Loop itinerary · Southwest
The Red Rock Loop
Las Vegas to Phoenix through the canyon country that built the American western.
- Fly in
- Las Vegas (LAS)
- Fly out
- Phoenix (PHX)
- Days
- 9
- Distance
- 1,420 mi
- Best season
- April–May, October
- Budget
- $$
This is the loop most people picture when they picture America: sandstone the colour of a struck match, two-lane roads with nothing on either side, and a horizon that keeps moving away from you.
Nine days is enough to drive it without rushing, and long enough to reach the stops that day-trippers never see. Every leg below is under four hours behind the wheel, which leaves the light — the reason you came — free for the places themselves.
The car we'd book for this route
A mid-size SUV handles the graded dirt approaches without pushing you into a truck rental. Compare rates across agencies at both airports before you commit — one-way loop drop-offs are usually cheaper than they look.
Compare rental ratesValley of Fire
Nevada · Star Trek: Generations, Total Recall
An hour out of Las Vegas the strip malls stop and the rock turns violent orange. Valley of Fire is the warm-up act that outshines half the headliners: Aztec sandstone folded into waves, petroglyphs at eye level, and a scenic road that feels like a set built for a camera crane.
Drive Mouse's Tank Road at first light. By ten the light flattens and the pull-outs fill.
Where to sleep along the way
Small-town rooms on this route sell out months ahead in high season. Book refundable rates early, then trade up if plans shift.
See stays on the routeZion's East Side
Utah
Skip the shuttle scrum in the main canyon on your first afternoon and drive the Mount Carmel Highway instead. The slickrock plateau on the east side is the quieter, stranger half of the park — checkerboard mesas, bighorn on the shoulder, a tunnel cut through the rock in 1930.
Sleep in Springdale, wake before the queue, and do the canyon floor at dawn the next morning.
One guided add-on worth paying for
Permit-only backcountry sections and tribal lands need a licensed guide. It is the difference between seeing the place and standing in it.
Browse guided experiencesMonument Valley
Arizona / Utah · Stagecoach, Forrest Gump, Once Upon a Time in the West
There is a moment on US-163 where the buttes line up in the windscreen and you realise you have seen this exact frame your whole life. John Ford shot here so often that the landscape stopped being scenery and became a genre.
The 17-mile valley drive is rough but passable in a normal SUV. The backcountry beyond it is Navajo Nation land and requires a licensed guide — take one.
Cover before you leave home
Long driving days, remote medical access, and non-refundable park permits are exactly what travel insurance is for. Buy it the same week you book the flights.
Get a quoteAntelope Canyon & Horseshoe Bend
Arizona
Both are famous, both are worth it, and both punish anyone who turns up without a plan. Slot canyon tours sell out weeks ahead; midday slots get the light beams and the crowds, late slots get the colour and the quiet.
Horseshoe Bend is a fifteen-minute walk from the car park and best an hour before sunset, when the river below turns pewter.
Sedona's Red Rocks
Arizona
The last long descent of the loop drops you through Oak Creek Canyon into Sedona, where the rock goes from orange to blood red and the air finally smells of pine instead of dust.
Two nights here is the right ending: one for a sunset on Airport Mesa, one for a dawn hike out to Devil's Bridge before the trailhead fills.
More loops
The Dreamway dispatch
One loop, one strange place, once a month.
Route plans with real logistics, filming locations worth the detour, and the odd landmark nobody has written about yet. No filler, no listicles.