The Wheel of Misfortune near Las Vegas is an interesting art piece created by street artist Aware. in 2012.
I was in Las Vegas for a conference, bored and laying on my hotel bed anxiously Googling for something cool to photograph the next day. Photographing the Vegas strip… again, didn’t sound interesting. However I ran across this great article on VitalVegas.com about the Wheel of Misfortune. I’m always down to photograph something unique, plus it was on the way to Lake Mead which I intended on visiting anyway. Score!
The Wheel of Misfortune itself is located at the defunct Three Kids Mine alongside Lake Mead Parkway, specifically at 36°05’04.2″N 114°54’50.4″W. Aware. and crew painted the Wheel of Misfortune onto a 250 foot diameter thickener pit which was used in a leaching process at the mine. This is private property, so don’t trespass! However if you have a drone, you can park alongside Lake Mead Parkway and take a short 1,000 foot flight to take a look from above, arguably the best vantage point for something like this.