Outside Las Vegas, NV and Southern Utah
Las Vegas, Nevada is a fun place that you can do so much. It much more than just gambling. There is great food, attractions and museums in Las Vegas. If you want to leave the lights and glamour there is so much to do from a few minutes drive to a few hours drive from Las Vegas. From a branch of the Nevada State Museum, a Museum dedicated to the “Lost Cities” of Nevada, the Hoover Dam, and many National and State Parks. We use Las Vegas sometimes as a starting point to adventures in the areas surrounding the city. There is so much to see and do in the area. We have flown to Las Vegas a few times and gone outside of the city for the majority of the trip. Its worth giving the other areas a try because it is well worth it!
Traveling to Las Vegas and transportation
Unless you live in California or are willing to take a long driving trip the best option is to fly into McCarran International airport in Las Vegas. Every major US and many international airlines fly into this major aviation hub. You can find some pretty good deals to the area on a few different airlines. If you want to stay in Las Vegas you could always take a cab or ride share to some of the museums and sites in the Las Vegas area. There are also some great day tour options where they pick you up on the Las Vegas Strip and take you to some of the further away sites like the Grand Canyon South Rim. We have taken the bus tours and they were nice. We have also rented a car and stayed out of the Las Vegas area and toured many of the other parks and sites in the area. Its up to you based on how much time you might have and if you want to drive yourself to some of the great places to visit in the area.
Springs Preserve
There are a few off Las Vegas Strip sights still within Las Vegas that are very nice to see. A very nice place to visit and learn more about Nevada and the wildlife of the area is the Springs Preserve. Located a little West of Downtown Las Vegas this Museum Complex is a wonder place to spend some time. It contains the very well done Nevada State museum that includes a history of the states wild life, prehistoric times, mining, nuclear testing and the more modern age. There are many great interactive exhibits at the museum. They also have a complete replica of a 1905 Boomtown where you can go into each building including a hotel, general store and many other town buildings. There are also several other museums to visit such as the Origen Museum. The Origen museum goes over the wildlife of Nevada today and has an area with animals indigenous to the area. There is also a neat Flash Flood simulator where you stand on a boardwalk and watch as the desert land crash with water. There is also a gallery on sustainability and a fully working waterworks you can view. There are also many outside trails that are beautiful to walk through including a nature hike. This will take you a few hours to go through the many great exhibits. We heavily recommend you visit this museum complex in the Las Vegas Area!
The Hoover Dam
Located around 45 minutes from Las Vegas you can visit one of the most impressive Dams in the world. It was built during the heart of the Great Depression in the 1930s. It dammed up the Colorado River and created Lake Meade. It supplies hydro electric power to a very large area including California, Nevada and Arizona. The border of Nevada and Arizona is in the middle of the dam. At the site you can buy tour tickets to tour inside the dam. There is a tour that will just take you to see the generators or you can take a more in depth tour that will go into the cement dam itself. I have taken both tours and to me the little extra money to go inside the dam and look out a vent in the center is worth it. The tour take an hour or more to take. There are a couple museums and the visitors center to also see while you are there. It also well worth taking a walk on the top of the Dam and getting the canyon views and the chance to walk between Nevada and Arizona. It will take a few hours to visit the site.
The Lost City Museum
About an hour North of Las Vegas near another great spot to visit is a small museum in the desert city of Overton, NV that chronicles the many Lost Cities of the area. Living out in the desert is a challenge and throughout history in the Moapa Valley many cities have come and gone. From Native American villages to Mormon ssettlements to mining towns the area had many different people living it at different times but they all eventually moved on. At the museum you can see the foundations of one of the Native American villages in the area and see the history of all of these lost cities. Outside you can visit a replica of a Native American Village. The museum will take an hour or so to go through and is a nice stop along the way to The Valley of Fire State Park.
The Valley of Fire State Park
Not Far from The Lost City Museum you will find the large Valley of Fire State Park. There are two entrances to the park and we took the Northern Entrance. The landscape is as the name states fire red rocks and valleys. It looks like another world driving through the park. Speaking of other worlds the park has been the set of multiple movies including Star Trek Generations, Austin Powers and many others. There are many hiking trails, a nice visitors center and even a spot to view Native American pictographs. You also will want to prepare for another type of fire in the park with the extreme heat in the summer. We did not hike very much with temperatures well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It was dangerous to be out walking too long so we kept our hikes to short walks and had plenty of water. Depending on how many picture stops you take it could take you a couple hours to drive the park.
Death Valley National Park
Located a two hours drive to the West in neighboring California you will find a landscape full of contrasts records and mystery. Death Valley National park has the lowest elevation in North America, is the driest National Park and holds the world record for hottest temperature. While it is an inhospitable place, it is also full of beauty. At Badwater Basin you will find the lowest elevation in North America and a huge salt flat you can walk through. Its strange seeing so much salt lying on the desert floor. At that spot it hold the world record for hottest temperature. If you look at the mountain near by they mark sea level high above you. At Furnace Creek you will find a small oasis in the desert where the visitors center, hotels and a Native American city are. The Artist’s Pallet drive you can see so many different colors in the rocks including green, purple and blue. In another area of the park you can walk large sand dunes. In a remote area of the park (we did not visit since its very difficult to get to) you will find the sailing stones. They are stones that you can see tracks where they have moved across the desert. No one knows yet how this happens. You can also visit a mountain that overlooks the valley that has a meadow. Borax was mined in Death Valley so you can visit the 20 mule team Borax drive to see where it was mined. We really enjoyed this park and all the amazing spots and contrasts in this deserted landscape. This is a day trip so plan for at least one full day to hit the major spots before you head back to Las Vegas.
Grand Canyon National Park
From Las Vegas you have a few options to visit the beautiful Grand Canyon National Park. You can visit the North, South or West Rim. The West Rim is your closest option but I have heard it is expensive to walk the Sky Walk at the Hualapai Native American Reservation. We have visited the South and North Rim National Park sites on separate occasions from Las Vegas. To the South Rim we took a bus tour that picked us up at the Excalibur Hotel that stopped by route 66 and included a buffet meal on the way to the Grand Canyon. We had the chance to spend a few hours walking the trail along the rim of the Canyon before heading back to Las Vegas. The tour did take over 12 hours as it is a over 4 hour drive both ways. The drive is similar to the much higher elevation North Rim that has much fewer visitors than the South Rim. The North Rim has a heard of wild buffalo that walked across the road as we approached. We had a bull buffalo stare us down as his family passed behind him. The views are just as great from the North Rim as the South Rim but the North Rim is quite a bit less developed than the South Rim. We enjoyed visiting them both. From the North Rim we stayed in St. George, Utah instead of driving back to Las Vegas. Its a great place to visit and with a little driving you can visit it from Las Vegas!
Zion National Park
Located in Southern Utah about a three hour drive from Las Vegas you can visit another beautiful canyon carved by the Virgin River. This canyon is flanked by red rocks and wonderful formations. There is a driving tour where you can see much of the park and take some very nice hikes. We visited in mid December so it was pretty cool and there were even some Icy trails near some waterfalls. During off peak times like when we went you can drive your own car into the park. If you visit during peak times like in the summer you will need to take the park bus service to the different areas of the park. There is a small city called Springdale that has restaurants and hotels if you want to stay a night by the park. We did our trip in a day and got back to Las Vegas around dinner time. We hiked and spent a decent amount of time seeing the park. Its a great place to visit and well worth it!
Bryce Canyon National Park
Also in Southern Utah but higher in the mountains is a completely different canyon. Bryce Canyon was not created by a river but though slow erosion of the rocks by the elements that created a huge amphitheater. There are hundreds of pinnacles/towers called Hoodoos that point up from the floor of the canyon. Its a very unique place and very different from the many other parks we have been to. The canyon has a very red color. The rim of the canyon is over 8,000 feet in elevation, so you are pretty high up. During the summer when we visited we took a shuttle bus to different stops in the park. The parking area is in Bryce Canyon City. We decided to hike along the rim of the canyon for a mile or two and we got some very good views of the canyon. The elevation got to us so you will want to be careful as it tired us out much more quickly. We decided not to take the long hike into the canyon as it would be too intense coming back up. There is a lodge in the park that has a restaurant and there are hotels and places to eat in Bryce Canyon City. They even have a rodeo arena you can watch a rodeo at in the city. Bryce Canyon is in a relatively desolate area so you will drive many mountain roads to get there. It is around a four hour drive from Las Vegas but we stayed in St. George, Utah and it cut down on the drive. The drive is well worth it to see the amazing place!
Cedar Breaks National Monument
Located around an hour away from Bryce Canyon is one of the highest points in the Grand Staircase. Cedar Breaks is over 10,000 feet in elevation and has quite a few hiking trails. Overlooking a amphitheater with Hoodoos and rock formations like Bryce Canyon its an interesting site as well. You can see for miles up that high. The road to get there is closed in the winter and is a winding mountain road. We came to this park from Bryce so we had spent most of the day above 8,000 feet so after increasing our elevation we began to get altitude sickness with a headache and fatigue. Feeling this we did not walk many of the trails at the park and opted to head to lower elevation to get better. Be careful if you stay at a higher elevation coming from sea level for a long period of time. This is an interesting place to visit and I would have liked to have stayed longer!
Red Canyon
In between Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks you will drive through the Dixie National Forest and Red Canyon. Its another Canyon with Red Rocks and Hoodoos. One really interesting feature in this area is tunnels through the Red Rocks. There are plenty of trails to hike and bike in this area. We stopped to look at the tunnels but did not stop at the park further. It looks like a pretty neat area and if we make it back we will spend some time there as well!
Tips for Outside of Las Vegas and Southern Utah
While the Las Vegas strip has a lot to do from shows, aquariums, rides and museum exhibits there is so much to do within a few hours drive of Las Vegas. We love getting out of the big city and visiting these more out of the way places. I really recommend taking a day trip or a couple days to visit some of the parks in the area. Its well worth it. There are quite a few other State Parks, National Parks and museums in the area. Some include Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas, Pipe Spring National Monument Near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona and many others. Give the natural beauty of the desert and the area outside of Las Vegas a chance and you will really be rewarded for it!