Its the day to leave Vegas to head south towards Flagstaff, Arizona. The Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon are the only things on the list today other than driving a lot of miles.
First stop was the Hoover Dam, where it was hot as hell but pretty damn awesome. Parking was as usual expensive but the views did not disappoint. You actually cross the border halfway across the bridge which is cool.
The new highway that is used instead of the dam itself is impressive in it’s own right. Just as much a engineering marvel as the dam.
Next stop was the Grand Canyon. It was more off the main highway that I thought it was but we got there with no signal just fine.
There was an instant dislike with the way people treat you here, the staff were extremely rude and unhelpful and the price to get in was $71USD, which for a 5min busride and some lunch was waay to steep. The Sky Walk ended up being closed due to lightning in the area, of which we only got refunded a whole $16USD.
But once we stopped ranting about the shit staff and service we really just took in the views. The photos below just don’t do it any justice.
There was also thw worlds most fake ‘frontier town’ that you could find. Everything was plastic and cheap and just left a bad impression of the locals that run it. The only good thing that happened was I got a sweet photo of people getting smashed by a dust cloud.
The whole ‘bus tour’ went around 3 key areas of the Canyon, the main entrance ( first photos ), the fake town ( second photos ), then Guano Point. This place was by far the most jaw dropping and impressive. A much better view, we could throw some mean rocks off it and there was a lightning storm happening.
While we waited we did a bit of a walk around the fake as shit setup around and grabbed a few photos.
Once we were done at the Grand Canyon, we had a good whinge to the staff, got some money back and hit the road. It was pretty much a b-line to Flagstaff, Arizona.
On arrival we just dumped our crap at the motel and went to the Route 66 bar down the road. Unbeknown to me, we had be driving a large portion of Route 66 from the Hover Dam and I had been wearing my Santa Monica Route 66 shirt the whole day, so that was kind of uncanny.
After ordering a ‘side’ of fries ( a whole bloody platter full ) and one of the local beers we hit the hotel and got some of the best sleep so far on the trip.
Total Miles = 351miles / 564km
Miles on car = 15,670