I’d been warned, by friends, colleagues and relatives, “You’re going to get a lot of visitors!” It’s part of the whole “Living in Las Vegas,” thing, kind of like a vacation package deal, for residents. Your guest bedroom (or sofa bed) is permanently ready for houseguests. After all, who can resist Las Vegas?
Well, me, for one. I’d not been here until 2001 even though most everyone I knew had visited fabulous Las Vegas by then. I had never felt the urge. In June 2001, though, I spent a night in Las Vegas, but only because I couldn’t drive straight through from the Pacific coast to the midwest without stopping, especially when temperatures were soaring above 100 degrees during the daytime. I had been driving for about seven hours, leaving the foggy coast where it was in the lower 60s in the morning. By 2pm it was 107 degrees outside as I crossed the Mojave Desert from California to Nevada. I arrived at that last rise on Interstate 15 before heading down into the Las Vegas valley with anticipation. After all, I was going Vegas, baby! A few minutes later I was thinking “THIS is Las Vegas?”
There’s a reason why so many flights to Las Vegas arrive at night. While Las Vegas dazzles at night, in the middle of the afternoon, well, I wasn’t sure what all the hype had been about.
I spent less than 24 hours in the city that time and even though I was taken on a 2-hour whirlwind tour of the Strip that evening, what I remember most about that stay are the mountains to the west, where I stayed with family friends. A year later I returned to Las Vegas for work and, a few months later, I became one of the thousands who move to this city every month—Las Vegas is one of the, if not the, fastest growing metro areas in the US now. I still think to myself, who’d have thunk…Las Vegas? For more than a 3-day weekend?
The rush of visitors started almost immediately and I found myself on a mission, to make sure that my friends and relatives saw the ‘other’ Las Vegas, the one not shown on TV or in postcards—the one where the real people live. It’s too bad, that most people see Las Vegas by night or, if they are alert enough after an all-nighter to venture out in the daytime, they rarely see past the hotel casinos that line Las Vegas Boulevard a.k.a. The Strip. There are those who do come here for the golf (not my cup of tea), but for the most part, it’s straight from the airport to the Strip and a couple of days later, bleary eyed and with a wallet that feels a little lighter, they head back to the airport.
So, what have they missed?
A few miles west of the Strip, the urban terrain changes. Why you might even think you’re in just another city in the southwest. Stucco homes, red tile roofs, streets lined with palm trees and drought-tolerant pine trees and the ubiquitous strip malls (gas station, drugstore, grocery store—repeat a mile later at the next intersection). But, if you pick the right route, what most cities don’t have are the scenic views. 
With scenery like this, it’s easy to find an excuse to run errands! And for the really lucky ones, we don’t even have to leave home—just look out the window and …sigh.
Sometimes, though, you look out your window and gasp. They told me it only snows once every ten years or so in Las Vegas. They were wrong. Two winters in a row, late 2003 and early 2005, the west side of town, higher than the Strip in elevation, saw 4 to 8 inches of snow within an 8-hour period, thrilling the kids and worrying owners of those palm trees. If you think it’s all heat and dust around here, not quite. There’s a little bit of everything, winds that gust for hours on end in the summer and winter, flash floods during ‘monsoon’ season—bad enough to require dramatic rescues of people trapped on the roof of their car, rescues that are shown over and over again on TV for days, cold winter nights—too many of those, if you ask me, and then, yes, finally the heat. You know it’s bad when the highs hit the ‘100-teens’. But, it really is true, dry heat is much more tolerable than the heat and humidity of the tropics or the southeastern United States (I spent 14 years in Houston and Atlanta) and infinitely preferable to the below-0 highs—yes, that’s high temperatures—I endured growing up in the frozen plains of the upper midwestern US. And, when the rain does come to Las Vegas, it’s a treat if you’re a desi, you can smell the rain coming, waiting and then watching those huge raindrops hit the dry ground. I swear, you can almost hear strains of “ghanan ghanan” from Lagaan playing.
Speaking of desis, check this out. Situated on a hill overlooking the Las Vegas valley and in the shadow of the mountains to the west is one of the more beautiful Hindu temples I’ve seen in the US.
Las Vegas has several Indian restaurants, locally owned as well as branches of national/international chains. Luckily for us locals, not all of them are near the Strip. There are a handful of Indian grocery stores, a gurudwara, a few Indian associations (can’t just have one!) and recently, there have been sporadic screenings of Bollywood movies in theatres also.
But, back to things a bit more real. If you drive a bit further west—just past the Best Buy electronics store—you’ll find yourself near the entrance to the Red Rock Canyon preserve. 
A favorite with bikers, hikers and some of us who prefer more cushy surroundings when enjoying natural beauty, it’s a treat to have this spectacular natural resource literally in Las Vegas’ backyard. A storm to the west in the winter usually means snowy peaks.
Head the other direction, to the southeast of the Strip, and the view changes. Lake Mead, on the way to Hoover Dam, stretches on for miles and miles, still impressive although the ‘bathtub ring’ around the lake is proof of the toll severe drought conditions have taken on the lake. 
In the winter of 2005, however, the southwest has been blessed with an abnormally wet winter, covering the normally dry, dusty landscape with gorgeous wildflowers, especially in Death Valley National Park, a 3-hour drive northwest of Las Vegas. Known for its deadly high temperatures in the summer and points that are below sea level, the park is simply awesome.
Pin drop silence (can it be-a place where you can’t hear cell phone ringer go off? Yes!), lonely stretches of road, rocks that resemble a painter’s color palette—take a break from the frenzied pace of the Strip and head west, young tourist!
If you have a few more days to spend, Las Vegas provides a gateway to even more natural beauty: the Valley of Fire an hour to the north of Las Vegas, Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park a bit further into Utah, the Mojave Desert (pretty much all around), and Mount Charleston an hour and a half to the northwest, great for escaping the heat of the valley in the summer and skiing in the winter. And, of course, the Grand Canyon is about 5 hours away by car in Arizona.
But, no matter where you go in and around the city, you can’t escape fabulous Las Vegas Boulevard. You didn’t think I’d skip over it completely?
A view of Caesars palace from the Bellagio
The Excalibur boasts of a medieval theme complete with jousting knights
In the summer or winter there's no place cooler than the fountains in front of the Bellagio where the fountains literally dance
Paris, anyone?
So, even if it's the glitter and glamour, the lure of Lady Luck that draws you to Las Vegas, leave some room in your schedule to check out the other Las Vegas, the real one!
For more information, check out:
Red Rock Canyon
Lake Mead
Valley of Fire
Mount Charleston Lodge
Death Valley
Grand Canyon