We all managed to get ready for eight and headed out of Flagstaff after a breakfast of toast, orange juice and something called a 'Honey Bun'. Firstly we filled up with fuel at a cheap supermarket station and headed back north up the US89 with Lynn driving.
After about 45 minutes on driving back up roads we had covered the previous day, we reached the town of Cameron again and turned off east onto the State 64 and started climbing up towards the eastern entrance of the Grand Canyon National Park. The road had several viewpoints looking down into a canyon, but all proved to have someone selling native jewelery and in one instance requesting donations for parking, so we didn't stop.
Arriving at the Eastern entrance to the Grand Canyon National Park, we once again used our Annual Pass and realised that we had made up all the $80 initial cost of the pass. All other parks that we will visit will effectively be free! Following the southern rim of the Grand Canyon, the first stop is at Desert View where an old watchtower is now used by tourists to view the Grand Canyon. Even though we had previously visited the canyon, it still a staggering sight. It takes a while to realise that what you initially think is the bottom of the canyon is just another shelf with an even deeper canyon cut into with the Colorado River over 3000ft below you.
We continued our drive along the south rim of the Canyon stopping at Lippan Point, Moran Point, Grandview Point and Shoshone Point before arriving at Grand Canyon village, the major tourist hub on the Canyon. There were thousands of cars and visitors there, but we managed to park and walk as far as Mather Point, almost directly opposite the lodge on the norther rim of the Canyon. At all the stops we got out of the car and tried to capture on the camera the enormous view, it is almost impossible, but we tried!
We ate lunch at one of the cafes at Grand Canyon Village, but it wasn't very inspiring, then set off on the long haul to Las Vegas.
The first part of the journey took us down the US 64 to Williams, about 60 miles. Here we joined the I-40, the first time we'd been on an Interstate (motorway) since Denver. The speed limit in Arizona on the Interstate is 75mph, so we started eating up the miles as we travelled west. After about 45 miles, we left the motorway and joined the US 66, the famous Route 66. There isn't much of the original road left between Chicago and Los Angeles, but this stretch in Arizona makes up for it. The towns of Seligman, Peach Springs, Truxton, Valentine and Hackberry have all managed to retain the feel of the original towns, decorated with old cars and ancient filling stations. We stopped for photos and ice-creams at Hackberry, what an amazing place.
Finally, after 88 miles we reached the other end of Route 66 at Kingman where we joined the US93 north towards Las Vegas. This road runs almost dead straight for about 80 miles across a desert plain with spectacular views of mountains in the distance. We stopped briefly to look at the sun setting behind the mountains, a beautiful sight.
Shortly after this, we crossed the Colorado River again at the Hoover dam, regretably, the dam is now invisible from the main road as it is amazing piece of engineering. As we crossed the river, we crossed into our 4th state, Nevada. The journey from here through Boulder City and on towards Henderson went quite quickly. At Henderson, we joined the I-515 and could see across the valley the sprawling metropolis that is Henderson and Las Vegas.
It was by now dark and traffic was quite busy, but we continued to the Las Vegas Boulevard exit of the I-515. Off the motoway, we could start to see the bright lights of the Las Vegas 'Strip' ahead of us. The traffic on the 'strip' was very busy, but it gave us a chance to cruise slowly down the complete length of the 'strip' looking at the bright lights all the way down to the Luxor Hotel.
We had a bit of a problem finding the parking for the hotel, but after some initial confusion, evenutally parked up. It was a very long walk from the car to the hotel reception right through the middle of the casino. After queuing for a while we got our room keys for rooms on the 5th floor of the pyramid! After dumping our bags, we quickly went down for some food in a Mexican themed restaurant. After that it was bedtime.
Hotel - Luxor
Weather - Clear skies. It was cool in Flagstaff and very similar initially on the canyon rim. It was in the mid 70s as we left the canyon, but by the time we got to Vegas it was in the mid 90s.
No comments:
Post a Comment