favorite vegas side trips?

What driveable vegas side trips or road trips do you add on....

any direction or activity is fine...we like camping, beach or mountains. City or desert. love history or museums.

We have went to most of the regular stuff, but if you have any favorites to recommend when doing any of the regular places (zion, grand canyon, mesa verde, socal....beaches, cities, etc...)...what are worth it and what is overrated...I know we still have not done the Scotty's castle, the Hearst castle, the planetarium or the Getty's museum...they seem to escape us during our travels...

We do lots of cross country road trips too, so anything back to east coast, south to Texas (go to a cousin's in dallas), we go up to Montana to a friends or even up to the Bay area....so any recommends are great...

but would like to hear some new side trip ideas or lesser known places...


any favorite travel websites would be appreciated as well. I need to go somewhere, lol.

I like the drive to Mt Charleston, which is about 1 hour NNW of Vegas. It's a nice drive with the last 20 minutes up the steep walled granite canyon. Have lunch at the lodge, then take a hike and enjoy the cool temperatures (25 degrees lower than the strip), then come back to the lodge for a glass of wine. Sit on the deck for a while and watch the hundreds of hummingbirds................a dozen at any given time. Everything is green up there with mostly pine trees.

The lodge is nothing special, but the drive and hike is.

We really enjoy the Black Canyon River Raft tour. Nice and relaxing float down the river. Not white water at all. They stop about halfway and pull onto beach for a lunch. Ham sandwich and chips with an apple. We usually take a twelve pack of beer for the trip.

If I had several days on my hands, this is the side trip from Vegas that I'd take: Drive to Zion National Park, then Bryce Canyon, then drive to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, then Monument Valley, then the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and then back to Vegas....lots of things to see and do at each of these destinations. It doesn't get much better than sitting on the patio at the North Rim lodge and watching the sunset. If you want to take a cross country road trip to off the beaten track, try taking the passenger ferry from Houghton, Michigan to Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior. You can camp or stay at the lodge located on the north end of the island. The island is 50 miles long and about 6 miles across...total wilderness...no roads, just hiking trails, several inland lakes and plenty of wildlife (moose and small mammals). I don't think the island sees more than 15,000 visitors a year. If you want something a little more civilized, try a trip to Mackinaw Island located between the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan. While you are in the U.P., try a pastie, they are delicious. Another camping/canoeing adventure to consider is the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota....pristine wilderness and no crowds.

That's a hard one for me. Mostly, Vegas trips are side trips for me, dovetailed into visits to LA or SF to visit family. For a day, or two trip, when in Vegas, visiting the Grand Canyon is a must. A trip to Death Valley is cool, although not much to write home about, but good for bragging rights. Head out to Laughlin for a day or two for a change of pace. Red Rocks Canyon can be an excellent family day outing. Of course, my idea of a road trip is to go to Costa Rica, rent a car, and see the wonders of the jungleland.

When I go solo, I usually fly into Vegas, watch the Hawks game at Scooters and then drive to Laughlin for a couple of days and then back to Vegas for a couple of days.

Before my full retirement I would make regular side trips to Ely, NV. Quaint little town with one little casino and an old west feel. I wouldn't have gone if it were not work related.

Valley of fire state park has some great day hike trails. Really interesting terrain, petrified trees, petroglyphs....

Thanks for the tips, I will look into some of those...

Chaf, we have went to Costa Rica, rented a car and drove around the whole place, lol....

A friend is from north Michigan, but I have never went up that far with her..,actually the same one we visit in Montana.

I have heard of Ely, but never made it there. Might look into that.

We have a dedicated remark against Mt Charleston and do not go up there. My husband got a traffic ticket from the same cop twice in a row when we first got here about ten years ago.....funny, I was recently reading reviews about their ski lodge and in the comments, people were complaining about getting tickets every time they were up there....fyi, all parks will have ticketing highway patrol lurking...well, not a way to get my business. lol, paying a ticket my husband got just now from traveling a back highway and they had a desert highway down to 55 for no reason and he didn't see the sign. We have rarely went to a park area and not gotten a ticket....never had any problem at zion or grand canyon though. Just the small ones.

Been to the north rim as well. It is nice and relaxing. Been to Laughlin lots.

A friend took us to the Green River? white water rafting once a while back, I think.

Thanks for the replies, we do get out quite a bit, just wanted to find places, I may not have heard of...there are always cool secret places. I went through Page, Az and didn't know to stop at the Antelope Canyons and now have to go back...but I love the Mesa Verde, but they are under construction.

The best side trip I ever took was to Roos N More in Moapa Town.
https://www.roosnmore.org/

It was about an hour drive. I saw animals I never knew existed.
I hope they manage to stay open to the public.
It is an awesome place.

We don't drive it, but we include a ski trip to Park City