad Beat are named after poker terms.) The best part? I was able to get my beers 4 ounces at a time for $2 apiece — you can also get 8- and 16-ounce pours. Yet another addition to the Henderson craft brew scene, Lovelady Brewing, is scheduled to open this year.
On Your Way Back
A friend recommended I try a seafood restaurant called Other Mama, Dan Krohmer’s Asian-tinged seafood place in a strip mall on Durango Drive. I went in and perused the menu and, while it looked fantastic, it was a bit beyond my frugal budget. Fortunately, Zaytoon, a Persian market and restaurant, was right in the same complex. I picked up a filling, hearty vegetable soup called aash-e reshteh — a traditional dish commonly served to celebrate Norooz, the Persian New Year — full of thick, soft noodles, legumes, greens and herbs. It was the ideal thing to warm me up on a chilly evening on the way back into downtown Vegas. Not only that but it was only $5.99, making me feel a little better about the time I planned to spend (and money I would probably lose) later that night at the blackjack table.