Nevada and Las Vegas - the parks of the western USA

Last Updated on 5 February 2020 by

Journey to the parks of the western United States of America, an incredible trip, one of those trips you have to make at least once in your life.

Through this route, to be explored slowly, following the rhythm of the Colorado, you get in touch with the real America.

This is not the America of skyscrapers, of modern buildings. We are in the America of infinite spaces, of the marvellous gift that nature has given us, the Grand Canyon, of towns with wooden bars, of the red enchantment of Monument Valley, up to the landscape, pink with blue stripes, of Lake Powell.

It is hard not to be enchanted by it, hard not to absorb all the energy that such natural spectacles can transmit to you.

I don't want to bore you with the day-by-day account, the detailed itinerary with useful info can be found at "Itinerary National Parks in the West of the USA".

Rather, I would like to succeed, with words and above all my pictures, in conveying to you all the emotions I felt on this wonderful and unique journey through the 4 wildest states in the USA .

In fact, the trip went through 4 states, California, Arizona, Utah e Nevada and that's how I thought of dividing the emotions, with the colours of each of these states.

NEVADA - kaleidoscope of lights.

Las Vegas

Our journey started in the amazing Las Vegas.

Las Vegas is unbelievable, the most glittering, colourful, lively city I have ever seen. The city of 'copy and paste', as I call it, because nothing here is real, everything has been reconstructed down to the tiniest detail, even to excess.

The city which, during the day, looks like an island with many grey cubes standing out in the desert, and which, at night, becomes brilliant, magnificent and unique.

Arriving by plane, by day, one immediately notices its distinctiveness: a grey oasis and, all around, the soft yellow of the sand, interrupted by neat patches of bright green, that is, the numerous golf courses that can be found everywhere around Las Vegas.

One thing struck me on arrival: the Las Vegas airport is the only one where the 'baggage claim' area is not anonymous.

Between one baggage roll and another, dozens and dozens of 'slot machines', coloured and gilded, which also seem to be in suspension. So, while waiting for the suitcases, one is attracted by these machines, I put in a dollar, pull the crank, trill trill and ... nothing, three different cards ... but in the meantime, my suitcase has arrived! I go to the bathroom and here too I find the 'slot machines', always to cheer up the wait! They really don't want to bore you .

From McCarran Airport to our hotel took very little time, the international airport is about 10 minutes from downtown Las Vegas. We took a taxi, there are hundreds of them. But no one had told us that it was 'compulsory' to tip the taxi driver.

We arrived at our hotel and paid the $20 with a $50 fare. The driver greets us and I stand there, with my hand in the air, waiting for the change. The driver looks at me, and so do I. We stand there looking at each other for five minutes, and I always hold my hand up like a 'beggar', until he gives me the $30 change, looks at me with a 'scowl' and says something that, although I didn't understand exactly, sounded a lot like 'but it goes ....'.

It was only in the evening, reading in the various blogs, that I discovered that in the USA it is typical, if not proper, to give tips, but not only in restaurants or to guides, but also to taxi drivers. Ah well, here's my first impression as a 'stingy Italian'.

Anyway, let's continue our journey in this contrasting city.

Three things have remained indelible to me about Las Vegas

1. box with 'different' newspapers

Walking through the streets of Las Vegas I was struck by 'this thing', the presence of iron boxes with a glass front. I was attracted by the brightly coloured pictures of the newspapers in the boxes, and once I picked them up, the one who was most interested was my husband. They were, in fact, advertising newspapers of 'escorts' of various kinds, with colour photos in the most varied poses. Funny (funny), the inscriptions then were imaginative, very imaginative, complete with mobile phone number, times and rates. And it wasn't just a few pages.

2. 'red light' bus

well, it is not surprising to see dozens of red light pubs in Las Vegas, but I had never seen red light buses either. At dusk, festively lit buses begin to circulate along the streets with girls inside, in skimpy clothes, dancing around a pole set up inside. The bus is accompanied by loud music and psychedelic signs with the name of the club advertised. Fantasy has no boundaries here.

3. elderly people connected to slots

To pass from one building to another, from one hotel to another, is to pass into the 'ocean of slot machines'. Huge, vast halls full of slots and always packed with people. But of all of them, one group of old people caught my eye. White-haired ladies, with hunched backs, with a cord connecting their shirt pocket to their ATM card to load the slot. Like an umbilical cord, through that thread at every push of the hand on the button, a pull on the bank account. A sad but at the same time real image, old people being taken to these places in minibuses and left in those halls for hours. From those people's faces all their loneliness shines through, although they were not sad ... maybe loneliness was just my idea.

Beyond these peculiarities, Las Vegas is really a 'copy and paste'. As soon as you pass the big 'Welcome to Las Vegas' sign you are bombarded by lights, sounds, people.

Walking down 'TheStrip', the main street of Las Vegas, is like walking on a globe.

You go from the modern design of New York palaces, to the fantasy style ofExcalibur, via reconstructions of Venice and Paris, to the ancient Egyptian pyramids of Luxor. All peppered with slot machines of all kinds and everywhere.

Along the strip it is compulsory, for chocolate lovers like me, to make a pit stop at the huge M&M shop, colours and balls everywhere. I would never get out of there

There are some must-sees in Las Vegas that are definitely worth a visit:

- walking along the strip and the "hotel tour".

Each hotel has its own peculiarities, like Venice, which has canals with gondolas and gondoliers singing 'O sole mio' (yes, one thing is Veneto and one thing is Naples, but at least, for them, Italy is unique) or Paris, whose ceiling is a starry sky and there is the Eiffel Tower, reconstructed to perfection. To end up at the Luxor, with its pyramids and the Mandalay Bay, the hotel that stands out among them all, so tall and gold-coloured that it has a tropical garden inside, with a sandy beach and waves, as if we were in the middle of the ocean.

- the fountains of Bellagio

in the afternoon (every half-hour) and especially in the evening (every 15 minutes after seven in the evening) the fountains of this well-known hotel dance to the sound of music and lights. A wonderful spectacle, for me a little less than the one in Dubai, but still something to see.

- a thunderstorm in the desert.

yes, you read that right. In the city where 'anything is possible' you can witness a real thunderstorm, complete with thunder, fog and millions of raindrops. In the driest place in the United States, it is an oddity to experience. This free Rainstorm and Fountanis show can be found at the Miracle Mile shop (on their website you will find the times of the 'storm')

- Las Vegas from above

from the main street, going north, you pass through numerous 'chapels', with Elvis Presley inviting you in to get married. It is really fun to walk through this part of town. It's a little less colourful and glitzy, but it's worth seeing, just to get a sense of what Las Vegas is all about. Towards the end of the Strip, on the left, is this tower which, from the outside, is nothing beautiful, but once at the top, you can see Las Vegas from above. It may be that we went there during the day, but we didn't like the Stratosphere Tower that much. From there we then made our way back to our hotel using the monorail that runs through the whole of Las Vegas.

Las Vegas is a city worth visiting, it is one of a kind. Although there are many replicas in the world, Reno for example, Las Vegas remains the city of it all, the city of all-round nightlife, the city in the desert that consumes the most energy of all America!

But Nevada is not just Las Vegas. On our tour through the parks of the western USA, on the way from Nevada to Arizona, we stopped at the fantastic Hoover Dam.

Hoover Dam

From Las Vegas to Hoover Dam takes about an hour. The Hoover Dam is located exactly on the border between Nevada and Arizona and is one of the greatest engineering projects in human history.

The history of its construction can be read and seen in the beautiful black-and-white pictures that can be found in the museum in the visitor centre, just inside the dam (admission 10$). It is fascinating to read about how this dam was instrumental in helping to overcome the American economic crisis, employing over 3000 workers, and that Las Vegas would not be such without this work.

I was impressed to read about the people who died of heat or carbon monoxide poisoning, as well as reading that at the time (in the 1930s) it was forbidden to hire Chinese workers and there were few African-American workers.

Apart from the museum and the magnificence of this work, I really enjoyed walking along the Dam, it is an enchanting sight. When we were there, there was enough water and its blue colour cooled down from the scorching heat of September. If you have time, which we didn't, it should be wonderful to take the cruise on Lake Mead or choose the full tour of the dam, which leads up to the underground tunnels. There is nothing around the dam, but the landscape is incredibly fascinating.

This huge, tall, imposing mass of concrete that bisects the red hills leading straight into the Colorado River.

Technical information :

If you cross the dam by car, you will certainly encounter 'queues', as cars are carefully checked, as this is a high-risk place for attacks. From the car you cannot see the dam, so it is best to drive to the Arizona side, park (cost $10) and from there walk back to the visitor centre. There are all kinds of tours on offer, from bus tours to helicopter tours to cruises. There is certainly no boredom.

We have crossed Nevada, this wild state, travelled one of the loneliest roads in America, gambled in a city, a true oasis in the desert, where one loses all inhibitions, where everything is possible and reality is distorted.

We are ready to go in search of the wild far-west, fly over rugged landscapes and feel like fugitives in search of something.

Through the Hoover Dam we have arrived in Arizona, and from here our journey will continue to Utah...