Awe-Inspiring Lantern Festival Returning To Las Vegas Area

How amazing does an evening under a sky filled with glowing lanterns sound? It sounds pretty magical if you ask me. It's so magical, in fact, that a whole lantern festival is headed to the desert landscape just outside of Las Vegas.

Soon, Las Vegas locals and those in surrounding cities will have the opportunity to experience the dark desert sky painted with the light of beautiful lanterns, as the Lights Festival is set to make it's return close to Sin City!

Whether you're looking for a family friendly event, the perfect date night, or a whimsical night out with friends, the Lights Festival provides the perfect evening that will leave all who experience it in awe. The Lights Fest travels to numerous cities, including Charlotte, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and many more. This year, the festival is headed back out west to provide the greater Las Vegas area a breathtaking lantern festival experience.

Mesquite is no stranger to hosting festivals aimed to entertain the whole family. This year, the Lights Fest will take place at Mesquite Motorcross Park, providing the perfect open, desert space for the lanterns to really shine in the night sky.

If you're currently searching for the perfect Mother's Day gift, there is no better gift than an experience. Mark your calendars and spend this Mother's Day weekend under the lantern festival lights with your mom! The Las Vegas leg of the festival will be taking place Saturday, May 11th.

The Lights Festival goes above and beyond the expectations of your typical lantern festival. According to News 3, "The event will feature live music from the 80s and 90s, food trucks, and entertainment, and start several hours before sunset, with the biodegradable lantern launch starting at nightfall."

Adult tickets currently start at just $51 and include one lantern and a marker. Children ages three and under can attend for free, and those between the ages of 4-12 can attend with a discounted kids ticket. Kids tickets are $12 and include what the festival calls a "Fun Kit." It's important to note that the Lights Fest cannot include lanterns in the purchase of a kids ticket, but additional lanterns can be added during the checkout process if available.

To learn more and purchase your tickets for the Las Vegas Lights Fest, click here.

When people think about America's famous national parks, usually the same list of names will come up. Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon are undoubtedly on the top of that list. Even more locally for us in the Las Vegas area, we'd probably mention Bryce Canyon or Zion before talking about Death Valley. But this national park on the eastern California border is in a world of its own. It's a place that combines history, record-breaking topography, incredible views, and even a bit of mystery.

When we do talk about this national park, there's plenty to say. Many enjoy the tales of the disappearing lake that happens after a big storm. Or the rocks that have minds of their own. Death Valley has also made a name for its extremes. Not only the temperatures in the summer, but the depth of the area. According to the National Park Service, Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America, at 282 feet below sea level.

While Death Valley is not the most popular of the national parks, it is one of the largest. According to nationalparks.org, Death Valley covers 3.4 million acres, making it the fifth largest national park in the country. It is over 1 million acres larger than Yellowstone and over 2 million acres larger than Grand Canyon. The park is 140 miles long and lies mostly in California. But a small portion does overlap the state line and reach into the Bullfrog Hills in Nevada.

But the size is not the most impressive thing about Death Valley. Actually, it would be difficult to narrow down what is. Though many people would agree it is the night sky. Once the sun sets, the lack of light pollution makes the sky in Death Valley so dark, that some objects are visible that can't be seen anywhere else in the world, according to nps.org. Including the International Space Station.

Death Valley is one of only eight places in the country where you can see the Milky Way with the naked eye. Which makes the park a very popular place for campers. Of course, summer months are not an ideal time to visit the park, which, according to nationalparks.org, is the hottest and driest national park in the country. Summer temperatures in the park typically reach a high of 120 in the shade, nps.gov reports. Though they recorded the hottest temperature in 1913, when the heat climbed up to 134 degrees.

May is a very popular month for visitors in the park. Even though temperatures have already gotten to 100 degrees typically by this time, Star Wars fans flock to the area for May the Fourth. Specifically to take the self-driving Star Wars tour of the areas where two of the famous movies in the franchise were filmed.

Historians of all kinds also visit to see glimpses of what was once a thriving mining community. Death Valley's mining history goes back to about the 1850's. Minerals of all kinds were found in the California hills, according to nationalparks.org. Including gold, silver, copper, tungsten, lead, zinc, antimony, and borax. The mining communities include Harmony Borax Works, Keane Wonder Mine and the popular town of Rhyolite.

Even without all the mining and movie history, Death Valley has so much to see. In addition to the disappearing lake and mysterious moving rocks, there's an extinct volcano, ghost towns and much more. Here are just a few of the amazing sites you would see if you visited.

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