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The Best Places to Clear Your Head

Posted on February 16, 2023   |   Updated on September 30, 2025
Scott Dickensheets

Scott Dickensheets

Cools down the ol' brain pan every time. (David Becker/Getty)

Cools down the ol' brain pan every time. (David Becker/Getty)

These days, keeping your head clear is practically a full-time job, especially in the clang and bang of 21st-century Las Vegas. Need a shortcut to calm town? Get outside. Here are five of the best places:

😌 Springs Preserve Botanical Gardens: Go ahead, cocoon yourself in LV’s premiere urban oasis, says reader Jen M.: “Walk the trails, listen to the birds, and escape the noisy city and busy traffic.”

🚶‍♀️ The Hill at Exploration Park: Here you'll have "a clear view of the entire valley," reader Celestia Ward says. "A little circular wall provides the most amazing echoing effect if you stand in the middle and talk to yourself — which helps immensely with clearing one's head.”

🚴 The 215 West Beltway Trail: Suggested by reader Molly R., this is a good one to know if you’re a bicyclist. It hews alongside the 215 between West Trop and Centennial Parkway. Sure, you may have the freeway’s thrum to one side, but to the other: mountain views.

🥾 Golden Canyon and Gower Gulch Loop: The drive to these Death Valley hikes is worth it for reader Elizabeth Plata. “Views are awesome. As a nurse who is looking for work in her home city ... hiking to clear my head helps to stay focused.”

🎨 Seven Magic Mountains: Editor’s choice. My big feels for this place are no secret; the snarky banter between these Day-Glo rock stacks and the austere brown desert always reboots my woozy brain, and I’m good to go again.

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