Although the sight of Vegas at night fully lit up is a great experience I personally can’t be there too long. I must say though, Vegas is a great starting place for a road trip being so closed to Arizona, California and Utah. So, if you’re like me and enjoy more outdoor nature places over crazy crowded cities read on! So, what can you do outside Vegas while visiting Las Vegas?
Death Valley National Park
I’ll get started with the state of California. Death Valley National Park is located 2 hours (142 miles) from Las Vegas. If you’re headed to Death Valley from Phoenix this is the best and shortest route to take. So winter of 2019 we decided to drive from Phoenix to Vegas during the night. After having breakfast in Vegas we continued driving 2 hours into Death Valley making it a total of 6.5 hours each way from Phoenix.
Death Valley is one of those parks that has a different type of beauty. You won’t find greenery or a waterfall scenery that most people expect to experience in a national park. The beauty of this place is just raw, 100% desert hence the name Death Valley. So why did we want to visit such weird place you might wonder. For one, a few scenes of the Star Wars saga were filmed here… need I say more. But seriously, the reason why they picked this place for the movies was because It looks like another planet. When you’re there you won’t feel like you’re in California or earth for that matter. It is so impressive.
Another reason why we wanted to visit is because you’ll be in the lowest elevation in North America (282 feet below sea level) making one of the hottest place on earth with a record of 134 Fahrenheit (57 Celsius) thats insane! So if you live close enough, or happen to be in Las Vegas why pass on the opportunity of experiencing this place at least once in your life.
What to do while visiting Death Valley?
We were in Death Valley about a day. Camping is an option and I’ve read online about a many brave campers who do it even though winter temperatures are as extreme as the summer. We decided to skip on the camping. Again, being so close to Las Vegas we decided to drive back to Vegas and book night hotel so we could drive back home the following morning rested. But if you’re brave enough by all mean experience camping in such a wonderful place.
The park has a lot of beautiful viewpoints if all you want to do is drive thru it. My favorite was Zabriskie Point. If you have the opportunity to make it by sunrise that’s when the magic really happens. Thankfully in the winter time sunrise is around 7am so we had a little bit of time to make the two hour drive from Vegas and still make the sunrise. Other photographers seemed to have gotten there earlier than us because they already had all their equipment set up. Its nice to know we’re not the only crazy ones out in freezing temperatures taking in beautiful sunrises and photographing it. It’s actually a relieve.. So, if you can please make it there by sunrise, the striking change of color on the rocks will leave you speechless.
After that, we rushed to try to make it to the Artistic Pallet while it was early enough to catch the light on the rocks. Sadly, the road to it was closed and we couldn’t see it. If you can though, look this up online and try to make it. It looks stunning. Somehow I was glad we couldn’t do it because now we have a reason to try to go back. After our failed attempt we headed over to Badwater Basin. This is the lowest point of the park and I thought it was pretty amazing. I had read online it is the most beautiful during sunset. After that we went to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes and took some pictures.
Overall, I really loved this park. Although we tried visiting as many spots as we could, some we couldn’t because it was either closed or we needed a 4x4 car. So I am definitely planning on returning at one point. You can’t always do everything but if you have have a few hours it is still a must see place.
Valley of Fire
We visited Las Vegas several times on our way to the National Parks in Utah and also on our way to Death Valley, yet we didn’t discover Valley of Fire until literally this year. I found a blog article about Valley of Fire online by accident we decided to once again make the night drive to Vegas and spend the whole day exploring the park. We got to Vegas around 3am, took a quick nap in the car before driving another hour north to the park. The goal was to make it early enough to do the 1 mile hike to the Fire Wave and photograph the wave during sunrise. Sadly it rained most of our drive.. When we got to the park it was cold, windy and the rain would not stop. We waited inside the car a few hours hoping the raining would stop and the sun would lighten us up. 2 hours later the rain stopped enough to allow us to leave the car but the sun never came out. So, no sunrise for us. Also no hiking Fire Wave, the sand was wet making it very difficult but needless to say I loved our visit.
Why am I telling you all of this? Because if you’re short on time, if you can’t do all the hikes, if all you can do is do the scenic drive that is enough. Do not skip this beautiful place for lack of time. The park itself is pretty small so if all you can do is drive by it it would only take you about an hour allowing time to get out of the car in several view points. The views and colors you’ll experience will leave you speechless. The entrance to the park is open sunrise to sunset and its $10. If you enter before sunrise (like we did) take the $10 in cash exact and leave it in an envelope at the entrance of the park. Definitely worth a visit.
For the full gallery of Valley of Fire click here
Seven Magic Mountains
Let me continue with the state of Nevada. Seven Magic Mountains is an art exhibition in the middle of the desert. Super cool huh?! This art exhibition was done by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone and it represent the presence of humanity in the desert. When I heard about this place I started planning my visit. The original permit was from 2016 to 2018. I thought I had lost my chance but then read online the permit was extended from 2018 to 2021, so January 2019 we decided to drive again to Vegas in an effort to not lose this opportunity. It is literally only 30 minutes outside Vegas. You’ll be glad you spent a few hours at this once in a lifetime exhibition.
Zion National Park
Although I already written an article on Utah (Read here) I wanted to add Zion National Park to this particular list because I don’t know if many people realize how close it is to Vegas. The very first time we visited Zion, we were spending a weekend in Vegas with my parents and one of the days we just drove up to Utah. This was a long time ago, before the surge of Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram so we were driving not really knowing where we were going. Randomly stumbling upon Zion. With time to drive through the park and make stops at the varying view points. It was enough to make us fall in love and return three more times. That evening we were back in Las Vegas. Another great option if you’re in Vegas and have a day to spare. The views will make it all worth it.
Oatman
Oatman is also located 2 hours from Las Vegas and its on the west end of the state of Arizona. We decided to drive back to Phoenix taking this route. Oatman is part of the historic Route 66, their biggest attraction is wild donkeys! Oatman is one of the many ghost and old mining towns in Arizona. Back in the old mining days they used the donkeys for transport. When the mines closed those mountains became the permanent home of the donkeys and now they roam around during the day in the town because people feed them and at night they return to the mountains. This little town will probably only take an hour if not less of your time but it is worth the pit stop.
Grand Canyon National Park
While in Las Vegas you’ll see signs and tours that will take you to the Grand Canyon. I was torn between including the Grand Canyon on this list or not for several reasons. One, I tried to make this list with a place in each state that is 2 hours or less from Las Vegas. The Grand Canyon is a 4 hour drive from Las Vegas. The other reason is because I am trying to focus on things you can do by yourself with a car without the need of having to pay an extra tour and have an added expense. The majority of the Grand Canyon tours are helicopter tours. We live in Phoenix, Arizona so the Grand Canyon is never on our list of places to visit while in Las Vegas because we can drive there from Phoenix. That being said I realized that maybe this is an experience some of my readers would enjoy so I decided to add it to my list of places to visit while visiting Las Vegas. If a 4 hours to drive, and a helicopter tour is within your timeframe and budget by all means do not skip the Grand Canyon after all it is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world and worth the trip!
In conclusion, Las Vegas, aside from the city itself, offers you a unique opportunity for a few side trips to some amazing places. I am sure you will not regret it!
Article Edited by: Jesse Diaz
Great job on the blog and awesome pictures! 🖤