A Different View

You can always take a tour bus of the Strip, downtown or any of the valley's outlying attractions to get a sense of Las Vegas.

There's a whole other world outside the glitz and neon that most people know as Sin City, but you'll have to take a slightly different approach to see it. How about by glider, four-wheeler, canoe, parachute or Hummer?

"It's a unique experience," says Rick Wyatt, president of American Adventure Tours (876-4600). "Las Vegas is pretty unique. There's so much to do here that you can't even imagine. Unless you're an outdoor person looking for these things, you'll never know they're there."

For the past 15 years, Wyatt has offered locals and tourists the chance to see the other side of Las Vegas that settlers discovered in the 1800s, including the wagon trail they used to cross through the McCullough Wilderness Area near Primm. The area isn't accessible by car so guests ride four-wheel ATVs or dirt bikes, Wyatt says.

The Hidden Valley-Primm tour is a two-hour ride on ATVs through the McCullough range. Riders can see part of the Old Mormon Trail; seven springs that settlers used for water and a cabin from the 1800s, Wyatt says. Then, the group rides up to the Granite Mountain overlook where they can see the Mojave desert and all the way to California.

At $159 a person, it's one of their more popular tours, Wyatt adds.

Desert Fox Tours (361-0676) gives people the opportunity to see fossils, desert wildlife, gold mines and other points of interest, says company president Forrest Johnson. All of their tours are taken in Hummers.

The Desert Safari is one of the company's most popular tours. Guests are taken through Goodsprings, where they can see the ruins of prospector camps, Johnson says, as well as the old Pioneer Saloon. Even the bullet holes from shootouts still are visible, he adds. It costs $129 per person for a 31/2-hour tour.

The Red Rock tour is the same price and length; during that tour, you can see Spring Mountain Ranch and Bonnie Springs before going off-road on the Kaseki trail. That's where fossils of sea creatures and plant life can be seen, Johnson says.

His most unique tour is of Ancient Valley, which lies five hours north of Valley of Fire. At $179 per person, the tour includes a boxed lunch. Fossilized wood and geological formations from the Earth's beginnings are the big draws of this tour, Johnson says.

If water is more your medium, American Adventure Tours offers river float trips in canoes or kayaks from Hoover Dam to Willow Beach. Gold and silver mines as well as big horn sheep usually are visible during that tour, Wyatt says. Prices for water tours start at $130 per person.

Wyatt also offers glider tours ($175) and sky diving ($244) over the Mojave Desert.

For those who want to stick to the city, there's always the Vegas Mob Tour (737-5540). For $58.25 per person, you can see famous spots in Las Vegas, such as the place where rapper Tupac Shakur was shot to death. Guests also will learn about Bugsy Siegel and others from Vegas' mob era.

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@reviewjournal.com or (702) 380-4564.