During our 4-day Las Vegas trip at the end of June, my husband and I took the easy drive from the Strip to visit this place and were delighted with everything but the heat outside (duh!). One brilliant touch: The parking lot is completely covered with solar panels so 1) your car doesn't get hot and 2) power is generated for all the interactive exhibits in the museum (which means they "walk their talk") and then some. I was most interested to see the xeriscape demonstration gardens--gorgeous and blooming--and ran into an excellent docent named Pete, who gave us a complete tour. Lunch at the Wolfgang Puck cafe was quite good. We didn't get to see everything, but still learned a lot about the geology, history and settlement of Las Vegas. We recommend this highly!

This new museum is a 5-10 min drive from the Strip, and it's worth a visit. It's a tad on the expensive side (we paid about $18 per ticket), but you can easily spend half a day there. Lots of interactive games, educational kiosks, etc. Will appeal more to kids, with lots of good lessons in water conservation. Good movie has info on Las Vegas area stretching several million years back. Stop by the Wolfgang Puck cafe for a nice lunch.