Getting the flavor of...Cycling outside Vegas, and more

Cycling outside Vegas

I opted for a different kind of risk the last time I visited Las Vegas, said Matt Villano in The New York Times. Turning my back on the casinos, I spent a day pushing myself to the limit on the nearby River Mountains Trail, a newly completed, 35-mile bicycle route that winds through a “sprawling desert wilderness with rumpled mountains and a huge artificial lake.” I joined the paved trail outside Boulder City and soon found myself hurtling down a “terrifying” descent, “like a luge run on a bike.” But more gradual slopes lay ahead, plus “a glorious game of peek-a-boo” with vast Lake Mead. I couldn’t resist a short detour that took me along the old railway right-of-way used to build the Hoover Dam. Eventually, the main loop forced me into an encounter with the dreaded Three Sisters—a mountain of three peaks, “each one steeper than its predecessor.” By the time I reached the summit of the third, I was exhausted, but also exhilarated.

Finding more in Lincoln land

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There’s more to Springfield, Ill., than just Abraham Lincoln, said Brian E. Clark in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. While the sites associated with Lincoln may rate as the best reason to visit, non–history buffs can find diversions too. The Rail Golf Course, designed by Robert Trent Jones, is one of the state’s finest, and kids will want to check out the city’s large water park and historic drive-in movie theater. Another must-see is Frank Lloyd Wright’s Dana Thomas House, an architectural landmark that recently resumed tours following extensive renovations. Still, “no visit to Springfield would be complete” without seeing the presidential library and museum built in Lincoln’s honor. Inside are reproductions of Lincoln’s boyhood cabin and the White House as it looked when he left Springfield for Washington in 1861. Also worth seeing is the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln—and Barack Obama after him—announced his candidacy for president.