Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Day fifteen Saturday 26th September travelling from Las Vegas to grand canyon
Grand Canyon Village, Arizona
This will be our third state visited.
Woke early and decided to leave circus circus without breakfast. Did express checkout through the TV and eventually found the car in the car parking garage. Temperatures were already in high eighties. Set off but turned the wrong way out of the hotel but eventually got on the right road. The 93 South. We will also be taking the East 40 and North 64. Not many towns on this route. The nearest will be kingman approx 100 miles from Vegas. The road was a three/ four lane road bounded by housing estates all surrounded by walls and the usual malls. The road took us through the mountains and then to a much flatter vista. The road is split so that oncoming traffic is set away. There are a lot of large lorries on the road and nothing else. We drive and drove and drove. Kingman came into view but the food was all fast food outlet. Fuelled up on petrol here which was $ 3.20 a gallon. We drive to the next town Sleigman which was 50 miles on. This town is on Route 66. This town is very small all set along the road with motels and food outlets. We found a restaurant called Roadkill cafe, Route 66. Had to stop there. It was a cowboy type of construction. I had a burger and chips and Martin had a hot dog with potato salad. I was asked how I wanted my burger to be cooked. I also had unlimitless coke served in a large killer jar glass. Martin had iced tea. The cafe had the original Route 66 sign. The cost of the whole meal was $25.. A bargain.
Off on the road again. More limitless desert type landscape and plains. We could just see the mountains. It was an odd vista with scattered RV and trailers as housing in the middle of no where.
Eventually we got to the turning for Grand Canyon. Time was about 2pm. Another fifty miles before we got to the park entrance where it was free to get in instead of $30 for a seven day pass. Bargain. This was due to a charity cycle ride. Mad in this hot weather. Five miles on we reached the Grand Canyon village and got to our hotel the El Tovar. Could not wait to see the canyon but got the cases to the room ( which was very nice) and out we went. Could not believe it the hotel is about 10 feet from the south rim edge. We got our first view of Grand Canyon which was mind blowing. The scale is massive and we could actually look down into the canyon. No fences here. The canyon has many levels and is two billion years old. There are numerous pointed stacks. What is evident is the different layers of each mini mountain. These match across the various levels. The colours go from light to red and brown.
Certainly It has to be the most awe inspiring experience I have ever had. We walked along the rim to a viewing point which is set into the canyon and you can walk down steps and look down. We stayed there for ages and spotted two condors in a tree way below us. Sorry found out later they were turkey vultures.... They were spreading their wings in the cooling sun. Thank goodness for binoculars. They were fabulous. We watched entranced for about ten minutes then off they flew up into the canyon. The canyon is 12 miles across at this point and a mile deep. We also saw two deer which are braving the steep sides. You can see people on treks far below. These are classified as strenuous and can take several days. There were a few shops and we had an ice cream. I had peanut ice cream. For two large scoops in a sugar cone only $3.50 . Yum yum. We sat overlooking the canyon. It was very surreal.
We went back to the hotel and looked at the small shops inside and retired for a short rest, we went back outside to watch the sunset at 6.15. It was quiet with just a handful of tourists left. A very still atmosphere. Magical. The whole sky turned pink and the mountains were coloured red.
Feeling hungry we had booked into the El tovar restaurant. This is fairly posh and gets fully booked. Not much other choice here!!! We sat down and I had beef with mash and beans and Martin had trout, we had half a bottle of Californian merlot. Finished sharing a fruit dessert in a cinnamon basket with vanilla cream. Very nice. Tired we called it a night. What a day......
- comments