79 Best Sights in Nevada, USA

Although less than a mile long, this is the widest beach on the lake and especially good for swimming (many Tahoe beaches are rocky). You can boat and fish here, and there are picnic tables, barbecue grills, and a campground beneath the pines. The beach is the best place to watch the July 4th or Labor Day fireworks, but most of the summer the subdued atmosphere attracts families and those seeking a less-touristy spot. Amenities: parking (fee); toilets; water sports. Best for: sunrise; swimming; walking.

The museum pavilion is open daily and features early-20th-century locomotives to check out as well as an elaborate indoor model train exhibit. You can ride the rails aboard the Nevada Southern Railway excursion train, which departs Nevada State Railroad Museum four times a day on weekends for a scenic 35-minute ride through the desert landscape surrounding Boulder City. Some train cars are open-air, allowing you to feel the breeze as you take in the countryside views.

Southern Nevada's oldest historic site was built by Mormons in 1855 to give refuge to travelers along the Salt Lake–Los Angeles trail, many of whom were bound for the California goldfields. Left to Native Americans after the gold rush, the adobe fort was later revitalized by a miner and his partners. In 1895 it was turned into a resort, and the city's first swimming pool was constructed by damming Las Vegas Creek. Today the restored fort contains more than half the original bricks. Antiques and artifacts help to re-create a turn-of-the-20th-century Mormon living room.

In 1890, at a cost of $108,223, the Osceola Gravel Mining Company constructed an 18-mile-long trench. The ditch was part of an attempt to glean gold from the South Snake Range, but water shortages and the company’s failure to find much of that precious ore forced the operation to shut down after a decade and a half. This trail takes to you the eastern section of the ditch and passes through pine and fir trees, with interpretive signs along the way. Allow 30 minutes for this 0.3-mile round-trip walk. Easy.

At this homage to the City of Light, replicas of the Arc de Triomphe, Paris Opera House, Hôtel de Ville, and Louvre, along with an Around the World in Eighty Days balloon marquee, are magnifique, but the crowning achievement is the 50-story, half-scale replica of the Eiffel Tower, where guests are whisked 460 feet to the top for spectacular views of the Valley. Need more near-authenticity? Look up at the ceiling painted like a sky with clouds and pretend you're actually in France.

It's hard to miss this place; the "Pinball" sign is so big, we swear it can be seen from space. This fun facility has more than 25,000 square feet filled with games created between the 1940s and the 1990s, including old wood-rail models, and all of them are available for play for 25 to 50 cents a game. There are more than 350 games, catalogued and mapped on the museum's website. Though this may sound more like an arcade than a museum, it's under the auspices of the Las Vegas Pinball Collectors Club and is a nonprofit with the goal of preserving these pieces of Americana and sharing the joy of the silver ball. All excess revenues go to the Salvation Army.

Everything at Planet Hollywood is designed to make ordinary people feel like stars. The main attraction in recent years has been Criss Angel MINDFREAK. Because the property is obsessed with celebrities, it often hosts residencies like the recent ones by Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert, as well as world-premiere events that attract stars from all over the world. There's something for everybody in the on-site Miracle Mile Shops, including clothing stores, restaurants, and more. Just be sure you bring a map, as the corridors of the mall wind around in circles and it's easy to get lost.

Stretching 35 miles around the River Mountains, this multiuse paved trail is perfect for hiking, biking, running, jogging, and horseback riding. For a stretch, the trail parallels the shores of Lake Mead, and it connects with a historic spur that leads from the Lake Mead National Recreation Area to a parking lot just north of Hoover Dam. The route runs through Boulder City, Henderson, and Lake Las Vegas. You can rent bikes at All Mountain Cyclery ( www.allmountaincyclery.com) in Boulder City. The most popular trailheads are at the Alan Bible Visitor Center inside Lake Mead National Recreation Area and Bootleg Canyon Park, at the north end of Yucca Street in Boulder City. But you can also reach the trail from the eastern end of Equestrian Drive and from the Railroad Pass Hotel & Casino, both in Henderson.

Churchgoers staying in the South Strip area stagger into this beautiful Roman Catholic church for mass seven days a week. Among the more popular offerings are the Sunday masses, with three in English, one in Spanish and one in traditional Latin.

Searchlight was once the biggest boomtown in southern Nevada, and some of its rich mining and railroad history is now compressed into a one-room museum inside the local community center. Visitors will find an assayer's office, outdoor mining display, and exhibits devoted to notables with ties to the area, including silent-screen star Clara Bow and early aviation heroes such as record-breaking test pilot John Macready.

Frustrated after a losing streak in the casinos? This Town Square spot offers a “rage room” (in which customers pay to smash stuff to smithereens), axe-throwing, and splatter-paint experiences. Talk about a way to work out a bit of aggression. You can smash for as few as 20 or as many as 30 minutes, or you can organize smash parties for four, six, or more; there even are Date Nights because "the couple that smashes together stays together." Axe-throwing sessions run from 30 minutes to 2 hours (no experience necessary, and there are specials on Throwdown Tuesdays!). Up to six people can splatter-paint canvases in two sizes, so you get a souvenir to take home. Team-building events and birthday parties also are available.

About an hour from Downtown—and about halfway up Kyle Canyon Road to the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area—you'll find this eco-friendly visitor center, which opened in 2015 and welcomes those heading to Mt. Charleston. Spend some time perusing the educational exhibits about the ecosystems and microclimates in the region's tallest mountains. Then hike one of the short interpretive trails for a sense of what the cactus- and bristlecone pine–strewn landscape is like. In winter, a modest ski resort operates at the top of Lee Canyon.

This 180-acre complex defies traditional categories, combining botanical gardens, hiking trails, live animal exhibits, an ultramodern interactive museum, and a playground. The overarching theme of the facility is the rich diversity and delicate balance of nature in southern Nevada's deserts. Kids love the simulations of the flash-flood ravine, the re-created Southern Paiute Indian village (complete with grass huts!), and the trackless train, aboard which an engineer explains the role trains played in settling the West. The NV Energy Foundation Sustainability Gallery teaches about eco-friendly living, and a 2016 addition, Boomtown 1905, re-creates a streetscape designed to evoke turn-of-the-20th-century Vegas. There are also a few miles of walking trails that swing you by archaeological sites and may—if you're lucky—bring you face-to-face with some of the local fauna, such as bats, peregrine falcons, and Gila monsters.

The Springs Café provides famished eco-explorers with sustainable choices, like ethically raised cheeseburgers and environmentally mindful salads. The Nevada State Museum, with its famous fossil Ichthyosaur and a number of exhibits on local mining, is on the site (and included with admission) as well.

T-Mobile Arena has probably become most widely known beyond Las Vegas as the home of the National Hockey League's Vegas Golden Knights, an expansion team that reached the Stanley Cup finals during its inaugural season. It's also a popular concert venue, attracting acts from George Strait to Ariana Grande to Kiss. And it's rich in amenities, with a variety of restaurants, bars, and guest services. When there's downtime, you can tour the arena's backstage areas, but these tours are offered only sporadically.

Travel down to the bottom of the North Atlantic where the "ship of dreams" rests after grazing an iceberg in 1912. A visit to the 25,000-square-foot exhibit inside Luxor Las Vegas starts with a boarding pass representing an actual passenger. Visitors tour replicas of guest compartments, the grand staircase, and the promenade deck that movie fans will recognize from a little film by James Cameron. Among the 350 emotionally arresting artifacts: luggage, personal toiletries, a bottle of unopened champagne, and pieces of the ship, including a 15-ton section of the iron hull. You can even see what it would feel like to touch an iceberg.

In the quiet desert south of Ely, this row of six beehive-shaped, 30-foot-tall ovens used to process 35 cords of wood at once. From 1876 to 1879, the ovens turned vast forests of pinyon, juniper, and mountain mahogany into charcoal, which was used for refining local silver and copper ore. It's a well-preserved piece of unique mining history, and the park includes a campground, hiking trails, and a creek good for fishing.

This neon-and-incandescent sign in a median of Las Vegas Boulevard south of Mandalay Bay is one of Sin City's most enduring icons. The landmark dates back to 1959 and was approved for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. Young Electric Sign Company leases the sign to Clark County, but the design itself was never copyrighted and currently exists in the public domain. (This, of course, explains why you see so many likenesses all over town.) The parking lot in the median just south of the sign was expanded in 2015. If you prefer to go on foot, expect a 10-minute walk from Mandalay Bay, plus waiting time for photo ops.

One of the largest outfitters in the Las Vegas Valley, McGhie's rents equipment for skiing, bicycling, and sandboarding. This location, in downtown Blue Diamond, which is just west of the city in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area (there are others in Henderson and on South Fort Apache in Las Vegas), specializes in bikes—convenient, since it's right on the doorstep of 125 miles of hard-core mountain biking. The company rents bikes individually, and also offers a host of guided tours around Red Rock and beyond. Unlike other outfitters in the area, McGhie's also rents bikes specifically for kids.