On the way back from Vegas towards Los Angeles, the bus was to make few stops, one of which was Ethel M Chocolates’ that included a visit to the Botanical Cactus Garden within their campus.. And this was supposed to be Nevada’s largest and one of the world’s largest collections of its kind.  So, the excitement levels were quite high. I am not a big fan of Chocolate, but always curious to know how it is made etc and so the walk through the factory was interesting, but nothing I hadn’t seen before. After spending a few minutes exploring the store attached to the chocolate making unit, I walked outside towards the gardens.  

Spread across four acres, the Botanical Cactus Garden shows off the drought-tolerant ornamental, cacti, and other succulents. Apparently, the place contains over 300 species of plants, not sure how many I saw in the 45mins I wandered around. Many of the cacti and succulents are native to South West America while some are from South Western regions of USA, and from Australia and South America as well. They are all well suited for the weather here in Nevada and some cacti had pretty flowers on them as well…