Las Vegas Springs Preserve is great fun, even if you don’t buy a ticket

The Las Vegas Springs Preserve has a secret: There's plenty to do for free.

Locals assume the right thing to do is to pay the $14.95 admission for Nevada adults and $6.95 for kids 5-17, or buy the $75 annual pass for two adults and two children.

If that's too pricey, don't be deterred. Everything outdoors is free and doesn't require a ticket. Without spending anything, you can explore eight acres of botanical gardens, the one-and-a-quarter-mile trail around the area of the original springs, a children's playground, the gift shop and the casual Wolfgang Puck restaurant.

Like anyone with a lick of sense, I waited until the summer was over before heading to the Preserve for a full exploration of what $250 million can buy.

The Monday of Thanksgiving week was beautiful, and I could have spent all afternoon outdoors without paying a dime. On the first day of my vacation, a friend and I explored the gardens and a playground and took a short part of the trails before realizing, if we didn't go into the buildings soon, paying the entrance fee would have been wasted.

Despite it being a day that called for us to remain outdoors, we entered the ORIGEN Experience where staff estimated we'd spend three hours. I discovered that my friend was a demon for interactive games, even educational ones. If there was a button, she was compelled to push it, demonstrating unsuspected computer game skills. It wasn't crowded that day, even though many schools were on vacation.

Michelle Nicholl and her two kids asked if we had been in the Sustainability Gallery, saying it was one of the highlights. Alas, we missed that. Too long an outdoor lunch at Wolfgang Puck's cafe had cut into our time. (Those of us who work downtown are always looking for new places and the casual cafe is a beautiful setting with tasty reasonably priced food in oversized-portions for sharing, so it's likely to join my regular list of "let's go to" places for lunch.)

"More people should be out here enjoying this," said Nicholl, who has a family pass.

But for some, a family pass isn't affordable.

Preserve official Andrew Schuricht insisted the Preserve isn't expensive, and said that's a bad rap. Presuming you spend five hours there, that's $3 an hour for an adult. "That's cheaper than a movie," he said.

Schuricht said more than 79,000 people have been through the Preserve since it opened in June. That number includes 3,233 schoolchildren who have come in for free since school began.

However, so far, only 10 percent of the Preserve's visitors are tourists. Officials dramatically overestimated the number of tourists who would come and believe it will take major marketing to get tourists to the Preserve. Five months after it opened, a Cleveland reporter started her November feature by describing how the cabdriver insisted it was not where she said it was (near the Meadows Mall).

Preserve officials estimate the 180-acre cultural and historical attraction in the long run could attract between 486,000 and 767,000 visitors a year. If attendance follows the first 24 weeks, the first year should surpass 173,000 visitors.

Over the Christmas season, the Preserve is featuring a Winter Lights Festival with 500,000 lights in the botanical gardens. It's also offering a discounted price to see the lights in the botanical gardens plus the inside buildings, $9 for adults and $4.50 for those 5 to 17. Contact the Preserve for the festival hours and days.

But before I plunk down $40 for an annual pass for one, joining 17,000 other people who've purchased annual passes, I'm likely to go back on a good weather day and just wander outdoors. I want to walk the trails and see the area of the original springs that started Las Vegas; even knowing it dried up in 1962. I still want to stand there and look at the downtown skyline and think about how this crazy city started with what every city needs, a source of water.

I'll try not to dwell too long on what happens to a city when there isn't enough water.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275.