LV homebase-DAY TRIPS
 

Travelling to LV on 8/19/09 for 4 days with 13-yr old daughter. Love the SW and would enjoy filling a few days with day trips returning to LV each nite. All adventures are acceptable. Also, heard Red Rock Resort is a good choice for an off-strip location. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

dew1990: One standard LV daytrip will always be a drive out to Lake Mead and Hoover Dam. It's about 30-45 mins, you can drive across the dam, take a pretty good guided tour down into it also starting at the Visitor center.

Another daytrip that my wife/kids and I have done is to drive north on I-15 to Zion National Park and hike the Narrows and then perhaps one other hike time permitting. This will be one of the more memorable things on your trip I think. http://www.utah.com/nationalparks/zion/zion_narrows.htm The downside is that it's about a 2 hr + drive one way to get there, but if you leave early enough, spend the day there, you won't regret it. If you search 'Zion' or "Narrows" in the forums, you'll find multiple threads with other opinions. Just make sure you check weather before for rain as the Narrows is a slot canyon and if it rains, the canyon could flood and close the trail. Have fun!

I would normally recommend Death Valley as a great daytrip destination from LV, but I'm not sure August is the best time to visit unless experiencing extreme heat is what you're seeking. When we visited in March this year, it was already hitting the high 90s in the lowest part of the valley. Most of your close-by daytrips will have the same issue. You can certainly carefully prepare for such conditions and enjoy the locations, but do not take summer in the southwest casually!

The Valley of Fire is about 40 mins away and is fantastic for either riding through looking at all the wonderful rock formations, you can drive through to Lake Mead also. It will be very hot however in August so you should buy plenty of water from the Indian trading post at the entrance to the park.

Red Rock is not just off-strip, it is off OFF strip. If you plan to visit/browse the strip....see the lions, the dolphins, the volcano etc....you might want something a little closer. Orleans might be a good choice with a bowling alley and movie theatres.
Zion National Park in southern Utah is a great place to visit, but it is a 2.5 hour drive. Well worth the time in my opinion, you might even want to overnight nearby.