Nevada is a great place for anyone with an imagination. The opulent fantasies of Las Vegas drop visitors into the most elaborate playground in the world. Lake Tahoe, Great Basin National Park, Pyramid Lake, and the deserts act as counterpoints to the manmade glitz with their overwhelming natural beauty.

Nevada is also one of the few places where you can find a cowboy town that hasn't been dandied up for the tourists. For example, each year Winnemucca, a lonely station on a desolate prairie, hosts the Cowboy Poetry Gathering. It's held at the least hospitable time of the year not to spite tourists, but because the middle of winter is the only season that real cowboys can spare time to get away. Winnemucca is also home to the Buckaroo Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum. All the cowboys selected for the Hall of Fame need to fit a very specific criteria--no posers there.

You can also find ghost towns that are truly deserted, not repopulated with souvenir vendors and gunfight reenactments. These are old towns where the buildings stand alone as the wind whistles through, and sage grows in the streets.

It takes a true adventurer to really get out and explore Nevada. Most people simply pass through on their way somewhere else, or head for a weekend vacation in Vegas or Tahoe. But anyone who thinks that remoteness is a reward in itself will love Nevada.