Plenty of scenic adventure available off the Strip Trip
If you are not yet satisfied with all Las Vegas has to offer despite your day trip to the Grand Canyon, you can easily take another memorable adventure to a number of tourist destinations around Las Vegas.
The following is a list of tourist destinations and surrounding towns that you might wish to explore during your visit there:
* Bonnie Springs/Old Nevada, 20 miles west of Las Vegas. A cowboy theme park featuring a full-scale Wild West town, complete with saloon, jail, and Boot Hill cemetery. Cowboy acts, like confrontations between heroes and bandits, are staged several times a day.
* Bryce Canyon National Park, 210 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Contains the most colorful, magnificent limestone and sandstone formations, all crafted by nature.
* Death Valley National Park, 145 miles west. Records the highest temperatures in the U.S. (134 degrees Fahrenheit, to be exact) and is the lowest point below sea level in the western hemisphere (282 feet below). Popular tourist destinations include the hills at Zabriskie Point, Dante's View and the 11,000-foot summit of Telescope Peak.
* Mojave National Preserve, 60 miles southwest. Has a reputation among desert rangers who love the stark vistas, prickly Joshua trees and rolling sand dunes. Oft-visited spots include the volcanic cones, the limestone formations at Mitchell Caverns and Joshua Tree National Park.
* Mount Charleston, 36 miles north. Where people go skiing during winter. The natural scenery is no less appealing in summer, when temperatures here average 30 degrees below those in Las Vegas.
* Red Rock Canyon, 20 miles west. Has become a mecca for hikers and rock climbers, but sedentary visitors will also enjoy exploring its Aztec sandstone formations and the layered, multicolored landscape.
* Sandy Valley Ranch, 45 miles west. Offers full trail ride packages, including cattle roundups, team penning, lassoing and even cow-pie tossing.
* Spring Mountain Ranch State Park, 15 miles west. A 520-acre desert oasis at the base of the colorful Wilson Cliffs.
* Valley of Fire State Park, 50 miles northeast. Has a bizarre, forbidding landscape, with red sandstone formations unlike anything else on earth. Marked trails pass wind- and water- sculpted creations, such as Elephant Rock, the Seven Sisters and Fire Canyon. It was selected as the site where Captain James T. Kirk met a heroic end on a faraway planet in Star Trek: Generations.
* Zion National Park, 165 miles north. A scenic combination of mountains, trees and a canyon. More than two million visitors per year marvel at its towering cliffs and distinctive rock formations, from the red-rock Finger Canyons in the northwest corner of the park, to the white slick-rock surface in the east, known as Checkerboard Mesa.
Surrounding towns:
* Boulder City, seven miles west. Residents here prize parks over casinos, which are outlawed here, (making it the only town in Nevada where gambling is illegal).
* Laughlin, 70 miles south. Often referred to as Las Vegas' "Mini-Me." This once sleepy town on a bank of the Colorado River is now home to nine casino resorts, an attractive river walk area with shops and restaurants and some of the cheapest hotel rooms in the U.S.
* Mesquite, 80 miles north. Home to an ever-growing selection of casino resorts, health spas and golf courses. It is a quiet, friendly town that has become the adopted community of choice for Las Vegans who think their hometown is getting too big.
If all that natural beauty and nearby towns still do not satisfy your appetite for adventure, you can take the famous Route 66 road trip to Los Angeles, where many world-renowned movie stars live. Riyadi Suparno