We have an opportunity to visit Las Vegas, 3 nights. We have no interest at all in casinos and not much interest in the shows but would have to use it as a base since my lodging has been paid for as a gift. Zion national park looks like a feasible day trip. Any other suggestions?

Hoover Dam!

http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/service/index.html

Thanks mtt. That was QUICK. BTW, if you haven't seen my recent posting on the Europe forum of Caelidh videos from my UK trip, take a look. It is something you would like. www.flickr.com/photos/basingstoke2/sets

See if you can spot the one they called "The Jew Dance"

When are you going. Death Valley is absolutely mind blowing, but would be too hot to do any hiking until after October, but if you want to look at it from an air conditioned car, it is a little over 2 hrs from Vegas.

Valley of Fire State Park is about an hour away and is worth a visit. Red Rock Canyon is about a half an hour away.

If you could split up your 3 nights, I would do 1 or 2 there, with trips locally then do a loop, say to Zion (3 hours or so) spend a night or 2 in that area, then over to Bryce for a night or two, then down to Grand Canyon for a night or two and back to Vegas for a night before you fly out.

Even if you can't split the nights, consider doing a little longer trip to see some of the wonders in the area. If you could go in October and spend longer, consider Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches, Canyonlands, Monument Valley and Grand Canyon.

If you only have the three days, consider one of the plane or helicopter trips to Grand Canyon (go to the National Park not the Sky Walk) for one of the days.

Hoover Dam
Red Rock Canyon
Valley of Fire
Atomic Testing Museum
Springs Preserve
Clark County Heritage Museum

Valley of Fire, if you like red rocks. Lake Mead.

Another vote for Hoover Dam - really liked the tour there.

If you do one of those helicopter tours of The Grand Canyon, make sure you have filled out your life insurance policies. I think one of the tours' mottoes is "We get you back safely 78% of the time."

But...what a glorious way to go! And, you get your name in the news too.

I second Valley of Fire State Park, it's really fascinating. When we were in LV a few weeks ago, I took this raft trip on the Colorado River through Black Canyon, which starts from the bottom of Hoover Dam:

http://foreverlodging.com/lodging.cfm?PropertyKey=130

It was a really fun trip, and the scenery was beautiful and interesting; we were out on the river for about three hours. Our river guide was very knowledgeable and informative. We even saw bighorn sheep on the sides of some cliffs along the river. I know that some of the people who were on the raft combined this with a tour of Hoover Dam that was available afterwards, but since I'd taken the tour before, I didn't do that. It's worth taking the dam tour if you've never been there, though.

I saw a couple of groups of kayakers on the river - if that would interest you, you can book guided kayak tours, or rent kayaks. Do an internet search, there are several companies that offer this.

I agree with Grand Canyon but skip the helicopter ride, it is a waste of money as the view and majesty of the canyon is lost because of the violent shaking of the helicopter. There is lots of stuff to see in vegas as well, without gambling. Have fun, ziggypop