Sunset Regional Park is located near Harry Reid International Airport in the southeast part of

Las Vegas Valley The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area in the Southern Nevada, southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada, and the second largest in the Southwestern United States. The state's largest urban agglomeration, the Las Vegas Metropolitan St ...

. Located near the Tomiyasu neighborhood in

Paradise In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...

, the park is bordered by Sunset Road on the north, Eastern Avenue on the west and Warm Springs Road on the south.

History

The land was first developed by John F. Miller, who acquired the property from the federal government in 1909. At the time, land was being given away for agricultural development. He drilled three wells and built the Miller Ranch. In 1939 the ranch was sold to J. Kell Houssels, veteran hotelier and casino operator. He sold the property to a group of investors in 1963. The county bought the land in 1967 and turned what was then called Houssels Ranch was into the valley’s third county park. In 1968 the name was changed to Sunset Park.

Sunset Park Pond

Sunset Park Pond is around in surface area and 10 to deep. It is home to various species of water fowl and fish. Sunset Park Pond features a giant stone Moai, of the type found in Easter Island, Chile, carved of stone originally for the Aku Aku Restaurant, where it stood at the restaurant's entrance at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas. The moai was moved to Sunset Park Pond after the closing of Aku Aku, in an effort spearheaded by Paulina Jimeno de Bosch, mother of the Consul of Chile in Las Vegas, Paulina Biggs Sparkuhl.

Recreation

Fishing

Fishing is available year-round in the pond. The State of Nevada Department of Fish and Wildlife stocks the pond weekly with

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...

from November to March, and with

channel catfish The channel catfish (''Ictalurus punctatus''), known informally as the "channel cat", is a species of catfish native to North America. They are North America's most abundant catfish species, and the official state fish of Kansas, Missouri, Nebra ...

monthly from April to October. Other species include

bluegill The bluegill (''Lepomis macrochirus''), sometimes referred to as "bream", "brim", "sunny", or, in Texas, "copper nose", is a species of North American freshwater fish, native to and commonly found in streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and wetlands ea ...

redear sunfish The redear sunfish (''Lepomis microlophus''), also known as the shellcracker, Georgia bream, cherry gill, chinquapin, improved bream, and sun perch, is a freshwater fish in the family Centrarchidae and is native to the southeastern United States ...

black crappie The black crappie (''Pomoxis nigromaculatus'') is a freshwater fish in the sunfish family ( Centrarchidae). It is endemic to North America, one of the two types of crappies. It is very similar to the white crappie (''P. annularis'') in size, s ...

and

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus nigricans'') is a carnivorous, freshwater fish, freshwater, ray-finned fish in the Centrarchidae (sunfish) family, native to the eastern United States, eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada an ...

Sporting facilities

The park contains several softball and little-league fields as well as basketball, volleyball, and tennis courts. One 27-hole disc-golf court is located on the western edge of the park and is 7,608 ft (2,319 m) by 8,775 ft (2,675 m) in size.

Other facilities

There are 31 picnic areas with capacities ranging from 50 to 1,000 people. There are four walking trails totaling 3.5 miles of pathway.

Events and Entertainment

Las Vegas Renaissance Fair

During the fall, Clark County's Parks and Recreation hosts the annual Age of Chivalry Renaissance Festival in Sunset Park.

Gift of Lights

From 2000–2009, Sunset Park hosted a drive-through holiday light show called the Gift of Lights. Beginning with the 2010 holiday season, the show was moved to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

References

External links

{{Las Vegas Valley Parks in Clark County, Nevada