Clearly sunny Nevada has kicked the North's arse!!

Think we're gonna do a hot n cold holiday actually though. Prob tour Van, then possibly Seattle, Whistler and then Vegas!

No. Not yet.

But the OP could simply miss out the pointless and debilitating trip to Las ****ing Vegas and go to the south side.

Not a fan I take it?

Most definitely not.

Some decades ago I lived in Southern California for 5 years. Every time we had visitors from Europe they wanted to go to Las Vegas.

Jeez, you can get sick of that crap very quickly.

San Fran is awesome!
check weather, but it beats Vegas, etc

If you are using Vegas as a base look at allvegastourcompany.com They have a South Rim air and ground tour. They pick you up and take you to the airport near Boulder City. The flight is on Scenic Airlines.
It's about a four hour bus ride each way otherwise.
The west rim is closer and has the skywalk.
The North Rim is still open but is a fairly long ride from Vegas.
If you would like to see some pictures have a look at my gallery. I have shots from the air, the Colorado River and the ground. I've done the CG every way you can. Flown it, rafted it (several times), hiked it and muled it.
It is possible to do Bryce Canyon and Zion in a day but it's a fair haul.
If it's spectacular scenery you want Utah has a ton of it. As well as Bryce and Zion there is The Arches N.P., Canyonlands N.P. Capitol Reef N.P and other State Parks.