AI training is booming — and LinkedIn wants a piece of the pie.
The careers networking site is in the early stages of launching an “AI labor marketplace” where people can make up to $150 an hour training AI chatbots to get better at everything from coding to nursing to finance, LinkedIn confirmed to Business Insider.
A spokesperson for LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft, said AI training is one of the fastest-growing jobs in the US right now and that it’s doing early testing.
AI trainers are humans who help improve chatbots by rating their answers and testing their limits. It’s a new type of gig work spurred by the AI boom and has led to the creation of several rapidly-growing AI training startups that serve clients like Anthropic.
LinkedIn has over a dozen public listings asking for AI trainers.
Someone with expertise in Excel and finance can make up to $100 an hour, while a nurse can make similar rates. The highest-paid position, for a senior software engineer AI trainer, pays up to $150 an hour. Other roles include a Germanic and Nordic Linguists trainer, which pays up to $100, and someone who “red teams” — or tests — AI systems for $40-$50 an hour.
LinkedIn has also rolled out a feature that lets people receive notifications whenever an AI training opportunity pops up.
The move puts LinkedIn in direct competition with a host of fast-growing AI training startups that match frontier AI labs like OpenAI with human talent to improve their models.
Mercor quintupled its valuation in less than a year to $10 billion. Another AI training startup, Surge AI, which owns the human-expert marketplace Data Annotation, is valued at $24 billion, Forbes reported.
The sector’s breakneck growth — and vast armies of contributors — have also contributed to serious cybersecurity issues.
Scale AI, for example, left confidential contractor and client information wide open across hundreds of Google Docs last year, locking them down after Business Insider revealed the practice. Mercor was recently hit by a serious data breach that compromised its contractors’ data and led to five class-action lawsuits in a single week.
If you’re an actor, your next role could involve performing for an AI company.
Handshake AI is hiring performers, including those with improv skills, to record themselves responding to a “light prompt or scenario” with other actors, according to a job posting.
The work is part-time, remote, open to workers with at least a bachelor’s degree, and pays up to $74 an hour, per Handshake’s description. For actors, the work is “easy to fit alongside auditions, classes, or rehearsals,” the company says.
“You’ll improvise scenes, explore characters, and respond naturally in the moment, with plenty of creative freedom to shape how each interaction unfolds,” the job listing reads. Embedded in the job description is a video of two people talking in an apparently improvised scene.
The listing says the project is for “one of the leading AI companies,” though it doesn’t mention how the work will be used.
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A Handshake spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last year, the company launched an AI division after about a decade as a social network for college students and young professionals looking for career opportunities.
On Reddit, as The Verge reported, some users debated what Handshake’s plans for the recordings might be. One user posted: “It’s clearly just an attempt to get people to train AI models to create AI generated videos.”
Another predicted that it could lead to more demand for “real, unpolished” live comedy from humans, even if the work is used to create AI that can generate comedy.
Handshake’s listing is the latest example of the different professions, including some in the arts and creative roles, that AI companies are calling on.
Jobs in training AI have grown over the past few years. Many companies don’t require trainers to have experience with AI or a tech background.
Some do the work as a side-hustle as students or artists, Business Insider previously reported, and the tasks can involve recounting childhood memories or even bullying AI.
Uber, known for its gig-work ride-hailing drivers and delivery people, has branched out into AI training and has headhunted trainers with graduate degrees and job experience outside tech to do it.
Many training jobs are independent contractor roles, meaning companies don’t offer benefits like healthcare and retirement account contributions that they do for full-time employees.
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The billable hour’s time is approaching midnight, according to Anthropic’s top lawyer.
“I don’t think the billable hour is the solution, and we’ve known it for a long time,” Jeff Bleich, the AI company’s general counsel, said Thursday.
Speaking at the American Bar Association’s White Collar Crime Institute in San Diego, Bleich said that artificial intelligence tools are eliminating the need for companies to hire armies of lawyers to do lucrative yet “tedious” work.
“Now we’ve got a technology that’s going to eliminate the sorts of things that allow people to become wealthy off of tedious work,” Bleich said on the panel, alongside top lawyers at Google, IBM, and Liberty Mutual. “That was not what lawyers are trained to do, and not what we ultimately look to lawyers for.”
The much-maligned billable hour is the standard method that law firms use to bill their clients.
Attorneys track the work done for each client, often in six-minute increments, tally them up, and charge their clients accordingly.
While the billable hour has been useful to help companies and other clients understand what they are paying lawyers for, it has also “created a wedge,” Bleich said.
Under the current system, “the interests of firms are at odds with the interests of their clients,” he said. Companies want lawyers to resolve problems quickly, but law firms get paid more when the work takes longer.
“Clients want you to solve the problem as efficiently as possible and with as little drama as possible,” Bleich said. “And if you’re a company, the bigger the case gets, and the more dramatic it gets, and the more complicated it gets, and the more work that has to be done — the more lucrative it is.”
The other panelists largely agreed with Bleich’s remarks.
“The value is no longer you putting in time,” said Damon Hart, the top lawyer at Liberty Mutual. “The value is your strategy, your results.”
Anne Robinson, IBM’s general counsel, told the audience that she’s open to working with them to figure out more creative billing methods.
“I’m open to firms coming and saying, ‘I’d really like to work with you on this matter or this type of work, I get that the billable hour model is not one of aligned incentives, and so let’s sit down and talk about what you expect as far as outcomes and how we can both get there in a way that reflects your pressures and your priorities,'” Robinson said.
Bleich said he still values the work of outside law firms, but wants them to find an alternative to the billable hour that works for everyone.
“We’re not going to sort of cheap out and starve you,” Bleich said. “On the other hand, you have to have an economic model that works. And the firms that adapt to that faster and better will be leapfrogging other firms, because they’ll be more attractive to work with.”
Bleich’s comments come at a critical moment for Anthropic, which sued federal agencies this week after the Trump administration effectively blacklisted it following the collapse of contract negotiations with the Department of Defense.
In the lawsuit, Anthropic is represented by WilmerHale, one of the law firms that Trump targeted last year with an executive order that was quickly blocked by a federal judge.
“I like firms that show some spine,” Bleich said following the panel, when asked about using law firms that fought back against Trump’s executive orders targeting them. He declined to comment on the lawsuit itself.
WilmerHale is distinguished in another way: Reginald Heber Smith, who in the early 20th century managed the Big Law firm — then called Hale and Dorr — is widely credited with inventing the billable hour.
Dreams took hold of Werner Herzog early in his life. Because that’s all he had.
Born in Munich just before the Allies bombed it during World War II, Herzog and his family fled to a remote village in Bavaria and lived there in poverty for most of his childhood.
With no telephone, no running water, and definitely no television, the young Herzog had to use his mind to entertain himself. By his teens, he became drawn to the written word, putting the wild ideas in his mind on the page.
“When I was about 13 or 14, I knew I was a poet,” Herzog told Business Insider. “And then, of course, I knew I had to make films. Although I had hardly ever seen any films. The very first time I had noticed that there was such a thing like movies was when I was 11.”
Werner Herzog on the set of “Fitzcarraldo.”
Jean-Louis Atlan/Sygma/Getty
Herzog quickly made up for lost time, using the medium as a portal to making his dreams a reality. Fast forward seven decades, and the filmmaker, now 83, has over 70 movie credits.
From his classic movies that cemented his fascination with faraway lands, like 1972’s “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” and 1982’s “Fitzcarraldo,” to his idiosyncratic documentaries about everything from the harrowing life and death of a bear enthusiast (“Grizzly Man”) to people who choose to live in Antarctica (“Encounters at the End of the World”), Herzog’s films put the spotlight on eccentrics with big dreams.
His latest documentary, “Ghost Elephants,” is similarly on-theme. The film follows South African explorer Steve Boyes as he sets out to record evidence of an undiscovered species of elephant that’s thought to reside deep in the Angola highlands.
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Though it’s a doc set in nature, Herzog is certain his elephant documentary isn’t really about elephants at all. “It is not a wildlife film,” he said. It’s more about the search for something greater. “I introduce this idea of, would it not be better to only have our dreams and never fulfill them?”
In our latest “Director’s Chair” interview, the legendary filmmaker discusses why dreams are sometimes better than reality, how he plans to protect his iconic voice in the age of AI, and if it ever gets tiring being Werner Herzog.
On finding his documentary subject in a Beverly Hills restaurant and the most beautiful footage he’s ever shot
Business Insider: “Ghost Elephants” is very much about the power of dreams. But it also has the feel of “Moby Dick.”
Werner Herzog: This is a quest, a little bit after the White Whale. The unknown. But you’re right when you say it’s more about dreams of very large elephants. You barely see any elephants in the movie. However, you see some of them underwater, and they are purely like dreams. And I must say it’s some of the most beautiful footage you can ever see in any of my films.
That’s a bold statement, given all the memorable footage you have given the world over your career, but I agree.
At first, the camera would start from the water and then emerge to show the elephants in the water up to their chests. All of the sudden they were realistic. And I said, “No, I want long shots underwater, I never want the camera to emerge into the real world.”
An elephant shot underwater in “Ghost Elephants.”
National Geographic
Is it true this project started simply with a chance encounter with Steve Boyes?
A good friend of mine who is good friends with Steve Boyes immediately saw a connection. I was in Los Angeles and the friend said, “Come down quickly. There’s someone you must meet.” And it was to a restaurant in Beverly Hills, of all places.
I knew immediately that Steve was perfect as a leading central character. He has a charisma, he has an elegance, he has a depth. He has it all for carrying a film. But he’s not obsessive. He’s very curious and very tenacious; he has perseverance. He was patient more than 10 years to see a ghost elephant.
While making “Ghost Elephants,” did you ever think that it might be a better story if Steve didn’t find the elephants?
We had to reckon with that possibility, and I keep it alive in my commentary: “Couldn’t it be better that we only have these dreams, that we have these ceremonies, that we speak about spirits, about dreams, about ghosts, and not ever see them?” When he finds them, in my commentary I said: “Now Steven Boyes has to live with his success.” And that’s a big statement.
Does success live up to the dream?
I think it’s not only a question prevailing in this film, but it is also a question prevailing in all human life. The dreams that we have, the aspirations that we have, ghosts with whom we live, is it potentially better never to encounter our ghosts? Never to realize our dreams?
Steve Boyes in “Ghost Elephants.”
National Geographic
On his famous ‘nihilist penguin’ scene and improvising his cameo in ‘Parks and Recreation’
I want to hear more about your narration process. Is it correct that when you see footage in post-production that catches your eye, like the underwater elephant footage, you instantly begin to write the narration for that scene and then immediately go and record it?
The film emerges from its footage. It’s not that there is a superimposed script and commentary. I write the commentary when the footage emerges in editing. And I write it instantly and record it instantly. I have a microphone and a little recording booth six feet behind me. I do the recording instantly, and I fit it in the edit instantly.
I keep preaching to young filmmakers, do not submit your footage to the scriptures of a pre-fabricated idea, commentary, and ideology. Let the footage emerge and do its job, and then you follow. That’s the way I’ve done all my films.
Why is spontaneity so important in this process?
You have to see it right in front of you and you have to have a worldview. A clear worldview — not just randomly commenting. It comes with great ease and I love to do it that way.
A penguin walking alone in a much-memed shot in “Encounters at the End of the World.”
Discovery Films/ThinkFilm
So, for example, in “Encounters at the End of the World,” you see the footage of the penguin splitting from the pack and walking to the mountains off in the horizon in post. You instantly then wrote your narration and recorded it?
Yes. Exactly.
Amazing.
When you see a penguin walking toward the mountains, of course, I have to tell the audience, you’re not allowed to rescue the penguin. You have to leave wildlife in peace. If you return the penguin back to its colony it would angrily turn back to the mountains, where it will perish. The rules for human beings are do not touch the penguin, leave it on its voyage. Leave it alone. We must respect nature, even in individual self-destruction.
Because of this gift for prose, could you not help yourself in changing some of the dialogue you were given on “The Mandalorian”?
In a way; an actor is always an architect of their own performance. But the show’s creator, Jon Favreau, loves my work, and he told me explicitly he hired me because he wanted a large audience out there in the world to see what I look like.
However, when I guest-starred on “Parks & Recreation,” I’ve never seen it, but I’m in an episode where I’m selling my home, and when we were done shooting, I said to the team, “I would like to add something to the text. Can I speak right into the camera?” And I said straight to the audience: “I’ve lived in this home for 47 years, but I’m selling it now because I want to move to Orlando, Florida, to be close to Disney World.”
And people peed their pants.
On AI impersonations of his voice and refusing to work overtime
What interests you at the moment? Acting? Directing another documentary? Or doing a scripted feature?
Well, while we are sitting here, I have a finished feature film, “Bucking Fastard,” which needs an audience. And a fortnight ago, I started shooting a new film in Mexico. Three weeks from now, I will continue shooting in Austria. It’s a documentary.
What’s the latest with “Bucking Fastard”?
I don’t know. We’re trying to get it into one of the big festivals.
But the picture is locked?
Yes. It’s not touched by me or anyone anymore.
Werner Herzog.
Lena Herzog
Your voice and your persona are so iconic. Have you thought at all about protecting them in the era of AI, especially once you go to the great beyond?
I couldn’t care less about prosperity. I’m not going to be around anymore.
But just the protection of how your voice is portrayed going forward. Or does that not concern you?
In some way, yes, because amateurs who try to imitate my voice are not as good as AI. AI is the best voice so far. And, of course, I know there will be legal protection of my likeness, including my voice. There are laws in existence, but also I’m a member of the DGA, and of the Screen Actors Guild, I’m a union guy, and one of the main concerns of both guilds is artificial intelligence and abusing your likeness.
I’m not going to sell anything to AI. I would rather save a lot of money and buy AI and prohibit them from doing it.
You are a child of poverty. You didn’t see your first movie until you were 11, but you’ve gone on to become a legendary filmmaker, author, and actor. But does it get tiresome being the “Werner Herzog” persona?
No, I’m at ease. People think I’m a workaholic because I’ve made so many films and have acted, written books, staged operas. But my shooting days are short. On “Bucking Fastard,” my shooting days were done around 4. In my entire life, I’ve never had a single hour of overtime in any of my films. I have a lot of leisure time. I read. I enjoy the company of friends.
But can the persona thrust upon you, the man with the deep prose, the man who loves playing villains on screen, be daunting at times?
It’s not my problem; it’s your problem. I live my life, and I barely see and notice what is out there because, personally, I’m not on social media. Even though I opened an Instagram account, my younger son handles it. I don’t even know how to post something. I create the content, and he posts it. I can’t even see it because I don’t even have a cell phone.
It’s a very good life.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
“Ghost Elephants” is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
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Israeli Air Force F-35I planes struck Iranian missile systems and military leaders on Saturday.
The Israeli F-35 variant is known as “Adir,” meaning “Mighty One” in Hebrew.
The planes also struck Iran in June and aided defenses against Iranian missiles in 2023 and 2024.
Israel launched what it called “the most extensive aerial operation ever conducted by the Israeli Air Force” on Saturday, targeting Iranian missile systems and military leaders in tandem with US forces. Israel’s F-35I stealth fighter jets were on the front lines.
The Israeli variant of the US-made Lockheed Martin Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter plane is known as “Adir,” meaning “Mighty One” in Hebrew. With advanced stealth capabilities and a customized electronic warfare system, the F-35I is one of the most powerful tools in Israel’s air defense arsenal.
In addition to Israel’s newest assault on Iran, the Israeli planes also conducted preemptive strikes against Iran’s nuclear program in June, intercepted hundreds of drones, missiles, and rockets fired by Iran in a retaliatory attack in 2024, and took down a missile fired by an Iran-backed group in Yemen in 2023, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Here’s a closer look at the “Mighty One” military aircraft.
F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jets, produced by Lockheed Martin, are some of the most advanced military aircraft in the world.
An Israeli F-35I lands at Ovda airbase near Eilat, southern Israel. Tsafrir Abayov/AP
The F-35 stores its weapons and fuel internally, and its aligned edges and radar-absorbent coating also help the aircraft evade detection. The planes cost $44,000 per hour to fly, The National Interest reported.
They feature advanced stealth and information-processing capabilities and can reach supersonic speeds of Mach 1.6, or 548.8 meters per second.
An Israeli Air Force F-35I Adir fighter aircraft flies over the Negev Desert. YURI CORTEZ/AFP via Getty Images
Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn A. Hewson said in 2018 that the planes “can fly in what we call ‘beast mode,‘ carrying up to 18,000 pounds of internal and external ordnance, in a mix that can include 5,000-pound-class weapons.”
In 2016, Israel became the first country other than the US to acquire F-35 fighter jets.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands next to an F-35 fighter jet just after it landed in Israel at Nevatim air base. Amir Cohen/Reuters
Israel was the first country to select the model through the US Foreign Military Sales process and bought 50 planes, according to Lockheed Martin.
Israel has made significant modifications to the jets.
A production line for F-35 wings in Israel Aerospace Industries’ (IAI) campus near Tel Aviv. Amir Cohen/Reuters
Israel manufactures its own wings and electronic warfare system for the F-35I. It also developed its own version of the high-tech helmet that displays the plane’s airspeed, altitude, targeting information, and other crucial stats directly on the pilot’s visor.
The Israeli Air Force named its F-35I variant “Adir,” meaning “Mighty One” in Hebrew.
Israeli Air Force technicians customize an F-35I plane with a Star of David symbol. Israeli Air Force
The Israeli Air Force also added a six-pointed Star of David to the design, a Jewish symbol that also appears on the Israeli flag.
In 2018, Israel became the first country to use the F-35I in combat, its air force chief said.
Israeli Air Force F-35 flies during an aerial demonstration. Amir Cohen/Reuters
“We are flying the F-35 all over the Middle East and have already attacked twice on two different fronts,” then-Israeli Air Force chief Major-General Amikam Norkin said in a speech at a gathering of foreign air force leaders, Reuters reported.
In July 2023, Israel acquired an additional 25 Adir planes in a $3 billion deal.
Israeli F-35I planes. Israeli Air Force
The deal was financed through the military aid Israel receives from the US, Reuters reported.
In November 2023, Israel’s F-35I Adir fighter jets took down a missile fired by an Iran-backed group in Yemen, according to the IDF.
A F-35I fighter jet flies during a graduation ceremony for Israeli Air Force pilots in southern Israel. Amir Cohen/Reuters
It was the first known intercept of a cruise missile by an F-35 plane.
The Israeli Air Force released footage of the encounter on X, writing in Hebrew that its personnel are “preoccupied at every moment with planning and managing the defense response and are prepared for any threat in any area.”
Iran appeared to target the Nevatim air base, which houses Israel’s fleet of F-35I jets, during an attack in April 2024.
An Israeli F-35 combat aircraft in the skies over Israel’s border with Lebanon. Ammar Awad/Reuters
Out of the over 350 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles, launched at Israel by Iran and its proxies in Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon, around 99% were intercepted by Israel and its allies. The IDF released photos showing minor damage near a runway at the Nevatim Airbase and to a road in Hermon caused by the few projectiles that landed.
The missiles appeared to target Israel’s Nevatim Airbase in the Negev desert, which houses its fleet of F-35I stealth fighter jets. The base remained operational throughout the attack, according to the IDF, with the Adir fighter jets aiding the defensive mission.
“Iran thought it would be able to paralyze the base and thus damage our air capabilities, but it failed,” IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a statement.
In June 2025, the Israeli Air Force launched around 200 fighter jets, including F-35Is, in a preemptive strike targeting Iran’s nuclear program.
An F-35I Israeli fighter jet used in strikes against Iran. Israel Defense Forces
An IDF spokesperson said that Israeli fighter jets struck over 100 sites across Iran to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon, including military targets and its largest uranium enrichment site in Natanz.
The IDF said that Iran’s nuclear program had “accelerated significantly” in recent months and called it “clear evidence that the Iranian regime is operating to obtain a nuclear weapon.” Iran maintains that its nuclear program is solely for civilian purposes.
“This is a critical operation to prevent an existential threat by an enemy who is intent on destroying us,” Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF’s Chief of the General Staff, said in a statement.
The IDF released photos showing planes used in the large-scale operation, including F-35I jets.
F-35Is struck Iran over the weekend in what the IDF called “the largest military flyover in Israeli Air Force history.”
US and Israeli F-35s flew together during a training exercise. The two countries launched new strikes against Iran using land, air, and sea assets. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Duncan C. Bevan
As part of Operation Roaring Lion, Israel’s moniker for Operation Epic Fury, around 200 Israeli fighter jets, including F-35Is, struck 500 Iranian missile launchers and aerial defense systems on Saturday. IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani characterized the operation as “the most extensive aerial operation ever conducted by the Israeli Air Force.”
The strikes “significantly degraded” Iran’s offensive capabilities, the IDF said. The strikes also killed Iranian military leaders, including Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh and Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the IRGC.
The war in Gaza prompted new scrutiny of US military aid to Israel.
An Israeli soldier sits inside an F-35I fighter jet after it landed in Israel at Nevatim Airbase. Amir Cohen/Reuters
The October 7 terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas killed around 1,200 Israelis and captured over 240.
Israel’s counteroffensive airstrikes and military actions in Gaza resulted in over 72,000 Palestinian fatalities, according to figures provided to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs by the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza. The IDF reports that at least 17,000 of these fatalities were Hamas militants. A ceasefire agreement was reached in October.
The devastating human toll of the war in Gaza with US-funded planes like the F-35I has prompted new scrutiny of US aid to Israel, with some lawmakers in Congress raising the possibility of conditioning military and economic aid.
That’s what I’d heard countless times about visiting Las Vegas before making the trip myself. I’d always wanted to go, if only to have that once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Turns out, one time wasn’t enough. I’ve been five times now, and I have no doubt there will be a sixth. The nightlife and gambling aren’t what keep me coming back, though.
These days, I skip the casinos and explore nature instead — and one of my favorite places is about 45 minutes outside the city: Valley of Fire State Park.
There was no turning back once I found a side of Vegas I didn’t know I was missing
Valley of Fire has some incredible sandstone formations.
Erin Sanchez
In 2013, I went to Vegas to celebrate surviving grad school with a couple of friends.
Being first-timers, we wanted to see everything the Las Vegas Strip had to offer. About 28,000 steps and a midday shoe change later, we felt we’d seen all we could in a single day.
That first trip was a whirlwind of neon lights and shirtless men dancing on tabletops (they don’t call it “Sin City” for nothing). It was fun, but I wondered if there was even more to experience in the area beyond the sensory overload of the Strip.
Flying into Las Vegas from Seattle, I’d noticed the rugged, desert mountains surrounding the city. Those same mountain ranges also caught my eye from the mayhem of the Strip.
A couple of years later, when I returned to the city with my husband, I’d finally get to see them up close.
Valley of Fire State Park looks otherworldly.
Erin Sanchez
After a day on the Strip, the two of us decided to get out of the city and visit the Valley of Fire. We didn’t know much about the park, but the impressive Google images and proximity were enough to convince us to check it out.
We rented a car, then headed northeast of Las Vegas and found ourselves in a sea of sand and rocky red outcroppings within an hour.
After paying a small entry fee, the booth attendant gave us a detailed map and tips for avoiding heatstroke. Then, we spent the entire day exploring the geologic wonders of the Mojave Desert.
We even spotted markings on some of the rocks in Valley of Fire State Park.
Erin Sanchez
The 40,000-acre recreation area had awe-inspiring sandstone formations, ancient petroglyphs, and hiking trails with Instagram-worthy photo ops around every corner.
Besides roaming the richly saturated — often gravity-defying — petrified sand dunes, we also spotted lizards scurrying across the trails and hordes of adorable ground squirrels in the picnic areas.
Out here, I didn’t hear the constant dinging from slot machines, the mashup of strangers’ conversations, or the evangelists along the Strip admonishing passersby through megaphones.
I found everything I was looking for in a weekend getaway: sun, serenity, and spectacular scenery. Now I make it a point to escape to the Valley of Fire whenever I visit Las Vegas.
Vegas can be the perfect getaway, though maybe not in the way you might expect
I’ve now visited the Valley of Fire State Park several times.
Erin Sanchez
One time in Vegas might be enough for some people, but not for me.
In addition to offering endless food and entertainment options, the city has no shortage of beautiful nearby spots for nature lovers and outdoor adventurers.
For those of us on the West Coast, Vegas is the perfect destination for a quick trip. It’s just a short flight away, and you can find great deals on resorts, especially when you travel during the less crowded summer and winter months.
If you’re looking to add more than Valley of Fire State Park to your desert itinerary, you can also easily make day trips to places like the Hoover Dam and Red Rock Canyon.
And as for whether I’m already planning my next trip — you can bet on it.
