Las Vegas

This trip has been a few years in the making ever since Scottie started having these "conferences" in Las Vegas ever year, so we finally bit the bullet and planned a hiking adventure out to "the West" to remember!   It all started...and ended in Las Vegas, the city with the infamous tag line, but for us, what happened in Las Vegas was certainly worth sharing.  Or at least, I'll do my best to recap through the next series of posts...

After landing around 7pm in Las Vegas, I was surprised to find that the taxi line was pretty much non-existent.  Apparently, this is a rarity, although, my luck ended as there was some construction leading up to Las Vegas Boulevard, so the ride took a little longer than expected.  As Scottie previously warned me, I could literally see the "strip" from the airport, but it took me a good half hour to actually get there.  Add on some construction, and that was like a 45-minute drive.  Nevertheless, I gawked like a five-year old on their first vacation, as we drove down the famous "Las Vegas Strip" towards the Bellagio.  Now, normally, Scottie likes to make me earn stays at fancy hotels like the Bellagio, but this was a special enough occasion, my first time to Nevada and Vegas.  Coincidentally, Scottie had never stayed at the Bellagio.  Good thing for the work conference to help settle the bill!

Scottie quickly shuffled me up to our room to drop my bags off and then we headed down to the Bellagio's Sports Book to catch the end of the Cardinals game, but more importantly the Kings victory.  Once that was out of the way, we headed out to watch the Bellagio Fountains and I gawked some more at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel with the large Eiffel Tower replica model across the street.  It reminded me of many years ago back in high school when I traveled to France on an exchange program, and then returned for summer after graduation.  Good times.

By then, it was roughly 1:00 a.m. my time, so we headed next door to the Forum Shops (surprised Scottie took me to the Simon Property!) in Caesars Palace.  Unfortunately, Sushi Roku, where Scottie intended to bring me was closing, so we settled for P.J. Clarke's, which was pretty tasty! Scottie had a steak, while I had the Ahi Tuna and we split sides of the macaroni and cheese as well as the mushrooms.

The next morning, I had a few hours to myself to walk the "strip", so I started off by getting a good photo of this cute little lighthouse in the Bellagio before walking across the street to the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino to hunt for some breakfast at Starbucks.  After breakfast, I amused myself at the ATM machine, where I had the options to take out $40, $60, $100, $200, $400, $600, and $800.  Gotta love that.  And when I took out $100, I didn't receive the normal change of five $20s, I received a $100 bill.  Only in Vegas, right?

From Planet Hollywood, I headed South along the "strip" using my Visit Las Vegas guide and my trusty map from the Only in Vegas site.  I strolled by the Crystals at CityCenter, a big honker of a Coca-Cola bottle, Monte Carlo, New York New York, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, and then back South again to see Caesar's, Mirage, Treasure Island, Bill's Gamblin' Hall & Saloon, and The Venetian.  While the entire strip is about 4.7 miles, I think I probably walked about half that over the course of 3 hours or so.

When I met back up with Scottie around noon, we headed out to pick up our rental car and to the town of Henderson where we located a Whole Foods and REI (even though there is actually a Whole Foods near the airport) to get lunch, snacks, sunscreen, etc. before our drive out to the Grand Canyon.

After about a 4 hour road trip thru I-95, I-93, and I-40 to Flagstaff heading North to Desert View Drive (East Entrance to Grand Canyon), we arrived via Flagstaff to the East Entrance to the Grand Canyon along Desert Drive.

It didn't take long for us to see a "scenic view ahead" sign, which our legs were thankful for; however, we decided this would be the only once view that would sucker us in until we entered the Grand Canyon National Park.  If you follow any of my travel blog posts, you'll notice we, or rather I, get excited over these "pre"views only to find later that the best lookouts are really in the park.  But this stop looking at the Little Colorado River in Navajo Country was a unique, nice preview to the sheer grandness of Grand Canyon ahead.

A few miles ahead, we entered the Grand Canyon National Park, and luckily Scottie figured out that it was probably worth it for us to pre-purchase a NPS Annual Pass, so we could re-use it later at Zion National Park and at the Lake Mead Recreational Area en route to the Hoover Dam.  Plus, we can use the pass again in Michigan at the Sleeping Bear Dunes.  Along the Desert View Drive ("a scenic route to the east of Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim which follows the rim for 25 miles..."), which is coined as the red carpet roll out to the Grand Canyon if you follow it East to West into the Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim.

We followed the Desert View Drive Map to the first stop at Desert View Drive.  We saw not only our first view of the canyons, but also a bonus of the Colorado River.  There was also a watchtower that we could climb up to get a better view at at 7522 ft, which is the highest point on the South Rim.  It was  built in 1932 inspired by ancient Pueblo Watchtowers, and is now a National Landmark!

At the next two stops - Navajo and Lipan Point - it was hard to see much of the canyon as the haze and glare from the sun blocked much of the scenery.  Thus, we pressed onto Moran and Grandview Points, the latter which we watched the sun begin to set across a panoramic view (see above).  By then, we skipped Yaki Point and the Pipe Creek Vista in order to get to our lodge before dark.  Fortunately, Scottie spent a lot of time refreshing this site to find openings pop up at the lodges located within the Grand Canyon Village, which was key.  While we couldn't get the more coveted rooms at El Tovar or even down in the canyon at Phantom Ranch, we were completely happy with our room at Yavapai Lodge, especially when we had air conditioning (although we didn't actually use it too much at night) and a refrigerator!

It was off to eat a spaghetti dinner at the cafeteria near our lodge (that was a trip in itself!) and then to the "General Store" (were we in "Back to the Future Part III" or what?) for us to pick up some Gatorade (and we found some Grand Canyon Beer).

Day 1 and Day 2 complete!  See more photos from our adventures in the Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon in my photo album.