On Las Vegas’ northern edge lies one of America’s newest national park sites – and one of its oldest stories. Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument protects a landscape where Columbian mammoths, saber-toothed cats, giant sloths and ancient camels roamed a wet Ice Age valley; paleontologists still work here, and erosion keeps revealing fossils in the badlands’ striped hills.
There’s no visitor center yet, which makes it an explorer’s outing: families follow signed trails and ranger-led programs, earn junior ranger badges and learn to spot fossil fragments (look, photograph, leave in place!). For Vegas kids, the revelation is huge: their desert was once a savanna of giants.
