Stop #36: Desert Sands RV Resort and Oasis Las Vegas RV Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada
- Denisse Storti
- May 6, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Jun 25, 2024
Following our month long stay in Breckendridge we headed towards warmer weather in Las Vegas in order to spend time with family. For this first part of our Vegas stay, we booked at Desert Sands RV Park in Henderson. We got there at night and were left unimpressed which was confirmed the next morning. This RV park had many permanent RVers packed in together along with short term stays, many of which were older models and had lots of junk in their perimeter. So more than an RV park this felt like a trailer park. We were in town to visit my sister and brother law and knew we would only be going back to our RV to sleep. So with that perspective we didn't mind it too much but knew this would not be a campground to stay at again. On a positive note, their pool did look decent and the gym (which I did use a couple of times) was ok (just a small room with some older equipment but good enough to get the job done).
We stayed in Vegas for 4 days before leaving to Dominican Republic and Bahamas for a month and half - a much needed break from RV life. While in town, we took care of a few medical errands, Paul visited the Kitchen and Bath show, and we spent some quality time with family. On one of the days, we visited Vegas Indoor Skydiving for a thrilling experience which only Paul and our son signed up for. The rest of us participated as spectators as they soared and flew around for a few minutes - it was quite short! They still had a great time and would recommend. I particularly didn't love the idea of flying over a turbine but that's just me. lol This activity is located off of the strip but we saved exploring the hotels for when we returned following our trip. This was a great time of year to visit Vegas (end of Feb/early March) as temperatures were pleasant and nowhere near scorching hot as it gets there in the summer. We stored the RV at a RV and Boat storage near Lake Mead which had decent pricing, but their lot is all dirt and with the strong winds that occured while we were out we returned to a very dirty (inside and out) RV.
For our return in mid April, we booked at Oasis Las Vegas RV Resort which was quite the upgrade from Desert Sands. This campground has concrete sites, nice landscaped grounds, a 19 hole putting course, a beautiful pool area with both family and adult pools plus a hot tub, and a decent gym (equipment is a bit old and needed some TLC but room was spacious and clean). In the main office area, this resort also has a store and a cafe/restaurant. Oasis RV Resort is very well located, just a few minutes from the airport and the strip, another big plus for this campground.
On our second day back in town we visited the strip. Our plan was to walk around a few hotels and then end the day with Mat Franco's magic show which we had purchased in advance. We parked near The Linq hotel which is the host hotel for this show. Since we were across from The Ceasars we thought we'd walk around this hotel first and then cross over to The Bellagio followed by Paris and maybe The Venetian. To our surprise, the kids were not impressed at all with the hotels. We first walked around the Forum Shops at the Ceasar and then headed to the Bellagio. Not even the “Tea and Tulips” exhibit at the Bellagio conservatory impressed them in the least which was beautiful as usual. They might have been hangry and the heat outdoors (yes! big difference in a month when it came to the temperatures) while walking between the hotels was annoying them. So we called it quits after the Bellagio and walked over to a restaurant for an early dinner.
Thankfully our afternoon took a turn for the better with the magic show which was beyond excellent. When booking this show I looked through reviews for many of the big magic shows in Vegas including some of the longstanding shows like David Copperfield and Chris Angel. Mat Franco's Magic Reinvented Nightly had some of the best reviews and it delivered. We were amazed by the tricks he did and laughed tons throughout. Not only is he a great magician but he's also a bit of an improv comedian. The kids were in awe throughout and even participated a bit in his performance. We highly recommend his show if you're in town.
We had also wanted to check out the Sphere and one of the Cirque shows but the Sphere was only offering tickets for a concert during the days we were in town and the Cirque shows we were interested in (O and KA) were not performing on the days that worked for us. Next time!
Hoover Dam is a half hour from the Oasis RV Resort so we headed there after finishing school a couple of days after our afternoon in the strip. This was a great homeschool field trip. We parked in a lot to the left right after crossing the small bridge after the visitor center and dam. From there we walked over the bridge checking out the intake towers along the way. At the visitor center we purchased the Guided Powerplant Tour which was about 30 mins long and very interesting. This tour takes you through the original construction tunnels and towards a room where you can see 8 of the commercial generators of the Nevada Powerhouse - one of which was being repaired at this time, which is a first for the dam. At the beginning of the tour you also get to watch a short documentary which shares lots of interesting facts about the construction of the dam. This visit was a great learning experience for alll of us. The work that went into building this dam is outstanding.
On our last full day in Vegas we set out to Valley of Fire with my sister, brother in law and niece who was in town for my sister's birthday. We tried to get out there as early as possible to beat the heat but by the time we got there it was already 9:30a. We first stopped to do the very short Elephant Rock trail which was a fun little hike for the kids. Next, we followed with the Fire Wave trail which was the one I didn't want us to leave without doing. Since temperatures were rising I knew we had to get that one in before we called it quits due to the heat. This was a 1.5 mi trail that takes you to a cool rock formation which is referenced as being the little sister of Arizona's famous Wave. The colors and patterns were beautiful but keep in mind that there's little to no shade along the way. We were pretty tapped out by the time we returned to the car and were planning to just head back after this, but on the way out we saw the Mouse's Tank trailhead and decided to stop and give it a shot since it's only 0.7 mi out and back. While the 'tank' at the end of this trail was not impressive there are a lot of petroglyphs along this hike which made the hike worthwhile. I had read on a blog that from this trail you can get the iconic Valley of Fire photograph you see on social media from a high point with the winding street in the far background. However, we did not find this spot along this hike and were too hot to explore further in order to do so. I'm sure there are many more cool hikes to do in this park. You either have to get there during sunrise or visit a couple of times in order to get more in.... or just visit during the cooler winter months.
We had two back to back travel days coming up in order to get to our next stop: Idaho Falls. We planned our route out of Vegas with stops at Cathedral Gorge State Park and Great Basin's Lehman's Cave. First up was Cathedral Gorge. We unhooked the RV towards the park entrance and drove over to the Moon Caves. This was the only spot we visited as we had another to stop and a few more travel hours to go, but Moon Caves more than delivered with it's amazing bentonite clay formations which were cool to admire from afar but even better to explore by foot. As we started exploring these we found there were a few slot canyons within the formations. These had significantly cooler temps and the kids loved exploring them with us.
We then hooked up again and drove to Lehman's Cave but missed the tour by half hour and this was the only way to see the caves this time of year. We drove further for a couple of hours and ended up camping for the night on the side of the road which was a first for us. The next morning we continued our drive to Idaho Falls.
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