Garden globetrotting: Nevada

With majestic parks, spectacular scenery and plants in unexpected places, Kevin Smith discovers that there is more to the US state of Nevada than first meets the eye

- Kevin Smith, Editor

Arriving in the bright lights and desert of Las Vegas, I wasn’t sure what I'd find to satisfy the appetite of a garden and nature lover. But a road trip north took me to breathtaking state parks with landscapes and scenery I never could have imagined. If you think Nevada is all about gambling and cacti, then think again - it offers so much more, especially if you drive.

I expected to see a lot of cacti in Nevada, so it was no surprise to find a whole garden dedicated to them. Just a 15-minute drive from the bright lights of the Las Vegas strip is the Ethel M Botanical Cactus Garden. I spotted many plants, not just cacti, that were familiar to me, plus others I'd never seen before that were obviously suited to the harsh weather that Nevada endures.