Yesterday morning we explored some more of our ridiculously big hotel and found a huge shopping centre, a replica of the Trevi fountain and the Colosseum where apparently Rod Stewart was performing last night! After lunch at the airport, we waved goodbye to Vegas and an hour later we landed in Los Angeles, met up with Gareth, checked into our Hollywood apartment and spent the rest of the day in an Irish pub. This morning we made use of our hop-on-hop-off LA bu...

As I write this we are staring out of the window of the largest hotel room we have ever stayed in. Our free upgrade at Caesars Palace is, well, palatial! We have a fantastic view of the Strip and directly overlook the Bellagio water fountains from up here on the 30th floor. Quite a difference from the $20 hostel we stayed in behind a Texaco garage last night! Earlier this morning as we looked out across the plains of Arizona with a fresh coffee from the garage...

We woke this morning in Marble Canyon to a stunning backdrop which we were oblivious to when we arrived late last night. After a breakfast buffet complete with pancakes and syrup we took a short drive to the Navajo bridge and our first glimpse of the mighty Colorado river. A few hours further down highway 89 and we bumped into the Colorado a second time only this time the river wasn't the star attraction. The sheer scale of the Grand Canyon is breathtaking. I...

With a long day ahead of us we set off early to collect our rental car. We drove north for a few hours out of Nevada, through Arizona and on to the Zion National Park in Utah. A stunning canyon lies at the heart of the park with towering red walls and wonderful rock formations. We took the shuttle bus deep into the canyon where we walked a section of the famous Narrows hike - an upstream walk through the Virgin river which fills the base of the canyon between ...

As we stepped off the plane and into Las Vegas airport we were instantly greeted by rows upon rows of slot machines. The need for toilets, food, baggage reclaim all clearly take a second place to the city's proud heritage - GAMBLING. We checked into our little hotel which was directly in the heart of the city and dwarfed by the surrounding mega resorts and casinos which we immediately headed out to explore. First stop was the impressive water fountain display ...