If you’re pining for a freshly cut Christmas tree this holiday season, you could go to one of the pop-up, tented tree lots that dot the Las Vegas Valley this time of year. But if you’re feeling more adventurous, you could round up the family and make a day of it by traveling to more forested parts of Nevada, as well as Utah, Arizona and California, to search for a perfect tree to harvest yourselves.
Southern Nevadan families seeking special experiences for their youngsters should consider a holiday train ride. Long after memories of other holidays fade, most children fondly recall the year they rode the train with Santa.
The hottest, driest and lowest national park, Death Valley is well-known for its blistering summer temperatures. For that reason, the best time of year to visit is what’s considered the offseason in most other parks: mid-October to mid-May.
Autumn is a prime time to explore Southern Nevada’s side roads into places bypassed by our busy freeways and major highways. State Route 169 through Moapa Valley provides just such an enjoyable drive.
For those with an appreciation of the rugged beauty the desert affords, Mojave National Preserve is a treasure that includes the densest forest of Joshua trees in the world, a surprising landscape of lava flows and dormant volcanic cinder cones and a historic train depot that played an important role in the expansion of the American West.
In honor of the National Park Service’s centennial, the Review-Journal’s Wonders of the West photo series will explore the region’s national parks. Coming in November: Redwood National Park
