Las Vegas Parks ~ Aliante Nature Discovery Park

9.3.18 Aliante Nature Discovery Park

We've driven past this park in North Las Vegas several times in our comings and goings, so Bill and I finally pulled in to take a look.

It's still a bit too hot for me to spend too much time walking around, or hiking, as Bill likes to call it, so we meandered around this little lake, around the playground and took a few pictures.

The southern part of the park is home to a library Mary and I visited, tennis courts, a sand volleyball court and quite a few picnic tables. There are always people in parks here, probably because it's where the most grass is located! We only found the other side with the pond, waterfall and children's area this day Bill and I were out.

The waterfall feature is really pretty, but the pond was horribly dirty. There's a lot of wind here, blowing trash around all the time. A lot of trash, because, apparently, people here don't think they should take their trash with them after their gatherings. They leave it all over the tables and the wind picks it up and spreads it everywhere.

There were plenty of geese and ducks around. We heard their presence as soon as we got out of the car and noticed their trail of droppings everywhere long before we actually caught sight of them. 

We walked over, carefully, to see them in this little part of the pond where there was a sign prominently near the water's edge to not feed the birds.

 The birds were making a bee line across the water to a little family who had a huge bag of bread...feeding the birds. Their young son squealed with delight as the birds made their way to the area near the table they were seated.

 I came up next to them and asked if they minded if I took some pictures and said, after a snap or two,

 "You know, geese bite."

The mom screeched with horror and stood on the bench to get away from the ferocious creatures as I walked away, giggling just a little to myself.

Bill and I wandered around the pond, spying a few little turtles sunning themselves on the shore only to hop into the water as we got close. No pictures of those little guys. 

As you round the pond and the other side of the waterfall, there is a children's playground with some impressive toys to climb on and a 'fountain' area for kids to play in, a wonderful feature for the parks here with the heat. Of course, the playground is more sand than grass, so I can only imagine the wet, sandy children all piling into their parent's mini-vans to head home. They all looked like they were having a great time, though.

I didn't take pictures where the kids were playing. The playground was full of families and children, so I thought it was best to not plaster the kids faces all over my public blog. I'll have to go back and grab a couple when there is not so many people frolicking.

The dinosaur sculptures were cool! There is a sand area where kids can 'dig' for fossils. I only saw one child partaking in that adventure in the hot sand.

The weather is starting to cool down a bit, so wandering parks will be a bit more fun for me. The triple digits should be hibernating for fall and winter; something I am truly looking forward to.