Aliante park chills for summer

The Aliante master-planned community's Nature Discovery Park continues to draw a steady stream of visitors on a daily basis even through the hot summer months, according to Dan Naef, senior vice president of North Valley Enterprises LLC, the developer of Aliante. Naef said as visitors to many of the city's parks starts to wane this time of year, Aliante's wet play area with its spraying water serpents provides a respite for residents and their guests. The 20-acre park is equipped with shade structures, picnic tables and benches.

"Nature Discovery Park was designed to provide enjoyment for area residents year-round, which certainly includes the summer season," Naef said. "It is amazing to see how many parents and kids stop by every day to enjoy the wet play area, as well as the other recreational amenities in the park."

Adjacent to the wet play area, the park's education zone provides play stations designed to educate children on paleontology and dinosaurs in an active play environment. The area includes a dino dig site, a dinosaur egg hatching area and a mud bank wall with the half exhumed "ribs" and "fossilized" portions of an "ancient" Tyrannosaurus Rex. Children can enter and exit the dino dig area through a 26-foot-high, fossilized replica of a Triceratops head. Nearby, a play structure with thatched roofs depicts archeologists' living quarters. The huts soar more than 38 feet above the excavation site and feature a series of curving slides that can quickly deliver the "workers" back down to the site.

"After completing their daily 'work' in the Dino Dig area, the kids are ready to cool off in the wet play area," Naef said. "It's a play experience that is truly unique in Southern Nevada and we're very happy to provide it for the community."

Home builders at Aliante include Astoria Homes, Del Webb, KB Home, Lennar, Pardee Homes and Pulte Homes. Prices range from the upper $100,000s to the upper $600,000s. In addition, Del Webb is building the age-qualified Sun City Aliante community.

To reach the Aliante Information Gallery, take U.S. Highway 95 north to the Interstate 215, the Las Vegas Beltway, Exit East. Head east on the I-215, exit at Aliante Parkway and proceed south. Sales offices and model homes are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. For more information calling 866-787-2951.