Last month, Aaron and I had an impromptu opportunity to go on a Las Vegas trip for a few days. We were so excited to get away, just the two of us! We have both been to Vegas a couple of times so we didn’t necessarily want to do the typical Las Vegas Strip activities or spend a ton of money. Sounds almost impossible to enjoy your time and not spend too much of your money in Vegas, but we did it and we had a blast!
We started looking up fun and inexpensive things to do around there. To our surprise, there are a BUNCH of fun hikes and amazing sights right outside of the Vegas Strip. So we planned out the spots we wanted to explore, found an amazing deal from Hertz Rental Cars and set off on our Las Vegas adventures. When we landed in Vegas, we took a taxi to our hotel on the Strip and it ended up being a $42 ride! Whaaaa. So then the next day, when we decided we wanted to rent a car, we took a $12 Uber back to the airport to rent our car. Newbs. Pro Tip: get the rental car there at the airport or at least take an Uber, not taxi.
Red Rock Canyon
Our first little stop, was Red Rock Canyon! We didn’t have a chance to hike these mountains, but it was so beautiful to look at. Right after we picked up our rental car, we took a drive up here before dinner to enjoy the view. Red Rock Canyon is only 30 min away from the Las Vegas Strip and they have so many great trails for all experience levels and desired activities. Whether it’s hiking, wildlife, kid friendly, dog friendly, horseback riding, trail running, there are so many possibilities!
Valley Of Fire State Park
We loved loved loved our time at the Valley Of Fire! We had no idea that one hour away from the Strip was this awesome State Park filled with beautiful hikes and amazing rocks.
So, something that many people end up spending too much money on in Vegas is food. Whether it’s the buffets or restaurants or the drinks, you will spend an extreme amount of money if you eat and drink only on the Strip. So what we did is we tried to eat only once on the Strip a day (if we had to). On the way to Valley Of Fire State Park, we stopped at a grocery store and picked up some snacks to hold us over and keep us fueled while we hiked all day, then we had dinner at a pub we found on the way back to our hotel on the Strip.
We drove around for a while and stopped to take pictures here and there. Then we decided to hike the Fire Wave Trail because the name sounded epic. I wish we could have done all the trails though! It was all so beautiful. I love marveling at this world we live in and seeing new wonders that my eyes have never seen before.
Mount Charleston
A hike on Mount Charleston was our last adventure and it definitely ended our trip right. Mount Charleston is only 45 minutes away from the Strip and has plenty of hikes at different experience levels and a great variety of terrain. We chose to hike Mary Jane Falls so we could climb up to see the waterfall at the top. It was a short 2 mile hike with a low grade rocky trail. We enjoyed it so much! The waterfall was frozen but we heard that if you hike it in September, it’s perfect!
In between these adventures, we walked the Strip a few times and loved people watching and well…people watching. Because Vegas. Of all the times we have each been to Las Vegas, we didn’t know these natural wonders were just within an hour’s drive! 
Whenever locals would ask us what we did on our trip and we told them, they would say that was the real way to appreciate Vegas but that so many people don’t even make it outside the Strip. Needless to say, it was an amazing trip and I’m so thankful for this wonderful man that I get to explore with!
Leave a Reply