We were in Las Vegas for a night before we head off for the national parks of southern Utah and were searching for something fun to do with our kids, ages 9 & 12 for the day. This was a great choice. The exhibits were an excellent introduction to the ecology of the desert and were engaging and interactive. We spent 4 1/2 hrs there and easily could have spent longer. The cafe had excellent (if a bit pricey) food.

Visiting Springs Preserve in Las Vegas was a fun and education way to spend an afternoon. The grounds were lovely and displayed a large number of native desert species of plants. There were wide ranging educational exhibits, hiking trails, gardens and many other ways to pass the time. It catered to all age groups and was a very enjoyable experience.

A new museum situated on a spacious campus-style setting. They are still building things so not everything is in place. Admission was steep at $19/adult but we had a $4 off /person coupon found in one of the local tourist rags they put in your hotel. That helped a bit.

There are really only three attractions to see here now: The origin experience, the desert living center, and the gardens. We loved the origin experience as it was a world-class museum setting with a lot of stuff to see indoors and out. Very informative and enjoyable. The desert living center didn't seem to offer nearly as much. Most of the building was for offices or conference rooms. There was a room with recycled and energy conservation displays but we found that very tacky. Finally, the gardens were beautiful. They obviously have done a lot, and I mean a lot, of hours spent in maintaining the grounds.

There is also the gift shop which had a lot of good stuff, a cafe upstairs which served expensive but tasty food. All of this makes for a good half-day spent to see everything at a leisure pace. Overall we were pleased at the modern setting of the campus as it made us feel very comfortable. Admission was steep so value is not as good as it should be. Wouldn't say this is a "must-do" for first timers to Las Vegas but for repeat visitors this is definitely something to add to your list.

We went to the Springs Preserve for their Halloween Harvest ($9 per person). Overall, the Preserve itself seemed very nice.

Unfortunately, we got to see very little of it because we had to stand in line for 80 minutes straight waiting to get on the Spooky Hay Ride ($7 per person). We purchased our tickets for seven o'clock and went to go line up at a quarter to seven just in case. When we got in line there was a sign that said our wait was approximately 40 minutes from our point. The line moved incredibly slow, and we didn't get to get on the ride until a little after eight o'clock. My feet were hurting terribly, and there was no way to leave the line to go to the bathroom. They were taking people in groups of twenty every fifteen minutes, and I think that the intelligent thing to do would have been to have sold the tickets in groups of twenty at fifteen minute intervals. No one came out to apologize to us. The Hay ride itself was fun, and the guide "Lefty" really did a great job... but I regretted making my whole family stand in line for an hour and a half to ride it because it was only fifteen minutes long.

We finished the night eating at the Wolfgang Puck Cafe because we thought it would be a good ending to the night. The price came to about $40 for two people (one entree per person and one bottle of juice per person) and it was far too expensive for the tiny amount of food we were given. The food itself was far below mediocre, and the pasta salad was just pasta smothered with an obscene amount of mayonnaise. I would recommend skipping Puck's and going to Panera Bread, where you can get the same thing but it actually tastes good.