Help planning 10 day trip around Grand Canyon and Las Vegas

Hello,

We (2 adults) need your help in planning a 10 trip to the south west in the second week of May. We are flying in and out of Las Vegas. We have never been to the area or have planned any long road trips. We would like to camp wherever possible and are comfortable doing long drives.

We are still in the beginning stages of the planning, doing research and getting familiar with the nearby attractions. This is what we have planned so far.

Day 1: Reach Las vegas at 10 PM
Day 2: Drive to Grand Canyon and camp the night there
Day 3: Explore Grand Canyon
Day 4: Zion NP
Day 5: Bryce Canyon
day 6:
Day 7:
Day 8:
Day 9: Spend time in Vegas
Day 10: Spend time in Vegas
Day 11: Leave Vegas 11 PM

We are very confused since there are so many things to see/do and also we are not aware of approximately how much time we would need to explore each area.

We would really appreciate any help and suggestions in planning this trip.

Thank you for your time.

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Originally Posted by kbogavelli

We (2 adults) need your help in planning a 10 trip to the south west in the second week of May. We are flying in and out of Las Vegas.

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Welcome to the Great American RoadTrip Forum! Las Vegas is a great city to use as a hub for exploring this region.

There is a lot of information on this board about all of the places you are considering and look at the bottom of this page for similar threads.

Here is an article about a trip to the Grand Canyon and Bryce from Las Vegas.

Mark

At first glance, I might suggest a bit more time at the Grand Canyon. How long you need to explore those national parks really depends on your planned activity levels there. If you're just wanting to drive to the various viewpoints and take a look around, you can do these parks in just a few hours. If you want to do a bit of hiking and further exploration, you will need at least a good, long day in each place.

Oh....and if you're headed back to Vegas to end your trip, you really should see Bryce before Zion because Zion is on the way to Vegas anyway. Zion doesn't allow driving through most of the park so to really see it you will need to plan time to take the bus tour to the inner parts of the park.

A great place to stay outside of Bryce is Ruby's Inn & Campground right outside of the park entrance. If you have time for a couple of days there, you can get horseback riding trips into the park and numerous other fun activities. Beautiful, clean, friendly campground with lots of amenities. And, if you're tent camping, they put the tents in a relatively peaceful place right by the pond. Wonderful!

I was at the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas earlier this month and had a fantastic time. The drive between them was spectacular; we stopped for about three hours at the Hoover Dam, which is certainly worth seeing, and the tour's well worth the long queue (which in any case moved pretty quickly.

Once at the Grand Canyon, we took a helicopter tour with Papillon, who fly from the airport at Tusayan, and despite a couple of slightly grouchy staff on the ground, the flight was well worth it, the views were breathtaking.

I got up very early to watch the sunrise from Yavapai Point, and though I'm not usually an early riser I'm glad I did.

It seemed to me that there's SO much to see and do in that area that you couldn't fail to be overwhealmed; enjoy!

Update July 2025 (RTA): The photos posted by the author are no longer online.

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Originally Posted by dj toast

I was at the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas earlier this month and had a fantastic time. The drive between them was spectacular; we stopped for about three hours at the Hoover Dam,

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What did you think of the new highway crossing? Oh, my goodness! I think it is going to be more amazing than the dam!

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which is certainly worth seeing, and the tour's well worth the long queue (which in any case moved pretty quickly.

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The docents really do a nice job on the tour, we have been several times.

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the flight was well worth it, the views were breathtaking:

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Agreed, nice photos!

Mark

When we went traffic was fairly bad heading south over the dam and VERY bad coming back the following day so it'll make a big difference I think (it amused me watching this mockup of how the road will work, since the vehicle seems to be doing something over 200mph, a bit faster than the "mostly stopped" we managed on the current road!

http://www.hooverdambypass.org/tour.wmv )

Depending how high the sides are I can imagine it'll be pretty hard concentrating on the road, with the view of the dam it'll potentially give! Construction certainly seemed to be coming on well, and it's not like I need an excuse to head back there soon, but there's one right there anyway :)

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Originally Posted by dj toast

Depending how high the sides are I can imagine it'll be pretty hard concentrating on the road, with the view of the dam it'll potentially give!

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Early concepts show a pull-out being built on the bridge to allow people to (safely) do what they are going to do anyway -- pull over and gawk at the dam.

Mark