Casinos, quickie weddings, and Red Rock Canyon
Las Vegas rises out of the Mojave Desert, a city built almost entirely on the idea that anything can happen after dark. What started as a 1905 railroad stop became a gambling boomtown once Nevada legalized casinos in 1931, and the Strip's neon skyline has been reinventing itself in decades-long cycles ever since. But the city limits end and the desert begins almost immediately — Red Rock Canyon and the Spring Mountains sit just twenty minutes from the casino floor, drawing hikers and climbers who never set foot on the Strip. Beyond the tourist corridor, Las Vegas is also one of the fastest-growing residential cities in the country, home to a resident population that mostly avoids the casinos altogether.
