Hoover Dam/Red Rock Canyon/Valley of Fire - Need Help!!!

So my friend and I are renting a car from 12PM Thursday Dec 21 to 12PM Friday Dec 22 - we want to drive to the Hoover Dam, Red Rock Canyon, and Valley of Fire all in one afternoon. Please help us on how to do this - how long does it take, what order should I take, how do drive from the strip, etc...

Any advice about what to see, how long to spend at each place, etc would help.

Thank you in advance

Hoover Dam/Red Rock Canyon/Valley of Fire - Need Help!!!

Why stress out, just get the car for 2 days...make it fun, not work.

Go to Hoover am or noon, red rock OR valley of fire afternoon

if you want to spend only 1 afternoon on side trips, limit it to 1 or 2 choices

Hoover Dam/Red Rock Canyon/Valley of Fire - Need Help!!!

Hoover Dam %26amp; Valley of Fire are in the same general direction. Red Rock is on the other side of town. It would be too much to do in one day.

From the strip, go up to Lake Mead Blvd and take it all the way east; you%26#39;re no sooner out of the main urban area and you are in gorgeous red rock country. In just a few minutes, you%26#39;ll be in National Park area, the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. It%26#39;s hard to believe that five minutes behind you is all that ';civilization.';

At a T intersection you can choose either Hoover Dam or Overton, the town closest to Valley of Fire. When you finish at one, double back and go to the other.

The North Shore road has several places to turn off to go to the lake if you wish, and there%26#39;s a restaurant at Echo Bay Resort.

Valley of Fire could be an all-day exploration. It has magnificent rock formations, spectacular colors, historic buildings, hiking trails, petroglyphs, and camping. In the town of Overton is the Lost City Museum, an archaeology %26amp; history museum of areas that were inundated when Hoover Dam was built and created Lake Mead.

Hey! Good time of year to go to Valley of Fire, too. In the summer, it can be VERY hot. If you mapquest to Valley of Fire S.P and drive (I think 15) to where the park is.. you can drive through, stop at the various hikes and choose several to do. Sometimes instead of a hike, there are just cool formations to drive up and see. There is also a visitor center worth seeing. V of F is a really fun stop. Then, I believe you drive straight through to the other side, and you can take a right, following signs to Hoover Dam. Then from there, you could MAPquest Hoover Dam back to Vegas. I have not been to the dam. I planned to go the last time, when we went to Valley of Fire, but were anxious to get to Vegas (since we had not yet been). Have fun

Would suggest you pick up car and go straight to Hoover Dam - few quick pics - no tour then back onto Lake Mead shore road back up to VoF park. Your problem here is daylight - I was there week before last and sun went down about 4.30pm. Its an hour to Hoover Dam which gives you about an hour to get along the coast road to VoF before the sun starts dropping - doable. Check the VoF roads at the entrance as some of them were closed due to flooding when we were there, still worth it as sunset was spectacular. Then its back to Vegas around 6.00pm

Next morning head up to Red Rock Canyon nice and early - its only about 45 minutes off the strip and its only an hours loop to wander round it and then around 45 minutes back into town for your drop off.

But as someone suggested take the car for two days - VoF deserves longer.

You best bet is to get the car earlier and drive to Hoover Dam first. The earlier you get there, the better it will be-traffic really builds up and you don%26#39;t want to waste time sitting in traffic. Then on to Lake Mead and Valley of Fire. You can drive through and just stop off at various points to see the formations or you can take a few short/long hikes. The visitor%26#39;s center will supply you with a brochure that has a map in it. How long you spend there will be up to you. It is possible to get back to Vegas in the afternoon and then head out to Red Rock Canyon. It is not as spectacular as VOF. It has an 13 mile loop you can drive (with pullout points) through or do some hiking. Some hikes are short and well worth doing.

www.redrockcanyonlv.org/Hiking_Trails.htm

If you don%26#39;t have time to do both, I would definitely choose VOF over RRC.

I was actually considering a similiar trip when I go in February. We%26#39;ll have the car the same time as you--noon to noon the next day. We did red rock canyon the last time we went and will do V of F this time. I had been there once before, but I was young then so I don%26#39;t remember much.

On driving to V of F, do you go past Lake Mead itself and that whole area? I%26#39;d like him to see that as well. Spent many summers in that man-made lake. :)

My husband %26amp; I visited the same places last year.

We visited Hoover Dam %26amp; Lake Mead one day and then visited Red Rock Canyon %26amp; VOF the next.

VOF can get very chilly later on in the day.....dress accordingly.

I agree with the poster who commented VOF needed more time....it%26#39;s amazing!

Have fun %26amp; get a good map of Vegas/Nevada.

Jo Anne

It took us HOURS to get back to Vegas from Valley of Fire because there was a bicycle road race there on Sunday, 11/12. No one told us and we could only go less than 30 MPH the entire trip! So ask if there are any delays at the entrance to the park/toll booths.

Curlyq, the North Shore road skirts Lake Mead, but is not actually along the shore all the way. Most of it is inland, where the scenery is spectacular red rock country. There are places where you can drive down short spur roads to the lake.

Callville Bay and Echo Bay have marinas. Echo Bay has a National Park Service exhibit and a hotel and restaurant. Near the VofF turnoff is a road to a vista point overlooking the former town of St. Thomas, which was covered when the Colorado River was dammed. During a drought a year or two ago, some ruins of St. Thomas were exposed by the dropping water level; I don%26#39;t know what it%26#39;s like now. If you manage to get to the Lost City Museum, they have some displays about this town, and there is a cemetery in Overton for the people who were once buried in St. Thomas.