American Adventures: Valley of Fire State Park.

The thing I was looking forward to most about visiting Nevada, was spending the day in the Valley of Fire State Park. We woke up bright and early so we could have as much sunlight as possible to explore in.

Desert friend.

Our first pit stop in the park was the Beehives. We spent some time walking around the area and then made our way to Atlatl Rock where there are some really neat petroglyphs carved into the red rocks.

Kate admiring the petroglyphs in Valley of Fire.

Desert views.

If you are visiting this State Park, I would suggest bringing lots of food and water so you can spend the day hiking through the various points of interest in the park. We hiked through Mouse’s Tank, Rainbow Vista and the White Domes. If we had more food and water, we would have hiked at every stop we made!

Elephant Rock.

As we were leaving Valley of Fire, we made one last pit stop at Elephant Rock where we saw three big horned sheep! I have seen these many times in Canada, but it was cool to see them in a completely different setting.

Big horned sheep.

What is your favourite desert to visit? Have you been to Valley of Fire before?

American Adventures: Vegas, baby!

Let me start this blog by saying that I have never had a huge desire to go to Vegas, aside from having it as a cheap way to get to the Grand Canyon. Last week my partner and I flew down to Vegas as she has friends there who would give us a free place to stay (and make breakfast for us each morning) so we thought it would be a good way to get out of rainy Vancouver for a few days.

Vegas Strip.

The first night we arrived in Vegas they wanted to take us to the Strip. We walked through the Bellagio and Paris before heading back to the apartment for the night. It was my first time going into a casino and while they are not for me, there were SO many people there playing the slot machines and the tables.

The next day was spent in the State park about an hour outside of Vegas. I will blog about this later as it was totally my favourite day in Nevada. At the end of the day, I had my first buffet experience at the Rio. Oh my life, there is just SO much food at these places. This was by far my favourite buffet.

Neon signs.

On Halloween we went to the Neon Museum as well as the Mob Museum. If you are planning on going to both museums while you are in Vegas, you can get a combo ticket for both museums on the Neon Museum website for $30, which I think is a great deal. These were by far my favourite thing about Vegas. If I were to go to the Neon Museum again, I would do it at night because then the signs are all lit up! Whatever time of day you go here though, I guarantee you will enjoy it!

Obligatory Vegas palm tree photo.

We finished off the next few days in Vegas by filling out bellies with buffets, walking through hotel after hotel and exploring the Fremont district. I am happy to have had the chance to go to Vegas, although it isn’t on my list of places I want to return.

Have you been to Las Vegas before? What was your favourite thing to do in the city?