text: You get a nice view from atop this sketchy Vegas icon The observation deck is high above the casino and hotel below and allow you to see the entire city The outdoor deck give you an up close look at the rides that nearly defy logic It seems strange to install an amusement park on top of a tower as they did but it works People get their thrills up there every day weather permitting I have only ever done the Sky Jump myself The other rides just are not my style When I go up in the Stratospher Tower it is almost solely for the view There are a few problems with it though Admission is for locals All you get for that is a ride in an elevator Sure it runs at MPH and takes you up the core in less than a minute but the simple fact remains that it is nothing more than an elevator Second problem trying to figure out where to purchase admission I was there on Friday taking advantage of the January special for locals free admission Fri Sat Sun all January long I stood in one line near the entrance to the elevators They told me to go to the box office I went to the box office and it was dark Security told me to go down stairs to the other box office on the casino level Then I had to go all the way back to where I started and stand in line for a while as each elevator can only take people When you have a long line people at a time makes for slow progress Neverthless the wait is worth it when you reach the top and see the magnificence of the Las Vegas ValleynnAs for the casino not bad It is big and mostly modern looking Its fairly clean and does not seem to smell too strongly of smoke like some casinos do My favorite part though is near the casino level box office mentioned above There is a nice Dale Earnhardt Sr Chevrolet Camaro and the Stratosphere Pole Award given to the pole sitter of the Kobalt Tools at Las Vegas Motor Speedway every March As a NASCAR fan this is pretty cool