Valley of Fire, Hoover Dam, Red Rock Canyon from LAS

Been to the Hoover Dam and RRC. Not familiar with the Valley of the Sun. Do you mean the Valley of Fire? I've been there.

IMO, Hoover Dam is far better than the other two. I would make it my priority. After that, RRC is closer to Vegas than the Valley of Fire. If I were going to try to swing two, I would go with HD / RRC.

I don't think the driving distance (especially from Hoover Dam) is anything to worry about if you'd clearly prefer one place over the other. Personally, if you're just going to kind of drive through and make a couple of stops close to the road and see what you can in a casual way w/o breaking a sweat and venturing far from the car, I would go with VOF. I didn't spend a ton of time at either place and it's been a few years, but it's my impression that RRC requires a little more effort (hiking around) to get the full effect.

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but it's my impression that RRC requires a little more effort (hiking around) to get the full effect.

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We did the scenic drive through at RRC last March. It was ok imo, but I was expecting better. Not worth the 30-45 minutes we waited in our cars at the entrance to pay the entrance fee to get in(we went on a Saturday morning...seems like everyone else had the same idea). However...I'm used to going to Sedona on a regular basis so the red rocks there at RRC were just ho hum compared to Sedona. I'm sure I would have had a different opinion if we would have hiked any there. It was cool watching all the rock climbers though. Our friends that live there said VOF was much more scenic in their opinion. Next time we visit them we will check out VOF for ourselves.


OP...Hoover Dam is cool and all, but not a place you would want to spend all day at fyi. It is one of those places you could park, walk around for 30 minutes or so(hour tops), take some pics, and get back in your car and feel content.