Las Vegas Daytrip 2: Valley of Fire, Lost City, Hoover Dam
That’s one of the great things about visiting Las Vegas. There are many, many things to see and do including visiting some of nature’s (and man’s) wonders. Get a rental car (most of the hotels have them on site and you can save the airport fee) and get out and see the sights.
Take I-15 north about 50 miles to the exit for The Valley of Fire State Park. Right there, you will find the Paiute Indian Smoke shop, a good place to pick up bottled water – remember you’re in the desert and you must drink plenty of water to keep from getting dehydrated. But, a word to the wise, you might want to wait to buy Indian souvenirs until later in this tour.
You will then proceed east along a highway crossing through the Great Basin Desert filled with Joshua Trees that aren’t really trees but members of the Yucca family. You will also see creosote bushes that don’t provide the protectant for telephone poles. This is a typical and interesting plant very well adapted to the desert. It has small leaves to keep the scarce moisture in, as well as lots of sharp points which, along with a bitter taste, keep animals from eating it. The only creature that will eat them is the desert iguana and there aren’t very many of them. It has two root systems, one of which will go down several feet to seek our ground water while the other will spread out just under the surface to catch every bit of the scarce rainfall – and also keep other plants from growing in its territory. But, most unique of all, local medicine men once used this, along with an unknown plant, to mix a very effective remedy for rheumatoid arthritis.
After crossing over some low hills, you will enter the Navajo Sandstone Rift that covers most of the southwest to enter The Valley of Fire State Park. These formations were laid down over hundreds of millions of years and rain and wind have created some truly awesome formations. Not far from the western entrance is the Visitor’s Center with great exhibits and plenty of information to make your visit memorable. You will also find recommendations for side trips, including a visit to petroglyphs etched into the rocks by long gone Native Americans. These are drawings that have endured for hundreds of years because these primitive people somehow knew how to mix substances to change the nature of the rock they were working on to create pictures that would outlast extreme weather changes.
Continuing east, you will leave the park and enter into the Moapa Valley. Turn left, or north, on the highway and keep an eye open for the railroad tracks. Not far from where they end, you will see a sign directing you to The Lost City Museum. Cross the tracks, go up the hill, and find a convenient place to park. The museum is not very big but is crammed with artifacts and photos of the people who once lived in this area. There is also what is either a restoration or replica of a pueblo dwelling complex. The interconnected rooms are half buried in the ground and the thick adobe walls kept out the intense summer heat and winter cold.
You are now at the halfway point of the trip.
Returning south, pass the entrance to the park and continue for another thirty or so miles along the Overton Arm of Lake Mead. You might want to stop at Colville Bay – a place where they rent houseboats that you may want to try on a future visit, but you will surely want to stop at the Las Vegas Wash Marina. Walk out onto the pier and see some of the biggest carp you’ve ever seen.
From there, it’s not far to the highway to Hoover Dam, one of the true manmade wonders of the world. Keep a sharp eye out because it’s not uncommon to see Bighorn Sheep grazing alongside the road. Only the males have the big, curving horns and if you see some mixed in with the ewes, they are young and will be kicked out of the herd before they reach mating age.
There are two tours at Hoover Dam, both of which are excellent. The short one is for those who are not all that physically adventurous while the long one, called The Hardhat Tour, requires a lot of walking up and down stairs and through long tunnels. On either, the guides are outstanding and you will leave appreciating the massive effort that went into creating this structure.
On the return to Las Vegas, you will pass (and may stop at) The Railroad Pass Hotel and Casino which is the oldest continually operating gambling establishment in Southern Nevada.
Your trip is not quite over. Going north on US 95, exit and turn left on Sunset Blvd. You will pass The Sunset Station Casino, go up a hill with a right-hand turn, and come to the intersection of Sunset and Mountain Vista. At that light, turn right and look for the entrance to the parking lot at The Ethel M Chocolate Factory. They have a free tour to show how the candies are made, a free sample, and a shop with every type of chocolate imaginable. As if that isn’t enough, there’s a well kept botanical garden containing desert plants from all over the world.
From there, it’s just a short twenty minute trip back to the south end of The Strip.
I think you will find this a refreshing break from the glitter and crowds of Las Vegas, one that you will remember for a very long time.
