Nature Discovery Park holds year-round events

Throughout the year, Aliante's 20-acre Nature Discovery Park draws a steady stream of residents and visitors.

According to Dan Naef, senior vice president of North Valley Enterprises LLC, the North Las Vegas master-planned community's developer, the park was designed to provide recreational opportunities that can be enjoyed throughout the year.

"No expense was spared in creating Nature Discovery Park and it is very gratifying to see area residents walking along the trails, watching their children have fun in the play areas and enjoying all of the other recreational facilities," Naef said.

Naef said an especially popular component of Nature Discovery Park is an adventure playground area specifically designed to educate children on aspects of paleontology and dinosaurs in an active play environment. Located adjacent to the lake and waterfalls, this area melds various zones that include replicas of a dinosaur excavation (dino dig) site, dinosaur egg hatching area and a mud bank wall with half-exhumed ribs and a portion of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Children can enter and exit the site through a 26-foot-high, replica of a fossilized Triceratops head.

Nearby, is a play structure with thatched roofs, designed to depict the archeologists' living quarters. The huts stand 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.

Other features include a large group picnic ramada, three full-sized soccer ball fields, a children's wet play area with a spraying water serpent, shade structures, picnic tables and benches.

Developed by North Valley Enterprises, an affiliate of American Nevada Co. and Del Webb, Aliante encompasses more than 1,900 acres. Home builders include Astoria, Del Webb, D.R. Horton, KB, Lennar, Pardee and Pulte. Homes are priced from mid-200,000s to the low $500,000s.

To visit, take U.S. Highway 95 to Interstate 215, the Las Vegas Beltway, and exit east. Make a right onto Sky Pointe Drive, a right onto Frontage Road, and then a left onto the Beltway. Head east to the Aliante Parkway exit, then go south.

The sales office is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. Call 866-787-2951 or visit aliantehomes.com for more information.