Unique Tours Take Guests Off The Beaten Track

While glitz and glitter may be Las Vegas' hallmark, there's another side to the desert destination. Within easy reach are stunning red rock vistas, historical ghost towns, old gold mines, one of the nation's largest dams, and an area noted for its supposed extraterrestrial visitations.

Whether attendees would prefer a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon or a four-wheel-drive photo safari, a variety of tours can help make that happen.



Gold And Ghosts

Among the tours offered by Imagine Vegas is a trip to the Oatman ghost town and gold mine, along Route 66 over the Arizona border. Gold was discovered there in 1902, and the town once boasted a population of 12,000, seven hotels and 20 saloons.

Oatman was the location for several westerns, including "How the West was Won." It also was a favorite haunt of Clark Gable, who spent his 1939 honeymoon with Carol Lombard there and often visited the town to escape Hollywood.

The full-day trip includes lunch at the Prospector Café and a walking tour of the Gold Road Mine, which produced 140,000 ounces of gold between 1902 and 1907.

Desert Eco-Tours, run by the Nevada Zoological Foundation, conducts a tour of the mysterious sector beloved by conspiracy fans called Area 51. The tour is led by Pat Dingle, the director of the organization's Las Vegas Zoo.

Participants travel along the "Extraterrestrial Highway" to the town of Rachel, rumored to be near a secret government research station where employees purportedly work on alien spacecraft. The tour includes lunch at the A-Le-Inn, adorned with photos of UFOs and other unexplainable phenomena.

Groups seeking an even more dramatic experience can take Look Tours' helicopter and ranch tour of the Grand Canyon. The company can handle groups of up to 168 in six-passenger helicopters that fly over Hoover Dam and below the rim of the Grand Canyon.

They land for lunch at the Grand Canyon Ranch, where participants are served a barbecue lunch and entertained with roping demonstrations and cowboy music.

For a different experience, Look Tours also can take groups of up to 400 on a night flight over the Las Vegas strip.



Now See This

A company called Adventure Photo Tours conducts tours to some of the same places where other companies go, but with a difference. It makes multiple stops en route to allow photographers to get the best shots of the photogenic destinations.

One of the company's most popular trips is to the Valley of Fire State Park, distinguished by dramatic rock formations in stunning shades of red, orange and gold, along with ancient Indian petroglyphs. Participants can bring their own cameras, or Adventure Photo Tours can furnish disposable cameras.

For high-end groups who insist on traveling in style, Las Vegas Limo Tours offers three- or four-hour tours of Lake Mead, with lunch, and a tour of Hoover Dam. Another possibility is a tour to Mount Charleston, a popular mountain and ski resort about an hour from Las Vegas, where participants can enjoy lunch and a view at the Charleston Lodge.