Nearby
The gobsmackingly impressive Hoover Dam is the easiest day trip away from Las Vegas. Pitch up at the Hoover Dam Centre – www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam – for tours.
The second busiest and most popular recreation spot in Las Vegas is Lake Mead which attracts up to 10 million visitors annually, most of them locals who come to its 600 miles of shoreline to sail, swim, fish, water-ski, picnic, camp and generally such watery pleasures in the middle of the massive desert.
The lake was created when the Hoover Dam started to block the natural flow of River Colorado and is without much doubt an incongruous sight. Twenty miles west of Vegas, meanwhile, are the cool and deep cut canyons of the famous Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area. It’s an extremely popular hiking spot all year round, offering some of the finest rock climbing in America.