Hotels of Las Vegas

From the moment it begins, you are aware that the Klingon Encounter is unlike most simulator rides. As part of a group of visitors you are preparing for a tour aboard the USS Enterprise when things go terribly wrong.Suddenly, the entire group has been “accidentally” beamed onto the ship through a gap in the time/space continuum. And as you are ushered onto the ship’s deck, the Enterprise comes under attack by several Klingon warships.

The Klingons have discovered that someone in your group is an “ancestor” of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and demand the passenger be handed over to them immediately.

The Federation Crew hurries to return the visitors to where they came from, so as not to disrupt history and the Picard family line. But can they get everyone out safely while being attacked by the Klingons? Or will the Klingons have their way and change history?

Throughout the attraction “Next Generation” stars Jonathan Frakes and LeVar Burton make appearances as Commander William Riker and Lieutenant Geordi LaForge via video, making this journey even more incredible.

In addition, you can now take a souvenir photo in the Captain’s Chair on the Bridge of the Starship Enterprise for $14.99 each. Scheduled times for photos are 12:45, 2:45, 4:45, and 6:45 p.m. and participants must sign up ahead of time at the ticket booth.

A far darker and edgier experience than Star Trek productions before it, BORG Invasion 4D uses sight, sound and touch to introduce visitors to a whole new dimension.

Unfortunately for these unsuspecting passers-by, it’s a dimension belonging to the BORG, a powerful civilization of cybernetically enhanced beings known for absorbing other species to increase their knowledge and technology.

You are part of a group touring a research facility when it is unexpectedly attacked by the BORG. Crew members direct you to an escape pod as the terrifying drones of the BORG Collective begin to appear on every side, trying to capture and assimilate all who cross their paths. The experience is all too real, with the utilization of 3D and 4D effects, as well as live actors.

BORG Invasion 4D is the first all-digital motion picture to combine both live action and animation within a 3D cinema environment. The attraction boasts the largest number of sensory effects to be choreographed with a 3D film, including atmospheric and hydraulic effects, physical probes, pneumatic actuators and an array of audio transducers.

In addition, you can now take a souvenir photo in an authentic BORG Regeneration Chamber. Photos are $14.99 each. Scheduled times for photos are 12:45, 2:45, 4:45, and 6:45 p.m. and participants must sign up ahead of time at the ticket booth.

The Bellagio shows guests how to cook like a world-class chef at the Tuscany Kitchen, the first exhibition kitchen of its kind in Vegas.

Visitors will watch as award-winning chefs prepare a variety of dishes in the 1,170-square-foot Tuscany Kitchen. Once the demonstration concludes, the food tasting begins!

For an additional charge, the demonstration can be paired with a reception or formal dinner. There also is a special demonstration for wine enthusiasts. Demonstrations can accommodate groups of 15-60 guests. Currently the Tuscany Kitchen does not offer classes for people interested in attending on an individual basis. The demonstrations generally last between one and four hours and options include three menu types - seasonal, themed or specialty menus.

Tuscany Kitchen visitors will leave with one of many souvenirs, from aprons to boxed sets of chopsticks, reminding them of their unique experience. The demonstration also can be professionally recorded to be given to attendees as a personalized DVD.

World-renowned artist Richard MacDonald brings his bronze circus statues to Bellagio’s “O” Theatre lobby, a perfect theme for the show.

MacDonald has received numerous international business awards for his sculptures, paintings and drawings. In addition to the United States, Japan, Korea and Italy are just a few of the places that have displayed MacDonald’s exquisite pieces.

The inspiration behind this gallery was spawned from Guy Laliberté, founder of Cirque du Soleil, and MacDonald, a master at figurative sculpture. Both have a strong appreciation of the grace, strength and poise of dancers.

MacDonald’s gallery at the “O” Theatre features more than 50 bronze sculptures along with his original sketches. Many of his sculptures celebrate the flexibility of dancers by presenting unique poses. MacDonald also showcases a series of mime statues. Some of his pieces took him eight years to complete.

“Figurative art is a very difficult thing to do,” MacDonald said. “I take no shortcuts.”

While figurative art is definitely a challenging task, MacDonald seems to grasp the concept of it quite well. Another interesting fact is that he doesn’t have a preconceived idea for any of his projects. He studies his models and dancers, sketches a few of the poses and develops from there. His photographic memory comes in handy when his models have to leave.

“Creating a piece of artwork is like a baby – a piece of life,” he said.

MacDonald has not only studied and sculpted the human body, but animals as well. Visitors can see the intricate details of his piece, “Diana and the Cursing Cheetahs” inside the gallery.

His sculptures stand on a revolving platform so people can see his work from every angle. Patrons can also flip through books featuring his work and even watch a video of his work in progress.

Each sculpture is available for sale, but they come with a hefty price tag — these art pieces can range anywhere between $900 and $4,000.

When completing an installation, the Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens transforms into a beehive of activity.

Horticulturists wearing hardhats and gloves scurry about. Some carry in assortments of potted flowers from an on-site staging area, others kneel on the floor planting roses.

But while the show’s set up is a sight to see, the finished product is the real spectacle that draws visitors to the atrium, located just beyond the lobby at the Bellagio Las Vegas.

The change-out, which occurs five times a year, closes off the 13,573-square-foot area to the public for a week, while about 100 people from both the Bellagio’s horticulture and engineering departments work non-stop to execute the seasonal plans, utilizing cranes and a tunnel system underneath the conservatory.

“We’re here for seven days, 24 hours a day,” said Tim Hunter, manager of the conservatory. “We work non-stop, around the clock.”

The free seasonal exhibits at the Bellagio Conservatory, including Chinese New Year, Spring Celebration, Summer Garden Party, Harvest and Holiday, are on display 24 hours a day, and don’t cut any corners.

Flowers and plants for the conservatory – such as coastal Redwoods reaching upwards of 25 feet, weeping willows and 40-foot poplar trees, azaleas, hydrangea, miniature roses, dahlias, agave and agapanthus – are shipped in from all over the nation and are temporarily kept in a 40,000-square-foot, off-site greenhouse until ready for display.

Even though the selected flowers and plants do well in the Conservatory’s 78- to 80-degree climate, they are replaced and refreshed every two weeks – and many are hand-watered.

“It’s always got to look nice in here,” explained Hunter.

While the Bellagio does not disclose the amount of revenue spent on the conservatory, he said it is “well worth the money.”

The horticulture department puts a great deal of time and effort into designing and maintaining the conservatory. Everything is thought out and planned, down to the most seemingly minute technicalities.

During the Chinese New Year show, for instance, Feng Shui experts are brought in to make sure the energy in the room is just right. This includes analyzing the flow of the water and the direction the animal props are facing.

For the Summer 2007 show, Hunter said the department did extensive research on flags. Several American flags hanging from horizontal flag poles near the ceiling are displayed following flag regulations, with the blue union to the observer’s left, per the suggestion of military personnel.

“The conservatory is what sets us apart from the other hotels,” said Hunter, explaining the attention to details. “There are people who come in every year just to see a certain show.”

The Bellagio hotel boasts some of Las Vegas’ biggest artistic masterpieces. The hotel lobby’s ceiling is adorned with a Dale Chihuly sculpture, commissioned exclusively for Bellagio. The piece, called Fiori di Como, is made of 2,000 colorful hand-blown glass flowers. The Picasso restaurant inside the Bellagio not only offers gourmet cuisine, but also surrounds diners with an extensive collection of original Picasso artwork.

But by far the largest display of art in the hotel can be found in the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art. The gallery presents world-class exhibitions of art and objects drawn from internationally known museums and private collections. Past exhibitions have included Monet masterworks, Andy Warhol’s celebrity portraits, Faberge treasures from the Kremlin and Alexander Calder mobiles.

The gallery’s newest exhibit is titled  “American Modernism,” and it features more than 30 masterworks by American modernists. These carefully chosen works are among the most renowned paintings owned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and are on loan for the exhibit. Visitors can enjoy this exhibit through Oct. 15, 2008.

The period known as American Modernism began at the turn of the 20^th century and reached its pinnacle between World War I and World War II.

At the time when Impressionism dominated American painting, many younger artists craved something unique and began to explore different arenas. These up-and-coming American artists became inspired with the vibrant and emotional artwork frequently seen in France and Germany. These artistic elements, also known as Modernism, became apparent in the United States in the early 20th century. While its exaggerated, unconventional style did not initially attract a lot of attention, Americans began to embrace it after seeing these works all over the country.

Notable artists in the Modernist period include Georgia O’Keeffe, Max Weber, Stuart Davis, Marsden Hartley, Helen Torr, Arshile Gorky and others.

Famed artist O’Keeffe began experimenting with painting by offering a subjective take on the traditional subject matter of still life and landscape. While she came from New York, a lot of her art draws inspiration from the Southwest. For O’Keeffe’s “Deer’s Skull with Pedernal,” she took an animal’s cranium and mounted it onto a twisted tree trunk. By painting a bright, vivid blue sky in the background, this contrasting element cleverly brings life to the skull. The gallery also features her New Mexico-inspired painting, “Red Tree, Yellow Sky.”

While Helen Torr didn’t receive as much attention as other Modernists, critics (including O’Keeffe) admired her work that illustrated a gentle, profound take on life. Since she and her husband lived on a tiny boat without a lot of room to paint, her work from this time was typically small in scale. In Torr’s oil painting “Evening Sounds,” she combined the use of pastel and dark colors. “Evening Sounds” depicts a close-up view of lavender oval rocks in a Zen garden that appears to be drifting off into silvery space. While the painting itself is small in scale, the color scheme and abstract elements evokes a strong, dramatic feel.

Other notable works include Max Weber’s “New York (The Liberty Tower from the Singer Building),” Leonard Maurer’s “Out of Eden,” Mardsen Harley’s “Black Duck”and much more.

At the end of the exhibit, visitors can watch a film and browse through a variety of books about the featured artists.

For those wanting to take a little piece of the experience home with them, an adjacent store at the gallery offers a wide array of unique gift items, books, toys, jewelry and exhibition-related merchandise including a full-color exhibition catalogue.

Zion National Park is one of the most awe inspiring sights in the American Southwest, and it’s an easy two-and-a-half-hour drive from Las Vegas.

Featuring sky-high towers and cliffs of multicolored sandstone rocks, the 2,000 to 3,000-foot high canyon walls of Zion National Park were carved out over millions of years by trickling creeks and the rushing Virgin River.

Throughout Zion, reddish, golden and rust-colored rocks are contrasted by the deep green of pine forests; mesquite, manzanita and cottonwood groves; and fern and moss-filled grottoes. It is strikingly beautiful.

The main section of the park is most easily accessed from Las Vegas. After driving through the quaint resort town of Springdale, Utah, which has many restaurants, hotels, art galleries and boutiques, Zion visitors park at the large Visitor Center. This facility is filled with informative displays. It is also where visitors board shuttle buses in the peak season of spring through fall. It’s a low-emission transit that relieves automobile congestion in the narrow canyon.

Among the sights to see along the shuttle route are the Zion Human History Museum, the historic Zion Lodge, Emerald Pools trail, the Grotto, Weeping Rock and the Temple of Sinawava. A true highlight awaits those that take an easy one mile walk to the world famous Narrows. Here the canyon walls loom close to each other while visitors walk up the shallow bed of the Virgin River. It’s an unforgettable experience.

Other notable geological wonders along the river include the Sentinel, Court of the Patriarchs, and the Great White Throne. Traveling by car to the park’s east entrance, the Zion-Mount Carmel tunnel and Checkerboard Mesa are notable.

More distant attractions at Zion National Park include Lava Point with its immense vista over the parklands and the majestic and mysterious Kolob Canyons at the north end of this amazing natural treasure.

There are many trails for hiking and exploring in Zion. There are also many sidewalks and developed paths for those who want to keep closer to the park’s facilities.

Zion National Park is filled with an incredible array of wildlife. Visitors might glimpse elk, peregrine falcons, hummingbirds, desert tortoise and bats. Flowers are abundant in spring and summer, with Sego lily and columbine among the most commonly seen.

For all its natural splendor, Zion has a long human history including Anasazi and Paiute peoples; Mormon settlers; daring explorers like John Wesley Powell and famous painters like Thomas Moran. Zion National Park is a great place to make some history if your own.

The lights along the Las Vegas Strip aren’t the only illuminating things in town.Travel 50 miles north of the city to Valley of Fire State Park and you’ll see rocks that glow with an unusually bright crimson color. The area offers some of the Southwest’s most amazing scenery with vivid colors splashed on some of the oldest natural rock formations known to mankind.

With its official opening in 1935, Valley of Fire is considered Nevada’s oldest state park. The park, which covers an area of almost 36,000 acres, gets its name from its fiery red sandstone. The formations are the result of fossilized sandstone and sand dunes that formed more than 150 million years ago by a shift in the Earth’s crust, faulting and wind and water erosion.

“What makes it stand out more than anything is the red sandstone color and the shapes formed here by Mother Nature,” said Gary Bates, a tour guide for Casino Travel & Tours. “The scenery out here is absolutely the best thing.”

The first inhabitants of the Valley of Fire are thought to have migrated to the region about 300 B.C. Ancient Native American tribes survived on a vegetarian diet and ate all kinds of cactus and plants including yucca, mesquite tree, prickly pear and beaver tail. Eventually, other native tribes learned to plant corn and beans and hunt animals like rabbit, sheep and antelope.

Today, only wild animals dwell within Valley of Fire year-round. Rattlesnakes, kangaroo rats, kit foxes, coyotes, bighorn sheep and the white tailed antelope ground squirrels are just a few of the animals that inhabit the area.

Now the state park is primarily a tourist destination with 300,000 visitors per year. Movie stars have also been known to visit this popular park. Because of its stunning scenery, movies such as “Transformers,” “10,000 B.C.” and “Planet of the Apes” include scenes filmed at the Valley of Fire.

Fun shapes and sights

In addition to its neon red rock formations, Valley of Fire is famous for its fun, distinct stone shapes. Visitors will see rocks in the shape of a piano, an elephant and even a beehive. Some rocks, however, take on more obscure shapes.

“I let imaginations run wild here,” Bates said. “They see one thing, I see another. No one is really wrong here.”

Other points of interest include Atlatl Rock, Arch Rock, the cabins and Mouse’s Tank, a natural basin in the rocks where water collects after a rainfall. The area was named after a renegade American Indian who used it as a hideout in the 1890s. Rainbow Vista is also popular for its panoramic views of multicolored sandstone.

“One of the beautiful things about Valley of Fire is that there are very few clouds [and] how blue the sky is out here with the red rock shining up against it,” he said. “It just makes for some great photography here.”

While visiting Valley of Fire, keep a look out for the petroglyphs scattered throughout the park. Visitors can see these ancient Native American sketches at Atlatl Rock, Mouse’s Tank, Rainbow Vista, the cabin area, Seven Sisters and Elephant Rock.

A place for recreation

Valley of Fire is more than just a group of beautiful red rock formations. It’s also an amazing place to enjoy a variety of recreational activities.

“Spring time and fall is usually the busiest time here,” Bates noted. “Valley of Fire is a popular picnic area.” In addition to picnics and picture taking, there are also several places to camp. For campers planning a trip to Valley of Fire, Bates says the sunrises are a great reason to wake up early.

“You start getting the real, vibrant [colors] with the sunlight.” The sunsets are equally as pretty. “As it goes down,” he explained, “it gets orange and the rocks take on a different shade of this bright red out here. Absolutely gorgeous.”

During the warmer months, visitors may also go for a relaxing swim at Roger Springs as well as hike or rock climb at various areas. Make sure to stop by the visitor’s center to grab a brochure, which lists each landmark and all the different activities. The visitor’s center also includes detailed exhibits on the Valley of Fire, Native American artifacts and several works from local artists for sale.

For those who would rather not drive (or who are on a limited time frame), taking a tour is another option. Beverly Strominger, a resident from Philadelphia, took the luxury bus tour with Casino Travel and Tours to Valley of Fire.

“The trip was really fascinating,” Strominger said. “It was very interesting to see the different parks and the different deserts, the uniqueness in each one of the formations.”

Considering that the park is only an hour’s drive from the Las Vegas Strip, Valley of Fire is definitely worth the trip.

“It’s a one-of-a-kind area around Las Vegas that is a must-see when you’re here in this city,” said Bates.

“The scenery out here draws a lot of people every year.”

With legs dangling and nothing but empty space below, riders are slowly transported up a 180-foot tower over a period of about 45 seconds. Once at the summit, passengers are suspended briefly and rewarded with a one-of-a-kind, breathtaking view of Primm Valley.But just as you begin to relax and take it all in, riders are suddenly plunged to the bottom in a 45-mph free fall. Near the base of the ride, the descent comes to an abrupt stop, and passengers bounce up and down several times on a cushion of air.

After about a minute of what can only be described as a “hair-raising experience,” passengers are at last returned to earth.

With the addition of The Vault to the attractions area at Buffalo Bill’s, the Primm hotel-casino boasts the first 3-D, high-definition digital projection motion ride in the United States.

The Vault provides the clearest, sharpest images available through the technology displayed on a screen 30 feet tall and 15 feet wide. Through the use of a pair of 3-D polarized glasses to enhance the experience, riders feel as if they are actually a part of the experience. Once passengers are securely strapped in, the fun and excitement begin!

Each of the six motion pods, equipped with four seats each, dip, drop and careen in environments ranging from the turbulent waters of “Aquaride” to the rickety mine car of the “Haunted Mine Ride.”

There are 10 different ride scenarios featured at The Vault running at five minutes each: Kid Coaster, Glacier Run, Aquaride, Haunted Mine Ride, Fantastic Voyage, Magic Carpet Ride, Secrets of the Lost Temple, Superstition (a haunted amusement park ride hosted by Elvira), Astro Canyon Coaster and Grand Prix.