Advice for Las Vegas/Palm Springs/Grand Canyon/Skywalk/Hoover Dam trip
 

May 11: Revised Timeline

Dear Flyertalk Friends,

I will be joining the husband on a trip to Las Vegas... he has a medical conference in June.

We are travelling out early over Memorial Day to take so well earned R&R.

Our current plans and "hard" stays:

We arrive in Las Vegas and pick up the rental car around 11 am on Friday, May 27th. We will then be driving "towards" Palm Springs as we have a one week stay booked there. What detours/things should we see on the way to Palm Springs?

We will be in Palm Springs May 27 - May 31. What day trips do you recommend or things to do in Palm Springs?

We will leave Palm Springs early on May 31 and then have to be in Las Vegas June 6.

I would like to hit the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Hoover Dam since the hubby has never been to any of them. How would you recommend the routing for that to happen? Any other distractions along the way?

I know this is a lot... but appreciate any feedback!

William

If you're a shopper, I suppose you could hit the outlet malls at Primm/Stateline on the way to Palm Springs from Las Vegas. Otherwise there really isn't anything on the 15 to see.

I would try to do the Grand Canyon from Vegas, much easier than from say Palm Springs.

Palm Springs has an aerial tram ride that might be good for part of a day. Make sure you check the casinos local to the Palm Springs area, sometimes they get some pretty well known entertainers.

One or more days (easy day trip) at Joshua Tree NP - an hour from Palm Springs. Really worth it.

Hoover Dam is easy from Las Vegas - short drive. The Grand Canyon, not so much - takes a good 4+ hours on the road. Ditto Bryce Canyon.

What about Zion NP instead of Bryce? You could do a loop - LV to Zion to Grand Canyon to LV with around 12 hours wheels turning, so doable with three days - 1 to Zion, 2 to GC, 3 to LV, with time in each day to actually see things.

I would add Zion NP to the itinerary. From there it's an easy hop to the Grand Canyon. The North Rim is less touristy than the South Rim.

The weather at Mojave (on the way to Palm Springs) and Joshua Tree (close to Palm Springs) should be tolerable at that time of year.

+1 on doing Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion from Las Vegas instead of Palm Springs.

wharvey, I've gotta smile. What part of the "coast" does this trip involve?

:D

OK.... I took literary license.... we will do LA one day... can that count? :)

The hubby just told me that he wants to do the Grand Canyon Skywalk! Gotta work that into this trip.

This is not the easiset intinerary to fit all of those in in the time alloted, particularly since the south rim will be pretty crowded by then.

One alternative would be to drive directly from LAS to Palm Springs, then drive Palm Springs to Grand Canyon, then Grand Canyon to Oatman (via the old US 66 first of Seligman to Kingman, then out of Kingman to Oatman- the first is a glimpse into the past, then second simply a spectacular drive), then to Las Vegas (with a short side trip to Hoover Dam). Study the route and adjust where you'll spend the night (outside of Grand Canyon, Kingman or ??) MAP

A second option is on the first day to drive from Las Vegas to Kingman (stopping at Hoover Dam) to Oatman (using the old 66 for this part) to Palm Springs. Then Palm Springs to Grand Canyon (you could detour slightly east in Arizona and go through Sedona; then stay at Flagstaff and hit Grand Canyon the next day); then Grand Canyon to Skywalk (using the old US 66 from Seligman to the Skywalk turnoff) to Las Vegas.

MAP

Again, use either of these routes as places to begin thinking about how long you want to drive each day and where to stop.

There are quite a few routing threads for this part of the country in this forum. Spend some time going back and looking at potentially helpful thread.

And <mod hat on> I've retitled the thread since as pointed out, you're kind of far from the west coast :)

If you want to do what you are suggesting is near impossible. You probably need to drop Palm Springs. It is summer now thus you can fry an egg on your car.

Skywalk is a difficult trek to do. It is not anywhere near the main Grand cAnyon park area.

You could do a loop before the conference by doing this:

day 1 to grand canyon, pm grand canyon
day 2 grand canyon...evening to PAge
day 3 AM PAge, PM Bryce
day 4 AM Bryce, PM Zion
day 5 Zion till 5pm then drive to Vegas

1 extra day you could do

---UT 12/Capitol Reef from Bryce
--monument valley
---Sedona



day 1 to grand canyon, pm grand canyon
day 2 grand canyon...evening to PAge
day 3 AM PAge, PM Monument valley
day 4 AM Monument VAlley, PM Torrey
day 5 AM Torrey, PM Bryce
day 6 AM Bryce, PM Zion
day 7 Zion till 5pm then drive to Vegas

Unfortunately, the Palm Springs visit is non-negotiable... seeing some dear friends.

I know it is a lot of travel... but wanted to do as much as possible on his list.

Do the Grand Canyon OR Bryce Canyon, but not both. Since you're going from Palm Springs to Las Vegas I would lean heavily towards the Grand Canyon as it will be a shorter drive, [edit] and the Hoover Dam is on the way back to Las Vegas

Can you leave Palm Springs on the 2nd instead of the 3rd? That will give you a little more planning room. Or maybe your friends would be up for a quick road trip to Arizona and Nevada :)

The Hoover Dam- I would plan on that the day you go Grand Canyon to Las Vegas or the day you leave if you have time before your flight. It's only about a 30-40 minute drive from the strip. You could even hit it if there's a free half day on one of the confrence days.

One thing to keep in mind (that some of the others have brushed upon) is that during the time frame mentioned, it will be in triple digits just about anywhere you go. Keep that in mind when you want to do outside activities. I suspect PS and LV (and most points in between) will be hot hot hot. Plan accordingly.

Not quite as difficult if OP starts in Las Vegas. There's a turn off for Grand Canyon West on US 93 between Hoover Dam and Kingman. I've never taken the road, so don't know it's condition, but I've seen numerous tour buses going that way so it shouldn't be too bad.

While I second the advice to visit the North Rim in June, the roads are remote and accommodations are both rustic and limited. If you want to stay at the Grand Canyon Lodge, make reservations two months ago.

I want to thank everyone for their advice so far.

Based on some feedback, we have cut our Palm Springs trip to four evenings.... we fly into Vegas on May 27 and have to be in Palm Springs by 6 pm. We will leave Palm Springs on Tuesday, May 31 and have to be in Las Vegas on Sunday, June 6 or possibly Monday, June 7th.

So, with those new constraints, what say you all to what the best plans would be to maximize and enjoy the area?

I need to also start thinking about hotel rooms along the route.... :)

Additional feedback requested.

We have the following "Free" nights to use.... that I would like to use on this trip. Any hotel suggestions on the route?

1 Free night - Club Carlson

2 Free nights - Hyatt (Category 1 - 4 properties)

1 Free night - IHG

I would drive to Flagstaff Tuesday and park in one hotel til Sunday.

Tuesday: Drive Palm Springs-Flagstaff

Wednesday-Saturday: Day trips to Grand Canyon, Sedona, Jerome, Verde Valley wine country, etc...

Sunday: Drive Flagstaff-Las Vegas. Stop at the Hoover Dam on the way.

You can try a hotel at the Grand Canyon, but that's right after Memorial Day weekend so good luck. There's also nothing else out there.