One curated list of things worth doing around competition week. Every price and opening hour on this page is graded and, where possible, linked to where it came from.
To first matches, Sat 22 Aug 0900 PT
How this works. Fixed items are already placed. Anyone with this link sees the same live plan. Families pick and lock activities through their private family links; everything saves to the shared plan.
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Expect 105 to 110 F. Sunrise about 0615, sunset about 1920. Outdoor plans work before 1000 or after 1830.
Recommended sequence, driven by opening days. Fri 21: Ice Age Fossils at 0800. Sun 23: Grand Canyon West, full day. Mon 24: Springs Preserve at 0900 for Dino Safari, pool in the afternoon. Tue 25: Hoover Dam plus the Historic Railroad Trail. Tuesday is the only slot where both fossil sites are shut, which is exactly why the dam belongs there.
Eight days
Dinosaur verdict
1. Springs Preserve. Worth it.
Dino Safari is the real answer. Eighteen giant animatronics on a walk-through route, and the same ticket buys the Nevada State Museum, a full ichthyosaur skeleton, Boomtown 1905, the botanical garden and the train. Best hit rate across a wide age range, younger kids through teens.
CatchThu to Mon only. Closed Tue and Wed.
Exhibit0900 to 1600, runs through 5 Oct
Ask about$8.95 military rate at the ticket office
2. Ice Age Fossils. Worth it at $3.
Cheapest thing on the whole list and the only real fossil ground. Young kids can walk the 0.3 mile Megafauna Trail past life-size sculptures, and the Big Dig Trail runs through the actual trenches cut by the 1962 expedition. Under 12 is free. Different flavour from Springs Preserve, so doing both is not redundant.
CatchWed to Sun only. Closed Mon and Tue.
Heat rule0800 arrival. Skip the 1.2 and 1.5 mi trails.
Honest noteMammoths and dire wolves, not dinosaurs
3. Dinosaur Outpost. Not recommended.
$24 a head with no child rate, which adds up fast for a family visiting an indoor play center at Town Square. Real animatronics and young kids have fun, but teens will be bored and Springs Preserve does the same job better for less. Hold it in reserve as a hot-afternoon energy burn.
Height gates36 in min for Annie, carts, play structure
Before goingSign the waiver online. Bring socks. Cashless.
Scheduling trap. Springs Preserve is closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Ice Age Fossils is closed Monday and Tuesday. Neither one can go on Tue 25 Aug. Assign either to a closed day and the Plan tab will flag it in red.
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Honorable mentions
Volcanoes, lava tubes, springs and oddities researched on 17 Aug 2026. Same grading as everywhere else: claims link to their source, drive times are routing estimates. These are ideas, not scheduled activities; ask via the Suggest tab to promote one onto the list.
On geysers, honestly. There is no natural geyser within range of Las Vegas. The nearest, Fly Geyser, is 9 to 10 hours north, man made from an abandoned well, and viewable only on a guided walk on private land. The closest real geothermal spectacle in range is Devils Hole, a flooded cavern held at a constant 93 F whose bottom has never been found, plus the 87 F crystal springs next door at Ash Meadows.
Closed, gone, or out of range in August
Quick roadside oddities
Forecast calendar
Live forecast for the venue area, refreshed every visit and firming up as each day gets closer. Trip days carry their plan tag. UV of 8 to 10 is very high, 11 and up is extreme; in August here, assume extreme by mid morning.
Loading forecast.
The escape hatches
Same days, measured elsewhere. Mount Charleston runs 20 to 30 degrees cooler than the valley, and St George covers the Utah day.
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Grading note. Forecast data is live from a weather model, not a promise. Treat anything past five days out as a sketch. Sunrise and sunset are for the venue area; St George is on Mountain time, one hour ahead.
How to read it. The venue is the diamond marker and the shared anchor. Everything else is placed on surveyed coordinates. Tap any point to see its numbers and drop it onto a day. Filled points are already assigned and carry that day's colour. Drive times are road estimates, not straight-line math, so the far ones look closer than they drive.
Event facts
Where and when
EventUFC BJJ Open, Las Vegas
VenueLas Vegas Convention Center 3150 Paradise Rd
Sat 22 AugNo-Gi day
Sun 23 AugGi day
Doors0800
First matches0900
Registration closedTue 4 Aug, 2359
Schedule and bracketsReleased Fri 14 Aug. Already live.
One class, correct format, two days out. Skip the wrestling block so nobody arrives at the no-gi hour already tired, and skip the gi block because Saturday is no-gi. Verify before booking whether the $20 is per athlete. There is a second Odin's Halls in Centennial Hills with a different schedule. The Paradise location is the right one.
Addresses
CompetitionLas Vegas Convention Center 3150 Paradise Rd, 89109
TrainingOdin's Halls Paradise 3075 E Flamingo Rd Ste 104, 89121
Ice Age Fossils SP8660 N Decatur Blvd North Las Vegas, NV 89085 702-478-9300
Springs Preserve333 S Valley View Blvd Las Vegas, NV 89107 702-822-7700
Dinosaur Outpost6569 S Las Vegas Blvd, Ste 173 Town Square, 89119 702-803-2266
Hoover Dam1 Hoover Dam Access Rd Boulder City, NV 89006
Dinosaur Discovery Site2180 E Riverside Dr St. George, UT 84790
Book in advance
Grand Canyon WestLegacy package required for entry. Skywalk is an add-on, sold only with a package. NPS passes do not work here.
Hoover DamPower Plant Tour books online. Guided Dam Tour is on-site only and sells out.
Red RockNo timed entry needed in August. $20 per vehicle. Gates 0600 to 2000.
Techatticup MineReservations required, tours need 4+ adults. Call 702-291-0026.
Age gates
Hoover Dam Power Plant TourMinimum age 4
Hoover Dam Guided Dam TourMinimum age 8
Grand Canyon SkywalkNo hard age limit, but glass floor over 4,000 ft. Consider Legacy only for the youngest kids.
Night sky
Bad week for the Milky Way. Moon is waxing gibbous 23 to 25 Aug and full on the 27th. It sits in the sky most of the evening and washes out the faint stuff. Death Valley is also over 115 F this month and two hours each way. Skip the dark-sky tours. For a night out, take binoculars up Mount Charleston and look at the moon itself, which will be excellent.
Driving
Keep the rental. Red Rock, Hoover Dam, Mount Charleston, Valley of Fire and both fossil sites all require a car. Rideshare and the monorail only serve the Strip corridor. Park at the venue only with gear to haul, otherwise walk from nearby lodging.
Carry more water than feels reasonable. Two liters per person per outdoor block. Young kids will not say they are overheating until they are already overheating.
A second family's plan. Held here so both families can coordinate Saturday and so nothing gets confused between the two itineraries. Every item is tagged. Green means no issue found. Amber means it works but there is a catch. Red means not recommended.
The two plans compared
Family 18 days, Vegas hub and spoke, low cost, competition first, built around a young competitor
Family 25 days, road trip into Utah and Arizona, higher budget, competition is a half day
SharedSaturday at the LVCC
Both also visitValley of Fire and Hoover Dam, but on different days
Where the two trips actually overlap
Thu 20, 1700Odin's Halls no-gi drop-in. Both youth competitors on the mat together, two days out, correct format. $20 drop in.
Sat 22, 0900LVCC. Youth no-gi runs first, so both kids are in the early block. Share a cooler and split coaching.
Sat 22, 1330Lunch, then Family 2 departs at 1430. That is the last shared moment of the trip.
After SaturdayNothing. Family 2 is in Utah Sunday and Monday and flies out Monday night.
Fri 21 does not workTheir Valley of Fire run is a 55 minute drive and a four hour block. That costs Family 1's rest day the day before their young competitor competes.
Read this before trusting a number. Everything below is graded. Green is pulled from a primary source and quoted. Amber is from a secondary source or sources disagree. Red is an estimate that was never sourced. The whole file was re-checked on 17 Aug and four things were corrected. What changed is listed at the bottom.
Confirmed against a primary source
Loading claims.
Sources disagree, verify before relying on it
Estimates, never sourced
Corrected on 17 Aug
Odin's Halls class scheduleEarlier version had 1600 kids no-gi, 1700 fundamentals, 1800 adults, 1900 open mat. Wrong. Corrected first hand.
Schedule and bracket releaseEarlier version had 10 and 11 Aug. Smoothcomp says 14 Aug.
Hoover Dam priceEarlier version had "$25 to $30 adult". Actual is $25 adult, $15 ages 4 to 16.
Valley of FireEarlier version listed Fire Wave as a highlight. It closes 15 May each year for heat. West entrance is also shut Mon to Thu through 2026 for construction.
Photo credits
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Proposed locations wait here. Enrich runs the geocoder so the coordinates can be confirmed; research stays manual. A field with a source link is graded primary, without one it is an estimate, always. Nothing goes live without Approve.