Elepent

Venturing outside of Las Vegas’ environs, you’ll find a lot of boring suburbs and a lot of desert.  The glamorous inner city seems to have pushed all of the normal working parts of the city–fast-food restaurants, real-world retail, industrial complexes and housing–out into a wide halo of sprawl, and beyond that there’s naught but desert.

Of course, you can find some pretty cool things in the desert.  Lexie turned up the Nelson ghost town and mine, so we wandered out to take a look (it was, as you can see from the photo, the AEV’s last adventure with us).  About twenty-five miles southwest of Las Vegas, Nelson was home to one of the first major gold rushes in Nevada, and the notoriously lawless town was home to many Civil War deserters.  The gold mines were active from 1858 until about 1945.  These days, there are a few of the original buildings left, as well as an antique soda shop that’s happy to let you wander the grounds.  We declined a tour of the privately-held gold mine for the moment, but we did wander around and look at the numerous old cars dotting the area because, well, that’s what we do.

For natural beauty, head about seventeen miles west of the Strip to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.  Whether you stop to hike and climb the scarlet rocks (formed by oxidization of an exposed ancient sea bed–the rocks are rusting!) or just take the winding thirteen-mile scenic drive, it’s a worthwhile diversion.  Lexie shot a cool series with a local model out on the rocks.  She also shot one of me, sleeping in the sun.  *blush*

If you’re looking for history that’s somewhat finer than the geologic scale, there’s the unlikely but cool Clark County Heritage Museum.  Located in Henderson, just outside of downtown, this unassuming (and inexpensive, with $1.50 admission) museum features a reconstructed suburban “main street” featuring houses from various eras of Las Vegas’ history.  An old West ghost town and train exhibits are also a part of it, but we had the most fun exploring the well-outfitted historic houses, RV trailers and print shop.

Even the Studebaker parked under the carport comes from the proper era.  Inside the museum itself, there are hands-on displays illustrating the history of the area from colonial times to the present, and some interesting exhibits about the rise of Las Vegas.  Good stuff.

We found this old headline funny--they mean "vegan" as in "Las Vegan."