Robot Claw

On a shuttle bus today, the driver said many visitors to the Grand Canyon initially have difficulty believing what they see is real. It’s an unusual statement, but after seeing if myself, I think I’ll have to agree.

The canyon was carved by a river over a period of 4500 million years. It’s thousands of feet deep and miles wide. It’s incredibly big and deep, and like nothing at all I’ve ever seen before.

We got up very early and headed to the canyon shortly after sunrise. As you can see, we were blessed with beautiful weather.

There are many miles of lookouts and viewing points along the south rim, and we spent a few hours walking along the edge admiring the views.

This is a very popular tourist destination, especially for foreign tourists, and as the day went on the paths became more and more populated. Everyone poses for photos at any convenient place, and all-too-often they get dangerously close to a fall that apparently kills a few every year.

You can descend into the canyon if you like, via one of several available trails. The most common takes up to 9 hours (to travel less than 1km!) and is quite popular despite its danger. The signs warn specifically of death for the unprepared. In this next shot you can see the path (which is also used by the famous pack mules) as it snakes down the side of the canyon:

The area is a national park, and at the top (an elevation of over 6000 feet) is mostly evergreen pine forest. There are many animals to be seen, including deer…

Lizards…

And very friendly rock squirrels:

I had no food for him, and wouldn’t have fed him anyway even if I did. But I did touch him briefly. Maybe I should have read this sign first:

We spent the entire morning at the canyon, and walked for hours. The afternoon was siesta time (during which I wrote 17 postcards) in which we recharged our batteries for the next few sure-to-be-busy days.

Oh, and we met Mike Rowe 😉

Here’s a nice shot of part of the Luxor pool complex:

I went for a splash yesterday, and quickly found the lack of shade to be murderous 🙂

Today we left Vegas for part two of our 3-state trip. We rented a car at the hotel, but the first one they gave us (an Elantra) had a tire warning light on the dash. A quick call got us a free upgrade to the only car they had left, a mustang:

And so we hit the road on a five hour drive east. At first the landscape (east of Vegas near the Hoover dam) was rocky and mountainous (and almost without plants!) but as we entered Arizona it became a flat featureless desert with scrubby plants and the occasional cactus for miles and miles.

The drive went quickly, with only a single brief stop in the first three hours. And then we needed food badly, and when we finally spied some Golden Arches from a mile or so away it was like the Star of David over the desert!

Less than an hour later we reached our destination: the Grand Hotel in Tusayan, just five miles south of the Grand Canyon! This town is tiny and obviously 100% tourist oriented. We’re here at peak season as well, which means this is the most I’ve ever paid for a hotel room! And here it is:

After checking in we headed up the road to the canyon visitors center, slowing briefly to pass some mule deer…

…but very shortly after we arrived a very powerful storm blew in and sent us (and the zillion other tourists) scurrying. Getting back to our car got us very wet 🙂

Turns out it rains in the afternoon every day here (more or less), so we’re having an early night and will head to the canyon in the early morning. I’m looking forward to this quite a bit!

It’s significantly cooler here than Vegas, with temperatures in the low 60s right now. Tusayan is at an elevation of 6500 feet and is the last stop (for lodging and food) before the canyon.

The thunder and lighting before the rains came was impressive, especially for Bernard since he almost never sees rain at home. He’s certainly seen enough today to last a while…

Don’t worry, we ate better than McDonald’s for dinner. We splurged on Wendy’s 🙂

It’s very early Saturday morning. I’m
ruined after another long day yesterday spent in casinos, and simply not enough sleep. I need a vacation!!

That’s one of many Egypt-themed displays inside this mega hotel. As with everything Luxor, it’s big and over the top.

Yesterday included a dip in the pool (for me) which was brief due to the extreme lack of shade, many hours of slots in six different casinos, an afternoon ‘power nap’ and a showgirl performance in the evening (which was great).

The above shows a car as jackpot prize for a group of 2 cent slots. These may seem a handsome reward, until you notice many other machines have jackpots of over $1.5 million 🙂

Of course you’d be more likely (as Bernard said) to be simultaneously hit by lightning and a meteor than actually winning a mega jackpot but it’s fun to imagine that next button press may be it!

Bernard won a couple of modest (~$100) jackpots yesterday. However it was my day for the winners streak. Although the profits were small, almost every time I put money in a machine I got more out 🙂

What are we eating? Mostly fast food, although we ate at a restaurant yesterday. Needless to say food is expensive here (drinks even more), but there’s also many options so it’s easy to find something.

Today we leave Vegas for our next destination about five hours to the east. I wonder what we’re going to see on our journey?