Vacationing Las Vegas—A Family Fantasyland With a Side Order of Natural Wonders

by David and Mary Lee Cole

Move over Disneyland. A new family fantasy world has emerged, and it's Las Vegas. Subsidized by vast gambling income, and built to outrageous proportions, this most amazing of cities is set in the midst of a breathtaking desert that stretches the imagination. Where else can you enjoy some of the most extravagant creations of humankind and experience the unearthly quiet of a desert wilderness in the same day? Where else can your family take in a delightfully crazy assortment of entertainment that includes medieval jousting tournaments, pirate battles, waterslide parks, interactive museums, and lavish showbiz pageants along with easy access to natural areas of unusual beauty.

Families in Las Vegas?

Let's be honest. Las Vegas probably isn't the city that comes to mind as the ultimate family vacation destination. Certainly it wasn't for us, even when other families told us tall tales of fun and adventure. Then National Geographic arrived with a fascinating feature article on Las Vegas. As we turned the pages, gawking at the astounding pictures of vast fantasy theme-park hotels like the Luxor with its 350-foot glass-faced Egyptian pyramid, or New York New York with its idealized skyline, we decided to give it a try for a spring vacation getaway.

Having once been to this paradise of glitz for a trade show—long before the city cashed in on the family entertainment bonanza—and done a little research since, we knew bargains were easy to find. There are enticing air-hotel-car rental packages for families and inexpensive meals at restaurants attached to the casinos. Best of all, we discovered we could stay in many of the most extravagant hotels—enjoying amenities like in-room refrigerators, babysitting services, children's menus and entertainment areas—for about what a modest motel would cost in most major cities or resorts.

We decided to fly to Las Vegas and use it as a base to explore the surrounding desert. We especially wanted to revisit Death Valley—about two hours from Las Vegas driving at unmentionable Nevada speeds—and share with our son the awesome grandeur of this natural wonder which we had visited before he was born.

The reality of the entire vacation was far beyond our imagining. Just a few hours after leaving our home in Berkeley, we were driving up the Strip, staring in amazement at a wonderland for the ages, or rather of all ages. First came the immense sphinx, swaying palms, and black glass pyramid of the Luxor. Then, shifting centuries, the castle-like Excalibur Hotel and Casino came into view, complete with bridges, moats, flamboyant turrets and an immense Merlin waving his sparkling wand. Then the skyline of New York New York appeared, boasting its one-third scale replicas of the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty, plus a Coney Island style roller coaster. Across the street loomed the gigantic MGM Grand with its 33-acre theme park featuring rides, celebrity look-alikes, and strolling performers.

We didn't have long to speculate on what astonishing creation could possibly come next. After cruising past the Mirage and its erupting volcano, we came to the Disneyesque Treasure Island featuring pyrotechnic outdoor pirate battles with life-sized ships. Next came Circus Circus Hotel, promising non-stop circus acts from 11 a.m. to midnight as well as an immense pink-domed, climate-controlled indoor entertainment park. Finally, at the end of the Strip stood the Stratosphere, the tallest free-standing observation tower in the United States. From its platform, over 1,000 feet above the Strip, you can ogle at the surrounding desert and mountains, enjoy a meal, or, if you're more adventurous, try the roller coaster and free-fall rides.

Las Vegas has floated this family-friendly mile-long amusement park atop the whir and roar of slot machines. Pedestrian ramps run above the busy streets, connecting the new theme park style casinos and making it easy to walk and push strollers. We joined the many families—some with teenagers and others with toddlers—plying the pedestrian walkways and enjoying the sights, the shows, and the scenery.

A Sample of Star Attractions

Our four day stay included an incredible variety of entertainment venues and side trips into the desert, balanced with poolside relaxation. Since there is much more to see and do than we were able pack into our four day visit, we include recommendations from other families along with our personal favorites:

• IMAX and IMAX 3D shows at the Luxor presented on a 7-story screen with a 15,000-watt sound-system
  
  
• Cirque Du Soleil at Treasure Island—the world famous troupe with incredible acrobatics
  
  
• King Arthur's Tournament Dinner Show at the Excalibur—nightly traditional feast, eaten with your fingers, while knights in shining armor joust on horseback
  
  
• The MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park—33 acres of casual dining, rides, character figures, games, entertainers, and arcades
  
  
• Wet 'N Wild family water park featuring a water roller coaster, slides, rapids, a wave pool, a surf lagoon, and a children's pool
  
  
• The pirate battle and children's arcade at Treasure Island
  
  
• Circus Circus shows and Grand Slam Canyon rides and games
  
  
• The magic shop and Motown Cafe at New York New York, featuring memorabilia and performances by the Motown Cafe Moments
  

Spectacular Day Trips

Our next surprise was the sheer magnificence of the landscape to be found only a few minutes drive outside the city. After sleeping late and enjoying the sumptuous buffet offered by our hotel, we drove about 40 minutes to Hoover Dam and explored this vast engineering feat with its fascinating history. The multi-million dollar visitor center features an exhibit gallery, revolving theater and observation platform. A high-speed elevator drops down 528 feet into the walls of Black Canyon for a tour of the dam's interior and an awesome view from the bottom of Hoover Dam.

Another day we left the urban wonders of Las Vegas and entered the strikingly different world of Red Rock Canyon, just a 20-mile drive. We hiked the brilliantly colored sandstone bluffs, delighted in the blossoming Joshua trees and Yucca, and scurried over rocks with the lizards. A Bureau of Land Management National Conservation Area, Red Rock Canyon is an outdoor delight for its dramatic landscape, desert vegetation, and wildlife. The 13-mile scenic loop offers panoramic overlooks of the Calico Hills-so spectacular they have been used in numerous movies-hiking trails to American Indian rock art, oases, and a charmingly modest visitor center with exhibit rooms and a bookstore.

The Land Below Sea Level

After Las Vegas and its nearby sights, Death Valley was merely awesome. The drive from Las Vegas is easy, and as you enter the valley the brooding power of the place takes you in immediately. Even our son, not one to stand back and admire the view, was engaged with the harsh and wild beauty of this hottest desert in the world. He enthusiastically stood on the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere and the least-rained-upon land in the United States.

After checking into Furnace Creek Ranch, we took a refreshing dip in the swimming pool filled with water from the hot springs. Furnace Creek Ranch offers reasonably priced motel style rooms with refrigerators, several casual restaurants, a general store stocked with a wide range of gifts and souvenirs, American Indian artifacts and jewelry, clothes, camping gear, groceries, and a good assortment of drug store items to help you with everything from bug bites to diaper rash. Almost a village in itself, there is a museum, an outdoor display of early-day mining equipment and wagons, an eighteen-hole golf course, saddle horses, basketball courts, post office, self-service laundry, and scheduled activities such as rides, dances, and movies. On a twilight walk through the Ranch's commercial date orchards, we saw numerous bats and a fox.

We spent our two days exploring the easily accessible sights of this world of dramatic contrasts. From the main road we entered famous Zabriskie Point, once the bed of an ancient lake but now folded and tilted into colorful and stunning badlands. We stopped at the Harmony Borax Works, home of twenty-mule team borax mines, and we marveled at the men who endured the heat to work the mines and refine the borax in huge hot vats. We picked up chunks of salt crystals etched like snow across the dry yellow mudfields. We trudged into sand dunes evoking Lawrence of Arabia, and our son gleefully jumped from the dune peaks into the soft sand below.

One of our more astonishing experiences was a stroll along a boardwalk threaded through Salt Creek. There amid rushes and grasses flows a tiny stream with schools of inch-long pupfish, holdovers from a distant past. These delightful creatures, darting about with great determination, are descendents of fish that swam in the valley's ancient lakes. The information board by the creek gave a clear explanation of how scientists, by studying these pupfish, determined that Death Valley was linked to a series of lakes connecting as far east as the Colorado River. Along the muddy creek banks we saw footprints of coyotes, ravens and blue herons who came to feed on the fish. Our visit coincided with the bright passage of comet Hale-Bopp which hung luminous in the vast desert sky. With no city lights to dim the view we enjoyed two consecutive evenings of primo star gazing.

Reinvigorated by the dramatic contrasts and hidden treasures of Death Valley, we drove back to Las Vegas, turned in our rental car, and made our noon flight home without a hitch. Easy to get to by air, relatively inexpensive (if you're not interested in the gambling), and filled with entertaining options, the Las Vegas desert vacation proved to be a refreshing getaway and an eye-opening experience.

Planning Your Trip

To plan a trip, you'll find helpful guidebooks to the Las Vegas area in your local bookstore or library. The Automobile Club of Southern California has an informative publication, Las Vegas, which is available through the Club's branch offices. We found this handy little book to be full of useful information. Many airlines offer attractive travel and hotel packages. The internet has dozens of Web sites for Las Vegas. Try www.vegasnet.net/ for a comprehensive listing.