Every year thousands of visitors get off planes from all over the world to visit the entertainment capital, Las Vegas. It is a city built in the desert, and offering completely controlled environments that exist in spite of the desert heat. Casinos are air conditioned and climate controlled, and visitors will be hard pressed to even know if it is day or night time, due to the fact that you can literally never step outside of your hotel to get anything you want. Las Vegas is a vacation unlike any other, a completely man made environment dedicated to your enjoyment. One of the most interesting aspects of the city however is it’s location in the desert, in the middle of the American southwest. Las Vegas was created as a stopover for people traveling from the east coast to the west coast, and was positioned smack in the middle of an extremely long and desolate stretch of space in between major cities. Because a large number of national parks have been designated in the Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California areas, it is also positioned perfectly as a starting point for trips to national parks. Most people are going to have to fly into a starting city in order to visit any of the national parks of this portion of the US, and from there arrange for transportation to the park itself. The areas around parks are free from development, which means there is going to be little as far as services in between starting cities and the parks themselves. Tourists often choose Las Vegas because not only is it positioned relatively close to these parks, but also because it’s status as a tourist attraction on it’s own makes flights and hotels more affordable and plentiful. It is the perfect city to start your journey from, even if it is only for a day or so out of your vacation.
There are numerous national parks near Las Vegas, accessible within about a half day drive. If you have more than one day, it is even a better idea to visit several parks over a multiple day trip because they are closer to each other than they are to the city itself. It is a far better use of time to drive to the nearest park then to another from there than it is to drive to the park and then back to the city each time. Parks that are closest to Las Vegas are Zion Canyon which is only 2.5 hours drive, Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon which are only around 4 hours drive if you go directly and 2 hours drive from Zion if you choose to visit several. Monument Valley is also on the list, although it is a protected space and not a national park (as is Antelope Canyon.) For those who want to get away from the man made aspects of Las Vegas for a short amount of time and see some of the greatest natural beauty in the world, just contact Bindlestiff Tours to arrange your national parks tour from Las Vegas.