Category: Travel News

For many years, Bindlestiff Tours has been providing adventure tours of national parks, protected spaces and natural areas.  We have always viewed Las Vegas a a perfect starting point to get out into the natural areas around it.  After all, Las Vegas itself was created as a stop-over for people traveling across the desert.  It was positioned perfectly to allow people who were traveling to stock back up on supplies, or to simply take a break from the stresses of traveling.  The city became known as a destination that would allow you to unwind as you moved from one place to another, and it's position in the middle of the desert made it the perfect area to serve as a convenient stopping point.  This also made it a convenient starting point for trips to the wonderful and beautiful areas that are out in the desert, basically allowing it to be the perfect starting city for those who want to experience the natural beauties of the American southwest.  We are positioned only a few hours drive from Zion, Bryce, The Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and numerous other natural spaces, and because of our world class hotels and airport we see Las Vegas as the perfect place to start your trips.  But what about Las Vegas itself? Thats right, Bindlestiff Tours is now offering our unique brand of tours within the city of Las Vegas itself.  We live in a tourist town, and so many of our visitors who have been impressed by our national park tours have asked for us to give them a little help finding the awesome aspects of Las Vegas as well, instead of the obvious tourist traps that everyone else sees.  For this reason, we have begun adding a few new additions to the tours you can

While Bindlestiff Tours has traditionally provided "adventure" style tours leaving from Las Vegas to the national parks that are located within a half-day drive of the city, recently we have branched out to offer several unique tour packages that are different than anything we have done before.  We realized that the destination itself was important, but our style of tour also is what people are looking for.  We are different from other tour companies that provide scripted sightseeing tours that literally drive past beautiful areas and allow you to take pictures through the glass windows of a bus.  If you are lucky on those types of tours, you might get out for a few minutes to stand in front of a landscape and take a picture, but they are designed to allow you to look at the landscape and area but not to experience it.  This is what makes us so much unlike the other companies, our philosophy is to get out of the vans and get into the areas, exploring and learning about them, living the way the people lived there hundreds of years ago and experiencing the great outdoors as only those who love to explore do.  Our tours involve hiking and climbing, canoeing and walking.  We do not want to just look at the areas we visit, we want to live them. The Canadian Rocky Mountains are completely unique, and represent one of the greatest areas of unspoiled nature on the planet.  There are a wide selection of protected spaces and Canadian national parks in the vicinity, so we have constructed a seven day tour that takes us to Kamloops, Yoho National Park, Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Ice Fields Parkway, Jasper National Park, Mount Robson, Clearwater, Whistler and Vancouver.  During this tour, our guides will act

The Canadian Rockies are one of the most magnificent areas on the planet, virtually unspoiled and picturesque backdrops to flowers, plants and animals as they go about their daily life.  At any point in this area, travelers may bear witness to bears, elk, deer, moose, cougars and a myriad of other wildlife that there is little to no chance to see live in 99% of the world.  The area features glaciers that tower as high as mountains, and crystal clear lakes that have to be seen to be believed.  Mountains intersect with perfectly blue skies, and forests seem to go on forever.  The Canadian Rocky Mountains are truly a paradise for those who want to experience the world as it would be without the interference of man and development.  It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many, that will make you rethink your purpose in life.  It can truly make you reconsider everything you have learned about the world up to this point. Our tours of the Canadian Rockies take us to Kamloops, Yoho National Park, Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Ice Fields Parkway, Jasper National Park, Mount Robson, Clearwater, Whistler and Vancouver.  They are "adventure tours," which essentially means that when we visit these areas we stop and get out of the vans in order to hike and explore for periods of time.  We camp in tents and spend time canoeing, wandering, hiking, taking pictures and exploring.  While our tours are meant to be able to be experienced by many different levels of fitness, and are able to be enjoyed by people who may not be able to perform certain activities, we must consider the fitness levels of our patrons when embarking on a tour that involves physical activity.  For this reason, we have to say that for certain seniors

Because we provide tours to national parks in the vicinity of the southwestern United States, and leave from Las Vegas as our starting point on all of these tours, many people will often wonder what time of year is best to book your tours.  Las Vegas gets quite hot in the summer months, and during the height of the summer will be nearly impossible to spend any significant amount of time outside.  Most of Las Vegas tourism between June and September will involve staying inside and potentially spending a few hours at a pool, but the thought of hiking at Red Rock or exploring some of the remote areas outside of the city can become downright dangerous.  You need to prepare for any time that you are going to be spending more than a few hours outside, making sure that you have adequate amounts of water and sunblock so as not to have your trip become unpleasant.  When people plan on visiting national parks in the area and using Las Vegas as the starting point, many times they will think that the weather is going to be the same when they get there.  This is far from the case, and most times there will be variations of up to 30 degrees between the city and the parks you visit. The most extreme examples of this are usually found in Zion and Bryce, which are two of the most popular destinations from Las Vegas because they are located within a few hours drive of the city.  On a typical Las Vegas 100 degree summer day, these areas are going to have highs in the mid-eighties.  The nighttime is going to cool down significantly probably landing at lows around 55 or 60, while at the same time Las Vegas would be seeing

If you have ever planned a trip to Las Vegas, you probably realize that coming to the city during the summertime is quite different than coming during the winter.  Basically, the summertime will have a few months where it becomes difficult to stay outside for long periods t a time, due to the fact that it is just too hot.  If you are coming to the city between mid-June and September, you can assume that you will be spending the majority of your time inside in the air conditioning, or maybe a few hours at a pool in order to cool off.  During these months, it would be quite difficult to plan hiking trips at Red Rock Canyon, and even more difficult to hike at places like Death Valley.  During the hottest months, most adventure travel companies like ours convert the Death Valley trips into "sightseeing" excursions due to the fact that it is just too hot to spend time outdoors, and instead we spend the majority of time in the air conditioned van.  These extreme temperatures are not necessarily the case at all areas in the southwest, however, and you will probably find a different scenario at the par that you want to visit. The most popular national park in the general vicinity of Las Vegas is Zion, and due to the fact that it is only 2.5 hours drive away from the city we will offer private day trips to the area, or also visit it as part of larger trips that visit several parks.  Because of the close proximity to Las Vegas, many people will mistakenly think that the weather in Zion is the same as Las Vegas, which is completely untrue.  Instead, we will generally find the temperatures in Zion to be about 15 to 20

If you are planning a trip to Las Vegas that is going to include a trip to several national parks while you are here, you may be wondering about the weather in those places during the day as well as overnight.  If you are going to be camping outside overnight in the parks, will you need to dress for colder temperatures, or will it be staying warm? If you are going to be hiking in the parks during the days, are you going to be overheated if you are wearing certain clothes? Will you get sunburned if you do not wear long sleeves? Will you need to wear a hat? All of these are legitimate questions and concerns that many visitors have. It is important to understand that the temperatures that you will be experiencing in Las Vegas on the morning that you are leaving for your trip are probably not going to be the temperatures in the parks, and the overnight temperatures are probably going to be significantly colder.  On a typical summer day in Las Vegas, you would probably not want to be outside hiking due to the excessive heat between June and September.  Temperatures during these times can easily go over 110 degrees, and at night might only go down to 100 degrees.  On these days, most people in Las Vegas are staying inside in the air conditioning, but during this exact same time people are hiking in Zion Canyon in perfect weather.  On a 110 degree day in Las Vegas, the temperature in Zion will usually be around 8 degrees, and in Bryce it will be even cooler at about 82 degrees.  On that exact same day the Grand Canyon might be more like Las Vegas, with temperatures about 105 degrees or so.  These variations in

When people who are not familiar with the weather in the southwestern United States plan trips to national parks, one of the biggest questions that they will have is "what is the weather going to be like?" Naturally it is not possible to predict exactly the temperatures on the day you will be traveling, but many times if they are leaving from Las Vegas for the trip they will potentially rethink their choices if they see how hot it is in the city during the summertime.  What is important to understand about the southwestern US is that the temperatures can have wide variations on the same days due to the topography of the areas that you are comparing.  The temperatures that you are experiencing in Las Vegas on the day of the trip may not be the same temperatures you can expect when you get to the destination, depending on the time of year.  It is always best to look at weather predictions a few days in advance for the area that you wil be traveling to in order to get a better idea of the weather you will be dealing with. Zion is quite different than Las Vegas, and as a result will have very different temperatures.  Generally, you will see somewhere between a 10 to 20 degree temperature difference between the two, with the summer temperatures in Las Vegas going higher while the temperatures in Zion remain more consistent.  When you look at the temperatures on Las Vegas on a typical summer day that is 104 degrees, you will probably be seeing temperatures in Zion on that same day of about 85 degrees.  At night on that same day you will probably be seeing the temperature drop to about 65 or 70 degrees.  This is due to the

This week the heat really started in Las Vegas for the summer.  While we have been seeing temperatures rise year over year in the city, with each summer being hotter than the last, it is nearly impossible to predict with any accuracy exactly when the hot weather will start.  We all know it is coming, but you can literally get one week where it is pleasant and warm and the next week where it is unbearably hot.  For this summer, that hot period seems to have officially started this week, with our first excessive heat warnings happening, and temperatures expected to be nearly 110 degrees for multiple days in a row.  This is the time when we need to start paying attention to the heat if we are outside, bringing water with us when we go out, and making sure to never leave children or pets in cars, even if they are running.  Many tourists who are traveling to Las Vegas will also have plans to take a trip outside the city to a national park like Zion, and when they see weather predictions for the city that show dangerous levels, they may begin to be worried about their decisions to be outside for the day.  Let us clear up a few misconceptions about the areas, and the temperatures that you are likely to find. While it is quite difficult to predict how hot it will be in Zion on the day of your trip, we can say with a certain degree of accuracy that it will probably not be as hot as Las Vegas on that day.  The heat in the southwestern United States is based on many factors like elevation and mountain surroundings, and one of the reasons that Las Vegas gets so hot is due to it