The Las Vegas Valley may be home to over 2 million humans, but it's right next to an immense region home only to big horn sheep, mountain lions, eagles, foxes, all manner of reptiles and more. Lovers of science and nature will be thrilled by these expansive vistas, just 32 miles from Downtown Las Vegas. Most of the park occupies harsh, rugged terrain that is difficult to reach. For more information, head to its Visitor Center.
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Desert National Wildlife Refuge
Southern Nevada
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
25.46 MILES
Owned by the eponymous Hollywood studio, the MGM Grand casino and hotel liberally borrows Tinsel Town's themes. Flashing LED screens and computerized…
The STRAT Hotel, Casino and SkyPod
22.95 MILES
Vegas has many buildings more than 20 storeys tall, but only Stratosphere (now officially The STRAT Hotel, Casino and SkyPod, but still 'the Strat' to…
25.98 MILES
Angular and glittering gold, massive Mandalay Bay flanks the far south end of the Strip. It's the first resort many visitors lay eyes on as they roll into…
24.46 MILES
Running between The LINQ Hotel & Casino and the Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, the LINQ Promenade is a partially-covered outdoor pedestrian walkway…
21.96 MILES
The myth and mystique of mobsters from Bugsy Siegel to Al Capone get the museum treatment inside a hulking Downtown courthouse where real gangsters sat…
25.1 MILES
We’ve seen this symbiotic relationship before (think giant hotel anchored by a mall ‘concept’), but the way that this futuristic-feeling complex places a…
24.49 MILES
Caesars Palace claims that its smartly renovated casino floor has more million-dollar slots than anywhere in the world, but its claims to fame are far…
24.29 MILES
The Venetian's regal 120,000-sq-ft casino has marble floors, hand-painted ceiling frescoes and 120 table games, including a high-limit lounge and an…
Nearby Southern Nevada attractions
1. Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument
8.33 MILES
Up to some 20,000 years ago, Las Vegas was filled with lush vegetation and freshwater lakes that supported now extinct creatures like Columbian mammoths,…
2. Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs
9.44 MILES
A huge, water-filled oasis, Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs is 680 acres of vegetation, wildlife and history in northwest Las Vegas. The large ponds…
11.05 MILES
Long before golf courses, lawns and palm trees filled Las Vegas with greenery, there were a few farmers who eked out lives here in the tough Mojave Desert…
4. Spring Mountains Visitor Gateway
17.28 MILES
Just west of Las Vegas, the limestone cliffs and alpine forested peaks of the lofty Spring Mountains rise unmistakably above the Mojave Desert. This…
18.47 MILES
Popular with a well-to-do older crowd, this high-end local's casino is only a short drive from the Strip, but feels worlds away.
20.65 MILES
A permanent outdoor exhibit at the expansive Springs Preserve, Boomtown 1905 re-creates the architecture of Las Vegas in the year the city was founded,…
20.77 MILES
On the site of the natural springs (which ran dry in 1962) that fed las vegas ('the meadows'), where southern Paiutes and Spanish Trail traders camped,…
8. Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
20.8 MILES
Red Rock's dramatic vistas are revered by Las Vegas locals and adored by visitors from around the world. Formed by extreme tectonic forces, it's thought…