66 Best Sights in Nevada, USA

Those who love hi-tech art served with a Burning Man or Electric Daisy Carnival vibe—and with the addition of air-conditioning—will gravitate to this indoor amusement park inside a giant warehouse next to Interstate 15 (the name is a play on both the highway and the mysterious Area 51). The very fluorescent interior (the black-light averse may feel like they are trapped in a giant Spencer Gifts) even features two big Burning Man art installations: a giant skull covered in video graphics and the fantasy hot rod known as Flux Capacitor.

While admission to the facility is free—though advance reservations get you in faster—most of the attractions require you to pay a separate admission: Omega Mart is an otherworldly convenience store, which leads into a walk-through funhouse full of immersive art from the Santa Fe–based arts collective Meow Wolf; Wink World is full of art and tech surprises courtesy of Chris Wink, a co-founder and original member of the Blue Man Group; Museum Fiasco is an immersive, disorienting clublike bombardment of light and sound. Peripheral attractions include axe-throwing and rides on ski-lift chairs suspended from a ceiling track.

The Lost Spirits Distillery is an immersive tasting room with theme-park and show elements. Or, simply chill out with a cocktail under a canopy in The Sanctuary lounge or beneath a luminescent tree in the Oddwood Bar in the center of it all. Maximize this new era of carnival midway with a Korean Corn Dog from the Todd English restaurant The Beast.

There's also the indoor climes of The Portal, a 7,000-square-foot indoor venue where projection mapping augments everything from a Van Gogh exhibit to name deejays. The instant popularity of AREA15 meant the quick addition of an adjacent building housing The Illuminarium, with immersive simulations of outer space and Africa. An announced 20-acre expansion on the north end includes plans for a Universal Studios haunted house attraction featuring its famous movie monsters. Admission is free, but online reservations let you skip lines out front and may be required on busy nights.

The flowers, trees, and other plants in Bellagio's soaring atrium are fresh and alive, many of them grown in a 5-acre greenhouse. The artistic floral arrangements and ornamental landscaping here is breathtaking and in some cases monumental in scale. Displays change each season, and the holiday displays in December (for Christmas) and January (for Chinese New Year) are particularly dramatic.

There are two reasons to ride the Coney Island–style New York–New York roller-coaster (aka the Big Apple Coaster): first, with a 144-foot dive and a 360-degree somersault, it's a real scream; and second, it whisks you around the amazing replica of the New York City skyline, giving you fabulous views of the Statue of Liberty and Chrysler Building—you climb to peak heights around 200 feet above the Strip. Get ready to go 67 mph over a dizzying succession of high-banked turns and camelback hills, twirl through a "heartline twist" (like a jet doing a barrel roll), and finally rocket along a 540-degree spiral before pulling back into the station.

Though the park has several bristlecone pine groves, the only way to see the gnarled, ancient trees up close is to hike this trail. From the parking area to the grove, it's a moderate 2.8-mile hike that takes about an hour each way. Rangers offer informative talks in season; inquire at the visitor center. The Bristlecone Pine Trail also leads to the Glacier Trail, which skirts the southernmost permanent ice field on the continent and ends with a view of a small rock glacier, the only one in Nevada. It's less than 3 miles back to the parking lot. Allow three hours for the moderate hike and remember the trailhead is at 9,800 feet above sea level. Moderate.

Originally referred to as Boulder Dam, this colossal structure, widely considered one of the greatest engineering achievements in history, was later officially named Hoover Dam in recognition of President Herbert Hoover's role in the project. Look for artist Oskar Hansen's plaza sculptures, which include the 30-foot-tall Winged Figures of the Republic (the statues and terrazzo floor patterns were copied at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Downtown Las Vegas).

The tour itself is a tradition that dates back to 1937, and you can still see the old box office on top of the dam. But now the ticketed tours originate in the modern visitor center (or online), with two options. The cheaper, more popular one is the Powerplant Tour, which starts every 15 minutes. It's a half-hour, guided tour that includes a short film and then a 537-foot elevator ride to two points of interest: the chance to stand on top of one of the 30-foot pipes where you can hear and feel the water rushing through to the generators, and the more impressive eight-story room housing still-functional power generators. Self-paced exhibits follow the guided portion, with good interactive museum exhibits and a great indoor/outdoor patio view of the dam from the river side. The more extensive Hoover Dam Tour includes everything on the Powerplant Tour but limits the group size to 20 and spends more time inside the dam, including a peek through the air vents. Tours run from 9 to 5 all year, with the last Powerplant tour leaving at 3:45 pm daily, and the last Hoover Dam Tour at 3:30. Visitors for both tours submit to security screening comparable to an airport. January and February are the slowest months, and mornings generally are less busy. The top of the dam is open to pedestrians and vehicles, but you have to remain in your vehicle after sundown. Visitors can still drive over the dam for sightseeing, but cannot continue into Arizona; you have to turn around and come back after the road dead-ends at a scenic lookout (with a snack bar and store) on the Arizona side.

The dam's High Scaler Café offers fare such as cold drinks, ice cream, and hamburgers.

While Indigenous people were the first to explore and use the caves, rancher and miner Absalom Lehman is credited with discovering this underground wonder in 1885. The single limestone and marble cavern is 2½ miles long, with stalactites, stalagmites, helictites, flowstone, popcorn, and other bizarre mineral formations that cover almost every surface. Lehman Caves is one of the best places to see rare shield formations, created when calcite-rich water is forced from tiny cracks in a cave wall, ceiling, or floor. Year-round the cave maintains a constant, damp temperature of 50°F, so wear a light jacket and nonskid shoes. Go for the full 90-minute tour if you have time; during summer, it's offered several times a day, as is the 60-minute tour. Expect daily tours during the winter. Children under age five are not allowed on the 90-minute tours, except during the winter; those under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Take the 0.3-mile Mountain View Nature Trail beforehand to see the original cave entrance and Rhodes Cabin, where black-and-white photographs of the park's earlier days line the walls.

Get tickets as far in advance as possible at recreation.gov. Tours can sell out months in advance.

Sin City's refuge for hikers, naturalist, skiers, campers and just about anyone who wants to escape the desert valley for the forest, Mt. Charleston is the highest peak in Clark County and it offers year-round outdoor recreation. Trails include a difficult hike to Mt. Charleston peak, the range's high point. Easier trails lead to seasonal waterfalls or rare, dripping springs where dainty columbine and stunted aspens spill down ravines and hummingbirds zoom. Or they might lead onto high, dry ridges where ancient bristlecone trees have become twisted and burnished with age.

Antique and classic cars made by obscure and familiar companies fill this engaging facility. Celebrity vehicles include the Lana Turner Chrysler (one of only six made), an Elvis Presley Cadillac, and the Mercury coupe James Dean drove in the movie Rebel Without a Cause. Hard to miss are the experimental and still futuristic-looking 1938 Phantom Corsair and a gold-plated 1981 DeLorean.

The biggest attraction in Ely draws train aficionados from near and far. During the mining boom, the Nevada Northern Railroad connected East Ely, Ruth, and McGill to the transcontinental rail line in the northeast corner of the state. The whole operation is now a museum open year-round and watched over by its famed cat mascot, Dirt, who receives food and gifts from fans across the country. You can tour the depot, offices, warehouses, yard, engine houses, and repair shops. Catch a ride on one of the vintage locomotives, and get history lessons from enthusiastic guides along the way (check website for times). You can even stay overnight in a caboose or bunkhouse.

Red sandstone cliffs and dramatic desert landscapes await day-trippers and outdoors enthusiasts at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Operated by the BLM, the 195,819-acre national conservation area features narrow canyons, fantastic rock formations, seasonal waterfalls, desert wildlife, and rock-art sites. The elevated Red Rock Overlook provides a fabulous view of the cream-and-red sandstone cliffs. For a closer look at the stunning scenery, take the 13-mile, one-way scenic drive through the canyon, open from dawn to dusk. Other activities include hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing, canyoneering, picnicking, and wildlife-watching. A developed campground, 2 miles from the visitor center, has 66 campsites (including RV and group sites), pit toilets, and drinking water for visitors wanting to extend their stay. A modest visitor center, operated by the Red Rock Canyon Interpretive Association and open on weekdays, contains an informative history of the region, as well as a number of exhibits on local flora and fauna.

Your journey through Mandalay Bay's long-running Shark Reef Aquarium begins in the mysterious realm of deep water at the ruins of an old Aztec temple. It's tropical and humid for us bipeds but quite comfy for the golden crocodiles, endangered green sea turtles, water monitors, and other 2,000 creatures in residence. Descend through two glass tunnels, which lead you deeper and deeper under the sea (or about 1.6 million gallons of water), where exotic tropical fish and other sea creatures swim all around you. The tour saves the best for last—from the recesses of a sunken galleon, sharks swim below, above, and around the skeleton ship. The Undersea Explorer VR Theater lets you swim with whales or dive with sharks. Elsewhere you'll find a petting zoo for marine life, a Komodo dragon exhibit, and a special jellyfish habitat. Animal-feeding add-ons are available.

A photogenic 3-mile cycling and walking path linking Incline Village and Sand Harbor State Park, this paved lakeside trail edges classic patches of turquoise water, giving way to cobalt blue, with the mountains as a backdrop. You can traverse portions of the trail by stopping at Highway 28 vista points, but parking is for only 20 minutes. Park at the Tunnel Creek Road pay lot for longer walks, less expensive than Sand Harbor's day-use fee.

Learn how Lake Tahoe was formed, why it’s so blue, and how its ecosystem is changing at Tahoe’s only science center. Hands-on exhibits include aquariums, a virtual ecology lab and research boat, a watershed map with the 63 streams that flow into the lake (and the only one that flows out, the Truckee River), tables that teach how to identify trees, and a theater projecting an intriguing 3D movie. Visitors ages eight and older will gain the most from the experience.

An intriguing concentration of antiques shops and galleries is found on East Charleston Boulevard and Casino Center Drive, anchored by The Arts Factory. This former warehouse with a colorful mural on the front houses studios and galleries for art of all types, including painting, photography, and sculpture. There's also a bistro on-site and a drop-in yoga studio. The Arts Factory comes alive on First Friday every month with gallery openings, exhibits, receptions, and special events. Preview Thursday, the day before First Friday, offers the same artwork with fewer crowds. Guided tours are available on request (and with a reservation).

Consider this Downtown museum the afterlife for old neon signs. The facility, which displays more than 150 signs that date back to the 1930s, opened to the public in 2012. The old La Concha motel's historic lobby was renovated and now serves as the museum's entry point. The sign collection includes the original signs from the Stardust, Horseshoe, and other properties. To get up close, visitors must take an educational and informative one-hour guided tour. Daytime tours, especially in summer, can be scorching. For an alternative, try one of the nighttime tours, where you can see four of the signs illuminated the way they were intended to be. In 2018 the museum added Brilliant!, a separate experience in the North Gallery where a laser-light show set to music appears to reanimate some of the signs. The result is, well, illuminating.

Valley of Fire's jumbled rock formations are remnants of hardened sand dunes more than 150 million years old. You find petrified trees and one of the park's most photographed features—Elephant Rock—just steps off the main road. Mysterious petroglyphs (carvings etched into the rocks) are believed to be the work of the Basketmaker and early Puebloan people, with their occupation in the area estimated from 300 BC to AD 1150. The easy, essential trail is Mouse's Tank, named for an outlaw who hid out here and managed to find water; so will you in cooler months (but not for drinking). It's a short walk with views of petroglyphs and shaded by steep canyon walls. Sci-fi fans also might recognize Fire Canyon as the alien planet in Starship Troopers and several other movies.

The Valley of Fire Visitor Center was remodeled in 2011 and has displays on the park's history, ecology, archaeology, and recreation, as well as slide shows and films, and information about the two campgrounds (72 campsites, 20 of them with power and water for RVs) within the park. Campsites at Atlatl Rock and Arch Rock Campgrounds are available on a first-come, first-served basis. The park is open year-round; the best times to visit, especially during the heat of summer, are sunrise and sunset, when the light is truly spectacular.

If the sun is blazing, the kids are antsy, and you need a place to while away a few hours, make for the big pink dome behind Circus Circus. The 5-acre amusement park has more than 25 rides and attractions for all age levels and is kept at a constant 72°F. The newest attractions include Twistin Tea Cups, Kiddie Swings, Go Karts, and NebulaZ, in which riders spin through the air. The El Loco roller coaster includes a barrel roll and a number of G-force drops. Also check out the Canyon Blaster, the world's only indoor double-loop, double-corkscrew roller coaster, a huge swinging pirate ship, bumper cars, more kiddie rides, two Bank Heist Laser Challenges, and much more. Catch a presentation of "Ice Age 4D: No Time for Nuts" or the Scooby Doo "Scoob!4D Experience," or computer-generated iterations of the Angry Birds. And Neon Nights on Friday and Saturday give everything a whole new glow.

Dedicated to the Bullfrog Mining District and the heritage of Beatty, this museum displays fossils, Native American artifacts, and clothing, tools, and bottles from miners.

For its size, this small museum inside the Boulder Dam Hotel is well done. It includes hands-on exhibits, oral histories, artifacts from the building of Hoover Dam, and a glimpse at what it was like for Great Depression–era families to pull up roots and settle in the rock and dust of the harsh Mojave Desert. And don't forget to ask museum staff about the city's audio walking tour of 11 historical sites around town.

This is an idyllic spot 7,350 feet above sea level in the pine and juniper forest of the big Schell Creek Range that borders Ely to the east. You can spend a day fishing for rainbow and brown trout in the reservoir and a night sleeping under the stars. Arrive early; it gets crowded. Access may be restricted in winter.

Seventy-five feet of solid stone, Cave Rock is the throat of an extinct volcano. The impressive outcropping, pierced by two U.S. 50 tunnels, towers over a parking lot, a lakefront picnic ground, a small beach, and a boat launch. The views are some of the lake's best; this is an excellent spot to snap a photo. The rock itself is a sacred burial site for the Washoe Indians. Hiking to it from the state park is prohibited.

Christmas Tree Pass Road is a dirt road that provides a gorgeous drive through the Lake Mead National Recreation Area to an extensive petroglyph site in Grapevine Canyon. This side route runs 16 miles through a desert landscape sacred to several historical and modern native tribes. The pass cuts through the rough-cut Newberry Range near legendary Spirit Mountain, with several turnouts (but no designated hiking trails) before the Grapevine Canyon trail. It's the kind of drive you imagined when you bought your SUV, one that also should make sedan drivers extremely wary. Sedans can take a shorter, easier route to the Grapevine Canyon trail by instead approaching from the Laughlin side (U.S. 163), which reduces the dirt-and-gravel drive to two of its easier miles. The Grapevine trail has a parking lot with latrines (no running water) and a ¼-mile walk to the springs, which served as the central gathering point for Yuman- and Numic-speaking tribes, whose messages are etched on the canyon boulders. It's a more pleasant walk in the winter, when water is often channeling through the canyon. The trail around the springs also offers a chance to see desert wildflowers and blooming cacti in spring and early summer. The drive reconnects with U.S. 163 15 miles northwest of Laughlin.

Indoor ice rinks don't usually grab your attention, but City National Arena, a few blocks north from downtown Summerlin, is worth a closer look. This is the practice facility for the Vegas Golden Knights, who are here daily (when they're home), with practices open to the public and free. The rink also is the center of the region's amateur hockey scene, meaning ice-time is hard to come by on weekends. There are skating and hockey skill classes offered as well. On the second floor, a pub shows Knights games and offers food and drink specials. During big games, the scene up here can get pretty raucous.

Step into the past (quite literally) at this modest museum, a 30-acre site that features a small exhibit hall with a time-line exhibit about southern Nevada from prehistoric to modern times. The facility also offers a collection of restored historic buildings that depict daily life from different decades in Las Vegas, Boulder City, Henderson, and Goldfield. Other attractions include a replica of a 19th-century frontier print shop and a 1960s wedding chapel that once stood on the Las Vegas Strip. There are also buildings and machinery dating from the turn of the 20th century, a nature trail, and a small ghost town. The museum also hosts a memorial to the 58 people killed in the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting. If you can't get to the Las Vegas Springs Preserve, west of the Strip, this is a worthwhile substitute.

As Las Vegas grew, so did the amount of treated water released by its wastewater treatment plant. Recycled water making its way back to Lake Mead carved out a "wash" that needed to be constrained by a series of porous dams (known as weirs). The resulting wetlands eventually hosted so much plant- and wildlife, the county turned it into a 2,900-acre refuge in 1999. No one would consider Wetlands an essential Las Vegas visit compared to the marvels of Hoover Dam or Red Rock Canyon, but the park saw a big jump in popularity during the pandemic, when locals gravitated to its wide-open spaces and the unique charm of being able to see the Strip one minute, then be completely disoriented as you descend down winding paths surrounded by tall grass. All sorts of birds and critters call the place home, from great blue herons to beavers. There's an impressive Nature Center complete with a small museum and children's area. But plan to picnic or eat later—there's no restaurant or food service beyond a few bags of chips in the gift shop. Dogs and bicycles are allowed on the outer loop trail, but not in the inner core of the preserve.

Now located in Bullhead City Community Park, the Colorado River Museum displays the rich past of the tristate region where Nevada, Arizona, and California converge. Earnest volunteers guide you through the haphazard array of artifacts from the Mojave tribe and the gold rush era in nearby Oatman. There are also exhibits on the building of Davis Dam, 18th-century explorer Father Francisco Garcés, and the experimental use of camels in the area by a pre–Civil War U.S. Army.

The DISCOVERY Children's Museum is one of the most technologically sophisticated children's museums in the entire country. The facility comprises nine theme exhibition halls, all of which are designed to inspire visitors—both children and adults—to learn through play. The star of the show: a 12-story exhibit dubbed "The Summit," with education stations on every level and a lookout that peeks through the building's roof. Parents of the smallest visitors will also love "Toddler Town," an area designed for those who are still crawling or just learning how to walk. "Fantasy Festival," another exhibit, comprises a life-size pirate ship (yes, really), and ample clothes for kiddos to dress up.

It turns out shipping containers—the same kinds you see on cargo ships and tractor trailers—can be pretty versatile. At this open-air mall, for instance, on the outskirts of the Fremont East neighborhood, the structures have been repurposed into food stalls, bars (try Oak & Ivy), boutiques, offices, and even a three-story "tree house" complete with grown-up-friendly slides. The place also has an amphitheater stage fronted by real grass. Although the tree house is fun (especially with young kids), the highlight of the attraction is the large, fire-spewing praying mantis, which was originally constructed for use at the Burning Man festival in northern Nevada.

This open-air shopping mall with more than 125 stores and restaurants sits at the center of the Summerlin planned community, and, since it opened in 2014, has become the very heart of town. Locals are delighted to have name-brand stores such as lululemon and Sur la Table around the corner, and on-site restaurants are always packed. On Saturday, the mall hosts a farmers' market from 9 am to 2 pm; other events are scheduled throughout the year. The mall has its own movie theater with luxury seats and a full bar, and is a short walk from Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa. In spring 2019, Downtown Summerlin welcomed another tenant: the Las Vegas Ballpark, home to the Las Vegas Aviators, the AAA affiliate of the Oakland Athletics.

Ethel M celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2016 and renovated its Henderson factory to commemorate the occasion. Today, watching gourmet chocolates being made on one of the daily tours will make your mouth water; fortunately the self-guided tour is brief, and there are free samples at the end. You can buy more of your favorites in the store. There are also chocolate tasting experiences beginning at $20, where you will learn about how chocolate is sourced and produced and become an honorary chocolatier complete with certificate afterward. Randomly, the factory also happens to be home to the largest cactus garden in the southwestern United States, and hosts spectacular light displays at Christmas, Easter, and Halloween.