Wild West Guided Tour: LA to Las Vegas via the Grand Canyon

A guided week through the Southwest’s greatest hits. Eight days from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, seven nights and around 1,425 miles, with a tour leader, a welcome dinner at Palm Springs and a farewell dinner in Las Vegas.

It builds quickly, and the scenery escalates almost daily. The San Bernardino National Forest leads to Palm Springs, then Joshua Tree National Park and a stretch of Route 66 at Amboy to Laughlin. The old road takes over for the ride to the Grand Canyon through Oatman, Kingman and Seligman, which is the best-surviving section of the Mother Road anywhere.

The middle is the spectacular part. A helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon is included on the morning the route leaves for Monument Valley, then the longest day of the trip at 340 miles crosses Mexican Hat, the Valley of the Gods, Lake Powell and Capitol Reef to reach Bryce Canyon and its amphitheatre of orange spires. Zion National Park and its canyon road come last, before the drop into Las Vegas.

EAGLERIDER provides the motorcycle, the tour leader, the helicopter flight, all seven nights and the group dinners. Fuel, most meals and insurance are arranged separately. Riding days run from 170 to 340 miles across some of the emptiest country in the United States. For riders who want four national parks, Monument Valley and a helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon inside a single week, with somebody else handling all of the navigation, this is comfortably the most concentrated guided trip on the list.