Mesquite: A Nevada Desert Gem

Powered by casinos and golf courses, Mesquite, Nevada, has earned a reputation as offering Las Vegas-style fun without big-city headaches. Situated 82 miles east of Las Vegas on the border with northwest Arizona, Mesquite has benefitted from its desert setting. A traffic jam in the Clark County border city is considered three golf carts backed up on a tee at one of the area’s nine highly-rated golf courses. Wolf Creek, where your golf ball will land on either grass or rocks, is considered the best public course in Nevada. Big hitters can enjoy the specially built facilities in Mesquite that host the World Long Drive Championship every year.

Planning a visit? Shop at Virgin Valley Food Mart.

For gamblers, if the cards are not friendly in one Mesquite gambling house, there are three others nearby. Whether you win or lose at the tables or the golf links, a session at The Spa at CasaBlanca or Spa Eureka is likely to melt those worries away.

Mesquite serves as a base camp for the celebrated national parks of Southwestern Utah. It’s also a jumping off point for Nevada’s Valley of Fire State Park to the south and Cathedral Gorge State Park to the north. Lake Mead National Recreation Area down the road offers three of the continent’s four desert ecosystems—the Mojave, the Great Basin and the Sonoran—around the water playground formed by the Hoover Dam. And you can see it all from above during a scenic flight out of Mesquite Airport and a tandem jump with a Skydive Mesquite instructor.

To get a taste of Mesquite history, check out the Virgin Valley Heritage Museum, contained in a Pueblo-Revival-style stone building on West Mesquite Boulevard. Sit in the Double Love rocking chair and allow Mesquite’s past to wash over you. Next door, the Mesquite Fine Arts Center and Gallery spotlights the local artists and crafters who draw from diverse cultures to inspire their creations.