We had no shows to see on Friday and had done a decent job of seeing the Strip already in 2 days. So this day was chosen for a field trip. We headed for the West Rim of the Grand Canyon. This part of the Grand Canyon is on an Indian reservation and is a 2 ½ hour drive from our hotel.
I used the GPS to route us out of Las Vegas and it showed us a good way to go through the city. It doesn’t take too long to leave the city and find yourself in mountains and desert. The route took us over the Hoover Dam and provided some wonderful views of Lake Mead. The water level in the lake is way down and a wide white band showing the depth the water had been ringed the lake. After passing over the dam and through the mountain pass the road goes straight as an arrow for a long way carrying us deeper into the desert.
We made a rest stop in the first real town we came to. The people in the grocery store we entered looking for a bathroom were very friendly—but they had no potty. We had to go to the gas station across the street. The place had 1 old pump and served also as a gift/snack shop. Just inside the front door was a huge stuffed rattlesnake poised in the striking position and encased in glass. Penny couldn’t come in because of that. I used the bathroom and felt that I should buy something there since I used their facilities. I picked up a couple of Klondike ice cream bars. When I went to pay, the kid at the cash register said “bathroom ice cream?” I said,” Yes.”
The real fun began when we turned off the paved road to take the final 14 miles of our journey on a winding dry dusty unpaved road. Joe compared my driving to a Baja-Run training drive. We stopped on the road and wandered into the Joshua Tree forest to take pictures of blossoming cactuses.
I used the GPS to route us out of Las Vegas and it showed us a good way to go through the city. It doesn’t take too long to leave the city and find yourself in mountains and desert. The route took us over the Hoover Dam and provided some wonderful views of Lake Mead. The water level in the lake is way down and a wide white band showing the depth the water had been ringed the lake. After passing over the dam and through the mountain pass the road goes straight as an arrow for a long way carrying us deeper into the desert.
We made a rest stop in the first real town we came to. The people in the grocery store we entered looking for a bathroom were very friendly—but they had no potty. We had to go to the gas station across the street. The place had 1 old pump and served also as a gift/snack shop. Just inside the front door was a huge stuffed rattlesnake poised in the striking position and encased in glass. Penny couldn’t come in because of that. I used the bathroom and felt that I should buy something there since I used their facilities. I picked up a couple of Klondike ice cream bars. When I went to pay, the kid at the cash register said “bathroom ice cream?” I said,” Yes.”
The real fun began when we turned off the paved road to take the final 14 miles of our journey on a winding dry dusty unpaved road. Joe compared my driving to a Baja-Run training drive. We stopped on the road and wandered into the Joshua Tree forest to take pictures of blossoming cactuses.
None of us knew what to expect when we arrived at the canyon. I got upset with the arrangement we found. It works like this—At the end of the road is an airport and a little booth telling you the parking fee is $20. The road beyond this point is private. The atmosphere at the airport reminded me of a Spielberg movie set. On one side were 3 or 4 helicopter pads. Copters were landing and taking off and passengers and pilots scurried around. On the other side was the airport runway with a constant flow of small planes landing and leaving.
When we finally figured out how things worked it was obvious that if we wanted to see the canyon we needed to purchase a bus ticket (only $39.99 each) and ride out to the overlook locations. If we wanted to walk out on the skywalk at the first stop that would be another $39.99 each, please. The only way to see anything else after paying for the privilege of parking at the airport was to spend more money. They did have water fountains if you were thirsty but, son of a gun, they were out of order. There was water available for purchase, of course.
In defense of the Indians they are trying to build a new tourist destination in a hard to reach location. It takes a lot of money to do it. All the tribe member/employees were very nice. Some of them had an hour drive just to get to work at their menial tourist shop jobs..
The canyon itself was worth seeing. The first location we saw was sacred ground to the tribe. The canyon walls had formed the shape of an eagle and that was the prominent feature at this location. This is where the new “Glass” sky bridge is. The drop off here is 4,000 feet! We didn’t pay the fee and go out on that. We also couldn’t get right to the edge of the canyon for most of this location because a 3o-ft deep piece of cliff face was cracking off and there was danger of it falling into the canyon 4000 feet below. They were building a stone and rope fence to keep people away from the edge while we were there. We might have been there the last day that you could walk up to the edge of any part of the canyon in that spot.
The next stop was Guano Point and it made the journey worthwhile. The point sticks out into the canyon and has wonderful vista views on all sides. There also were no restrictions on the paths keeping people away from the edges. That surprised me because some of the ledges were even too scary for me to venture out on. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that they lose someone over the edge someday.
I did more Baja training on the way back. We had breakfast for dinner on the way back to LV at a Denny’s. Kathy and Joe were going to rest on Saturday and Penny and I thought we would do some exploring. I’ll cover that in my next installment.
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