After initially contemplating waking up at 4am to see the sun rise over the Grand Canyon, we realised we were way too buggered to do that and just woke up around 8:30am. It was another beautiful day with clear blue skies stretching for miles in every direction! We packed the car, checked out and drove into the village centre.
After parking in carpark D, we walked towards the Grand Canyon’s South rim! We caught our first glimpse of it at the start of the Bright Angel Trail. Boy it was something to see! It very much reminded me of the look out at the three sisters in the Blue Mountains back home but the canyon has much sparser vegetation. The terrain was more colourful than I imagined with hues of red, orange, and green!
We started walking down the Bright Angel Trail into the canyon itself but when we started encountering mule dung and when we realised that views along this trail would be similar most of the way, we turned back. Instead we did the hermit road trail! This lead westward from the village along the top of the south rim. We enjoyed fantastic vantage points from 4-5 look out points1 We spotted eagles, squirrels, and the Colorado river running through the canyon!
Initially Di wasn’t terribly impressed with the magnitude of the canyon but at Maricopa point we got a glimpse of a larger part of the canyon and her impression changed! It really was a humbling experience to stand atop the canyon that runs about 273 river miles long, 10 miles wide, and 1 mile deep!
At Hopi point we caught the free shuttle bus back to the village. All in all we walked around 4-5km and it was already starting to get boiling hot under the Arizonian sun! Once back at the village we returned to our car and headed to the other side of the canyon!
We drove 23 miles to a place called Desert View which is the site of a watchtower built by Mary somebody in the 1900s. After checking out the view from the ground, we climbed the watchtower’s 4 or so levels! At each level of the circular tower there were viewing windows providing 360 degree views of the canyon and surrounds!
After appreciating the view, we left and drove the 23 miles back to the Grand Canyon village. Then we grabbed some lunch (quesalladas) at a café in Tusayan before saying farewell to one of the natural wonders of the world as we set off for Las Vegas!
The drive took around 4 hrs 30 mins and again consisted of driving along basically 4 very long and dead straight highways! Along the way we stopped to have a quick look at Hoover Dam.
Around 7pm we entered the outskirts of Las Vegas! From a distance we could make out the high rise casinos of the famous Strip shrouded in a haze! We headed to our accommodation for the next 2 night at Suncoast Casino and Hotel! The carpark was full and the first thing we saw when we entered the hotel was the gaming floor! Somehow we found the hotel registration desk tucked away in some corner and checked in. For the 5 minutes we spent in the ‘lobby’, when we got to our room we already stank of cigarette smoke!
Our room turned out to be a spacious (non-smoking thankfully!) room even larger than our one in Phuket, with a plasma tv, huge bathroom with 2 sinks, fridge, and couch. Di was so happy! After a long day I was rather buggered so we went down to the car to get our bags and then went to one of the hotel’s restaurants for dinner.
We had Mexican once again! This time we had a chicken fajita salad and a beef torsillada. We also tried their margherita! Once again we ended up with way too much food! Our waitress was nice enough to provide us with some takeaway boxes though!
After dinner we planned our day for tomorrow! Man I’m wasted! Time to sleep!
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