There is a reason that there are multiple companies operate tours that use Las Vegas as the starting point and travel to national parks in the southwestern United States. The most obvious is the physical proximity to these areas that allows for a ground transport to get you to your park of choice in less than a half day. This is actually the very same reason that Las Vegas grew in popularity. It was once a simple town that was situated at about the mid-point across the desert between developed areas, and provided rest and food for those who were traveling from the east coast to California. The Mojave Desert had to be crossed in order to get there, and the unforgiving harshness of the landscape combined with travel time made it necessary to establish a point at the rough halfway marker where people could rest and take a break from the trip. After a while, it became more of a destination onto itself by providing the things that people could not get elsewhere, like gambling. The actual specifics of travel time and location were the real reason Las Vegas grew out of nothing, and continued to thrive even though it had little surrounding it. This is the very same reason it makes perfect sense to use it as a starting point for travel out into that desert, to the remote national parks that are located in the desert region. The city is big enough to support commercial airline traffic, essentially allowing you to use faster means to cover the distances from your home to the starting point, before driving the rest of the way. Because it has become such a destination on it’s own, you can also get cheaper and more abundant flights and hotels there.
Las Vegas is positioned about 4 hours from most parks, with Zion and Death Valley being exceptions that are located only 2 hours or so from the city. This allows people who are starting from Las Vegas to choose their destination of choice based upon the things they want to see and the amount of time they have to explore. For those with only one day or so, a trip from Las Vegas to Zion might be perfect, which is why Zion has grown to become one of the most visited parks in the United States. For those with more time to spend, you may want to visit the Grand Canyon which will take about four hours to drive to, and is one of the most iconic views on earth. Others still may want to visit more than one park, and use the spacing between them to their advantage in order to reduce driving time. A typical tour will usually consist of Zion Canyon, Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon, sometimes also figuring in Monument Valley and Antelope Canyon. Using Las Vegas as the starting point and then spending time at one park before visiting the next allows you to experience the differences of each park during a limited tour time, ultimately arriving back in Las Vegas where you began.
This article was written using information from https://www.bindlestifftours.com/package/bryce-tours-and-zion-tours-overnight/