Las Vegas Run

Final Day On the Road – Well, it’s time to head on back to the big city, Las Vegas, and catch a flight home.  But there are still some fun things to do along the way.  And even if you don’t like to gamble, Las Vegas is still more fun than a barrel of monkeys.  Sure, there are shows and thrills, but there are also some great outdoor attractions, even if you only have a few hours to play.  So, let’s hit it hard!

How to Get There

This will be a travel day as you make your way back to Las Vegas.  It is 170 miles from Cedar City to Las Vegas, entirely on the interstate, so it will take you about 3 hours. (Speed limit is 80!)

Drive I-15 toward Las Vegas and stop in Cedar City (Shakespeare Festival) and St. George, UT. (55 miles)  Check out the Mormon Temple. The large white church with the Angel Moroni on the top that you can see from the highway is the oldest temple still actively used by the LDS Church.  

St. George Temple

 

Drive to Las Vegas from St. George. (120 Miles)

Insider Tips!

  • I would try and fly out on Saturday, so you have some time to see Las Vegas, a truly magical city.  I am not a gambler, but Vegas has many more things to do other than gamble.  If you plan to fly home on this day, try and catch a flight in the early evening.
  • Vegas offers a wide range of great places to stay and dine, so you should shop around for a good deal which pop up every day on travel websites like Kayak, Travelocity, Trivago, and Expedia.

Save Money!

Most of the hotels along the Strip offer amazing and inexpensive buffets.  Circus! Circus! has a very good one that is very reasonably priced with an incredible selection of food.

 

Best Lodging

Wynn (Wynn is the best place to stay in Vegas, though pretty

pricey.  Their pool is amazing!)

Other really nice places to stay include: Caesars Palace, The Venetian, Bellagio, and Encore.

 

Mid range priced hotels that are still very nice include: Tropicana (great pool!), Monte Carlo, Treasure Island, Luxor, MGM, and Paris!

Best Places To Eat

Breakfast– Pastry Pub (by  the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City)

Lunch– The Lunch Box (East Tabernacle Street in St. George)

Dinner– Sushi Samba (The Venetian in Las Vegas)

Best Hikes

THE STRIP (one of the best hikes on Earth!)

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area There are a myriad of public parks a stone’s throw from downtown Las Vegas, and you can find all sorts of books on Amazon that can point you in whatever direction you might find interesting. Let’s start with the most obvious: Red Rock Canyon, Nevada’s first National Conservation Area.

“The park is located 17 miles west of Vegas and is administered by the Bureau of Land Management who charge $7 per car to enter the park. or use your handy Annual Pass which also works at National Conservation Areas. Over a million people a year visit the Red Rock Canyon and the new visitor center is kick-ass, with a gift shop filled with a huge assortment of neat things to buy, from jewelry to natural history gear. There is a 13-mile, one way scenic drive that accesses over 30 miles of hiking trails. You can rock climb, do some mountain biking or road biking, hop on a horse, bounce around in an OHV, or just enjoy the quiet solitude of the many picnic areas.

The park showcases the plants and animals of the Mojave Desert, also known as the high desert, even though it also encompasses Death Valley, the lowest spot in North America. It is a land of extremes, from sky-punching mountains, like La Madre Mountain at 8,154 feet, to full-on desert cactus country with spectral Joshua Trees dotting the landscape like thorny creatures from beyond. Basically, you drive around the loop road, stop at the numerous trailhead parking lots, and then start hiking. The trails come in all shapes and sizes, from steep to flat, and from short to long, and along the way, you will come across Indian rock art and agave roasting pits. I usually like to start with the Calico trails, about three miles of walking in a dry wash where rock climbers cling to the canyon walls above the trail. Then it’s over to the Willow Springs area where there is a network of stoner trails that can take you to Keystone Thrust, La Madre Spring, Lost Creek, and Ice Box Canyon. From the Ice Box Canyon Trail, you can access the park’s longer trails into Pine Canyon and Oak Creek Canyon. You can easily spend several days hiking in Red Rocks.”

Red Rocks National Recreation Area

RRCCA Brochure

Best Things To Do

Before you leave Cedar City, check out the Shakespeare Festival

grounds on the Southern Utah State College campus. There is a

very accurate replica of the historic Globe Theatre in London. The

plays run from June 25th – October 31st.

Utah Shakespeare Festival

 

Catch A Show

Vegas has shows galore, but for my money, Cirque de Soleil is the best game in town. But which show? If you have a taste for the erotic, then it’s Zumanity at New York-New York. If you want to take a trip down musical memory lane, then check out The Beatles LOVE at The Mirage. Mystere, at Treasure Island, features high-energy acrobatics and a light show extraordinaire. Acrobatic magic rules at Aria with the Zarkana circus show. O, at the Bellagio, is undoubtedly the best show in town by far, with in an eye-popping theater complete with a 17-foot-deep pool. But the tickets are pricey and both shows sell out every night. I think the best bang for the buck is KA, a colossal production with weird spinning contraptions, performers swinging and fighting across the face of snow-capped mountains, and an intriguing story line. You can usually snag a good seat for $60 on the day of the show and its home base, the MGM Grand, is filled with other attractions like a trippy rain forest.

Cirque de Soleil tours the world and they have may have even come to your town. But Vegas is the home base for these productions, and the monstrous hydraulic stages and amazing building infrastructure, like the honeycomb caves that line the side of the theater at MGM for KA, don’t travel along with them when they appear in Washington or even New York. So, while you may think that you have seen a Cirque de Soleil show, you really haven’t seen the real deal until you catch a show in Las Vegas. It will blow you away.

Save Money!

Discount Coupons – Wherever you go in Vegas – at your hotel, in the casinos, along the major streets – you will see magazines, booklets, and brochures offering discount coupons.  Pick them up.  Look them over.  Much of what is being discounted is for stuff you would never do, but some of the offers are terrific.  Half price to the Laugh Factory at the Tropicana. Two-for-ones at the Circus Circus buffet. Some truly hot deals are out there if you look.  And the hawkers on the street are also offering some very sweet discounts. Many people ignore the aggressive street dealers. They are everywhere. They are relentless. And they come across like panhandlers.  So, your first reaction is often to either ignore them or say, “No thank you” while avoiding eye contact.  That’s fine when they are selling some service, like the prostitutes at the Chicken Ranch, but many of them are just trying to give you coupon books filled with exceptional discounts.  Take those.  It’s like free money.

And if you are looking specifically for show tickets, then check out the TIX Booths scattered around the Strip where they offer half-price tickets on the day of the show. The most convenient location is by the giant coke bottle across from New York-New York.

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