Road trip advice for Las Vegas, Death Valley & Grand Canyon in January
 

Hi, my husband and I (both aged 30) are planning on visiting Las Vegas and the surrounding area for one week in mid January. We would fly into Las Vegas and plan to spend 2 days / nights there. We then would have 5 days which we would like to explore some of the surrounding area and were thinking of the Grand Canyon and Death Valley. Thinking Day 1: Drive Vegas to Canyon. Day 2: Explore Canyon Area. Day 3: Driving day from Canyon to Death Valley (7hrs): Day 4: Death Valley. Day 5: Drive DV to Las Vegas (2.5hrs). Would doing both of these be realistic in 5 days?

We appreciate there could be some snow / cold weather around the Grand Canyon but cannot really change the dates, and had disregarded going to Monument Valley etc around that time due to the weather

Weather permitting, you could do your route in that time frame.

Winter is the season to visit Death Valley so you might want to secure lodging now. If weather is bad at Grand Canyon you might be able to extend your time at Death Valley or maybe go to Zion National Park for the day. Zion is only 3 hours from Las Vegas.

Other things to do near Las Vegas if you can't get to the Grand Canyon are Valley of Fire State Park and Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

Utahtea

Coming from the Nevada side you should be OK in January. There can be nasty flash floods that close roads in the winter, but it usually seems to be from the CA side highways.
It's not the most direct route from the Grand Canyon, but heading to DV from the Canyon consider US 93 from Kingman across the new Colorado River bridge and views of Hoover Dam, maybe a tour of the dam if you have time. Then from LV go via Parhump (SR 160 from LV) into Death Valley. You could exit for return trip via Beatty and visit Scott's Castle.

Sounds like a great plan. Do stay flexible, if the weather would make for a nicer trip by going to DV first, then GC, do that. If you feel more confident with lodging planned ahead, then make reservations that you can cancel if you hit a snag. I love the Beatty route into DV that boom-boom mentioned too.

One February, flew into Phoenix and planned to visit Sedona, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas and then fly out of Phoenix. There was a snowstorm that prevented us from getting to the GC but we were able to extend our stay at the Enchantment Resort in Sedona. Jan./Feb. is offseason for Sedona so we were able to get a great discount at the Enchantment Resort, which is a fabulous place in a spectacular setting--right in Boynton Canyon. Just another option for you.

Hi, thankyou very much for your information, that is really helpful. I think we might look at heading to Death Valley first and secure some accommodation there (good idea on cancellable) and then we can get across to the Grand Canyon. THis is part of a 6 week trip across the Southern USA for us, so really good to get some helpful advice. Thanks