High Roller Observation Wheel Gets Lit in Las Vegas, Just Like the Rest of Us

By Scott Roeben, on January 16 2014
2 min read 3 comments
Las Vegas Things to Do in Las Vegas

The world’s tallest observation wheel, the High Roller at The Linq, is all lit up in preparation for its big debut.

High Roller Las Vegas
We are currently engorged with awe. You?

Testing of the 550-foot wheel’s lights will be taking place for the next two weeks, and we just happened to drive by as the lights were being put through their paces.

Prior to the wheel being fully illuminated, a variety of colored lights appeared on a small section of the wheel’s 520-foot diameter rim.

High Roller observation wheel
Tease.

It may not look like it, but those passenger cabins (or “pods”) can hold up to 40 people.

The colors are striking, and we can’t wait to see the entire wheel glowing in red, blue, purple and other colors.

High Roller Ferris wheel
Behold the world’s biggest mood ring, baby.

Here’s some High Roller news we hadn’t heard before: When we shared the first photo of the lighted High Roller on Facebook, a Vital Vegas reader, Dave, shared that he’s heard President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are to be the first riders on the High Roller Ferris wheel.

Yeah, the High Roller’s a pretty big deal.

High Roller wheel
Although they look off-kilter at the moment, the pods have a stabilization system to ensure the passenger cabin floors will remain parallel to the ground throughout the ride.

Each of the High Roller’s 28 rim sections are 56 feet long. If we were any good at math, we could confirm that’s 1,568 feet of wheel rim being lit.

If you find the High Roller observation wheel nearly as fascinating as we do, you’ll want to dive headlong into our borderline obsessive archive of High Roller stories and photo galleries.

High Roller Ferris wheel
This is where people much braver than this Las Vegas blog will load onto the High Roller for their 30-minute ride.

Extensive safety testing will be happening for the next few months, with the High Roller opening for riders in the second quarter of 2014.