Beyond Vegas

I love Las Vegas, which is why I live here. It is the world capital of poker! L.A. may have more tables, but there is no action like Vegas action. Misty (my wife) and I love the year-round big entertainment, the comedy rooms, the reviews and funky little cabarets, the National Finals Rodeo, UNLV basketball, and more. We also love the gourmet dining and the buffets. And despite the summer heat, we love the climate. A secret pleasure of living in this town is what lies beyond Vegas, the delights outside the city, including those most visited by Vegas tourists: Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, and the Grand Canyon.

To many, beyond Vegas means the small casino towns, mostly near state borders, each with its own character and flair. Laughlin, on the Colorado River about 90 miles south of Vegas, offers a much more laid-back ambiance and a bit of frontier feel. Mesquite, about 80 miles north of town, is in the marvelously hikable Virgin River Valley, home to casinos that feature spas and golf courses. Jean and Primm lie on the much-traveled highway between Vegas and L.A.; the casinos in these towns have a glorious truck stop feel, and are known for discounts and bargains. Boulder City and Henderson are Vegas suburbs with friendly neighborhood gambling joints.

Las Vegas is Spanish for The Meadows, and it was settled by the Mormons because they found a meadow-filled valley in the desert with abundant water. Hoover Dam holds back the mighty Colorado River, and is considered one of the world's marvels of construction technology, especially given the techniques available at the time of its construction. Every hotel concierge offers trips to Hoover Dam, but the best way to see it is to take the National Park Service's Discovery Tour, which covers everything from the dam's construction to the region's culture and archeology. The dam is 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas on the Nevada/Arizona border.

The Lake Mead National Recreation Area is located in the Mojave Desert, and offers an abundance of choices for fishing, boating, camping, and hiking. Kayaking is a fun way to spend a day on the lake, but bring SPF 15+ sunblock. Most Vegas visitors see the lake from dinner cruise boats, but if you have the time rent a houseboat, find an isolated cove, build a giant campfire, roast wieners and marshmallows, go skinny-dipping, and then slip off to sleep to the sounds of the desert while looking up at a starry sky unblemished by civilization's lights. Lake Mojave, known for its bass fishing, is a smaller lake just north of Laughlin that runs through several spectacular canyons. Boat rentals, including houseboats, kayaks, and jet skis are available at both lakes.

The Grand Canyon is one of nature's great spectacles, and it lies about 300 miles southeast of Las Vegas. I've only been to the rim, but I'm told there are only two right ways to see the Canyon: by river raft the length of the canyon or by mule train, either the one-day Bright Angel Trail trip or the overnighter to Phantom Ranch. I'll get to those someday. For those less intrepid or with less time, bus tours run from Vegas to the Canyon rim, or you can book flyover tours by helicopter and small plane. If you're going to book a flyover, find a helicopter company with a permit to land in the Canyon, so you'll have a chance to view the geological striations from the bottom.

There are two great desert parks just outside the city. The Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area is about 200,000 acres located 17 miles west of the Strip on Charleston Boulevard. It has a 13-mile driving loop and more than 30 miles of hiking trails.

More spectacular is the Valley of Fire, Nevada's oldest state park, about 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas, where at sunset the desert meets the sky in a blaze of reds and oranges, as if aflame. If you go, check out the short hike through Petroglyph Canyon to Mouse's Tank, and stop in at the tiny Lost City Museum of Archeology in Overton, on the highway from Vegas.

Black Canyon begins at the foot of the Hoover Dam. Motorized rafts float the 11-mile length of the canyon daily. This water is calm, and it's a great place to kayak. For whitewater-rafting day trips, you need to travel further afield, the closest being the Class 3 rapids of the Virgin River Gorge.

Pahrump is a funky little town across the county line in Nye County, a place that seems to have more real estate offices than residents, in anticipation of a boom that hasn't quite materialized. If you ask a Vegas taxi driver to find you a legal hooker, he'll advise that you have to make the 70-mile drive to the bordellos of Pahrump, as prostitution is legal in parts of Nevada, but not in Clark County where Vegas is located. Even if you don't sample the wares, a trip to a brothel can be fascinating: A friend of mine visiting town with his wife spent an evening at the red-velvet-and-brocade bar of the Chicken Ranch, paying too much for drinks and talking to the working girls. Pahrump is also home to murdered casino heir Ted Binion's ranch with its vault of silver bullion, and the nationwide radio show of extremist Art Bell. Most out-of-town visitors come for the off-road racing, motocross, and renting ATVs to ride through the desert. Pahrump is a favorite hangout of Southern California's motorcycle clubs.

At 11,918-feet elevation, Mount Charleston, about 35 miles north of Las Vegas, is Southern Nevada's highest peak, with stunning vistas. There are camping areas and riding stables on the mountain, and three chairlifts. One road up the mountain winds through Kyle Canyon, ending at the Mount Charleston Lodge at about 7,700 feet. The lodge's restaurant/bar has a giant wooden deck and a huge fireplace, and is open around-the-clock daily. There is a trailhead by the lodge for hiking further up the mountain. It's worth the drive out from Vegas for dinner on the lodge's deck overlooking the tree-crammed canyon, followed by a snowball fight and snuggling in front of a roaring fire. The Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort is up the Lee Canyon road, at an 8,500-foot base elevation.

In the 1950s, Vegas hotel rooms with a northern exposure commanded a premium price, because they provided a view of the mushroom clouds from atmospheric nuclear testing. A day tour to the Nevada Test Site includes Frenchman Flat, where the nuclear tests were conducted, and the town of Mercury, home to a number of historic buildings, most related to the nuclear testing program. The tour departs from North Las Vegas, and includes the site proposed to handle all of the nation's low-level radioactive waste. Also north of Vegas is Nellis Air Force base, home of the aerobatic fighter team the Thunderbirds, who have a museum there. Even in these security-conscious times, tours of the base can be arranged with the Nellis Public Affairs Officer. The annual Las Vegas-Nellis Air Show at the base draws nearly half a million spectators.

Vegas is a good headquarters from which to visit Southern Utah. For the arts-inclined, Cedar City, about two and half hours northeast of Vegas, is home to the Utah Shakespearean Festival, on the campus of Southern Utah University, which recently won a Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre. A half-hour from Cedar City is the Brian Head Ski Resort, with downhill and cross-country skiing, and snowboarding all winter, and great short hikes in the spring and fall. St. George lies between Vegas and Cedar City, is surrounded by sandstone cliffs, and provides easy access to the Dixie National Forest, Zion National Park, and Bryce Canyon National Park, some of the nation's most awe-inspiring landscapes. If you go to Zion, catch the IMAX film Zion Canyon, Treasure of the Gods in Springdale, near the park's east entrance, for context and perspective.

Nevada has many abandoned mines, some of which are designated historic structures, including the Mizpah Mine outside Tonopah and the Bullfrog Mine near Rhyolite. Rhyolite, once known as the Queen of Death Valley, is one of the ghost towns that litter the empty spaces of Nevada. The old train depot still stands, as do parts of the jail and several houses. A house built completely of bottles, known appropriately as The Bottle House, was reconstructed by Paramount Studios in 1925. Rhyolite lies north of Vegas off U.S. Route 95, near Beatty and Death Valley National Park. If you go to Rhyolite, make your way 35 miles further down the road to Death Valley's Furnace Creek Visitor Center, and from there, head to Badwater, the lowest elevation in the Western Hemisphere at 280 feet below sea level, and the Harmony Borax Mill, once the home of the famous 20-mule teams.

Clark County has a number of ghost towns, including St. Thomas, Potosi, Goodsprings, Juan, Nelson, Sunset, Crescent, and Searchlight. Searchlight is still inhabited, but has many abandoned building remains. It is purportedly named for the searchlights that once crossed the sky, attracting patrons to the town's brothels. Nelson is in the El Dorado Canyon, settled by Spaniards searching for streets paved with gold in 1775, and is home to the remains of the Teachatticup Mine. St. Thomas was founded by the Mormons in 1865 and was a rest stop on the Arrowhead Trail.

Vegas is what it is, and I love it. But if you skip the ghost towns, the desert, the lake, and Mount Charleston, you're missing a big part of the city's allure. Oh, by the way, you will find some of the world's best poker action in the world's most luxurious poker rooms, with some of the lowest rakes in the country.

Roy Cooke played winning professional poker for more than 16 years. He is a successful real estate broker/salesperson in Las Vegas. If you would like to ask Roy poker-related questions, you may do so online at www.UnitedPokerForum.com.