2 Best Sights in Paradise Road and the East Side, Las Vegas

Christopher Nolan's film Oppenheimer has renewed interest in that Cold War era of Las Vegas, when visitors could occasionally see a roiling mushroom cloud in the distance at the nearby Nevada Test Site. Located on the corner of the UNLV campus and operated in association with the Smithsonian, the museum is filled with film footage and artifacts from the Test Site, including bomb-testing machinery and the bombs themselves: a decommissioned B-53 "bunker buster" is 12-feet long and weighs 8,850 pounds. Some exhibits are pay homage to the sometimes frightening, sometimes comical treatment of "the bomb" in pop culture. There's a mini-theater that gives you the sensory jolt of an atomic explosion. Two galleries for rotating exhibits augment the permanent exhibition. Early 2025 brought the new "Atomic Odyssey" exhibit, a colorful, interactive, and kid-friendly introduction to the structure of the atom and how to tell nuclear fission from fusion.

The museum also offers virtual tours of the 1,375-square-mile Nevada National Security Site (larger than the state of Rhode Island) and is the starting point for occasional in-person group tours of the test site, which is still operational 65 miles northwest of Downtown. These tours book as much as a year ahead, with museum donors getting first chance.

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 county turned it into a 2,900-acre refuge in 1999. Its wide-open spaces offer 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. The area is open daily from dawn to dusk; there's an impressive Nature Center (open from 9 to 3) complete with a small museum and children's area. But 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.