Vegas to Grand Canyon

On Route 66, Indian Land.

We were overnight in Las Vegas at Harrah's on the Strip and had gone to the nearby "Splash" show at the Riviera. Today we are travelling to the Grand Canyon some 300 miles to the east.

Click on the image for a photo album.

In the morning Reg wrote in the book/diary and had breakfast while Kate and Cindy tried to recover Kate's grub steak at the slots. Some players were wearing a glove on their coin hand. You touch a lot of dirty coins if you play for any time. Kate got bored and didn't recover any money — she lost more in fact. In total, she may have spent $5 gambling. Not a big deal. Not like the girl I saw playing three machines at once. She must have been really keen to go broke. People come to Las Vegas with the intention of losing money, some come intending to lose a lot, very few return home with any winnings.

We left Las Vegas in the early morning. We sort of stumbled out of town to the Hoover dam with no good map to show the way. But there are only a very few roads so you can hardly go wrong. Our intention is to tour the Hoover dam and make a good start on the route to the Grand Canyon which is 300 miles east from Las Vegas.  We did a bit of sight seeing at the dam itself; the road crosses the dam and there are lookout areas on each side. 

We talked about taking a river raft ride from the Hoover dam down the Colorado River but never had it figured out. There's a casino nearby where you can get tickets for that; I think it's called The Gold Rush Casino. There's also bus tours from the city. It looks like a good idea and we'll have to try it — next time. We also talked about taking a tour inside of the dam. The lineups were very long and the elevator ride is not for the claustrophobic. So again we'll have to do that — next time. We got some snaps from the lookouts on each side before heading on.

We stopped at Willow Beach, the marina and landing down river from Hoover Dam that's the end point for the raft tours. There's a pleasant park with a restaurant and obligatory souvenir stand. We saw a large raft disembark with some passengers making a desperate bee line to the nearby toilet. The raft ride is 3 hours long, it's quite a distance!

We got an ice chest and filled it up with ice at the landing. Last night, on our walk up the Las Vegas strip, we stopped in at the Sands and got a couple of travel cups with lids that Kate and Cindy have put to good use today. Filled with ice, juice and vodka; it puts a new light on things. We bought one here  at the landing for Reg to have a Coke in. He did all the driving today and did get a beer much later.

At Kingman, AZ we decide to take the old route 66. It's a bit of a diversion to the north from travelling the interestate 40 but connects back again. The country side we cross changes from desert land through to pasture land with prairie dogs. The land is very green with lots of flowering cactus. The girls try to impress Reg with their color discrimination — they say those flowers are "fuchsia"; Reg says "pink".

Route 66 is the old two lane highway from Chicago to Los Angeles. For us it's a diversion from the interestate. Off the side of Route 66 is a paved road leading to "Havasu Falls". There's a trail there down into the canyon and it looks like there's a connection to the park at the south rim. This side road is about a 50 mile diversion and near the end is marked, at least on the map as an "unimproved road". The vodka is taking hold of the girls and the plan has been hatched to take this diversion and the unimproved road as an "interesting" detour that will "speed up" our arrival to the main village at the south rim of the canyon. Reg is not too keen on this idea (visions of vultures circling our wilted corpses are dancing in his head) but less sane heads prevail and we are committed to this adventure. Two requirements — we need find bathroom pretty quick and we need to stock up on drinks as Kate and Cindy have have almost finished their vodka.

At Grand Canyon Caverns, a small town on route 66 where this 50 mile diversion to Havasu Falls starts, we find a place to fill our supplies. The few villages we've gone through are very poor; we're in the middle of an Indian reservation. Kate and Cindy rush into the bathroom and get the drinks. Reg decides it would be a good idea if we find out about road conditions and seeks out a local. He chats up an Indian fellow who's waiting in the car with a kid and another adult. We suppose he's waiting for his wife who works at this motel complex. The temperature is 90° by the thermometer in the patio. It's hot but the air conditioned car keeps locals and tourists alike comfortably cool.

To cut the story short the local fellow tells Reg that the view is great at Havasu Falls but the undeveloped road requires a four-wheel drive and there's no traffic and there's no one living out there and we'd better stick to the highway if we hope to get out alive. We take his word for that.

As it turns out we make it to the Grand Canyon just at sunset and have a glorious view of the canyon. We realize now that you're not supposed to be out here without a hotel reservation and panic sets in — there are tons of people, buses, etc. and signs say that all the lodges and camp grounds are full. There is, of course, no room in the park and nothing posted in the gateway Tusayan Village.

But we find two adjoining rooms at the Quality Inn in Tusayan (the village just outside the park at the South Rim). We are lucky as, apparently, they had a tour cancel. The clerk tells Cindy and Kate that we are very lucky to have a room at all. It's not unusual to find ill prepared tourists sleeping in their cars! Cindy tries to get a room in the new part of the hotel but is laughed at. She asks if the room has a phone — he says yes and that by next year they hope to have running water and indoor plumbing. A bit of humor for the desperate.

That night after visiting the canyon at sunset we have dinner at the "Steakhouse" near our hotel — Reg has a steak, Kate has ribs, and Cindy has shrimps. We're told they are "Genuine Colorado River" shrimps — some joke.

The waiter asked Kate what kind of salad dressing she wants and then proceeded to explain that the only dressing is "Ranch Dressing". When Cindy and Reg were asked the same question they said "Ranch" to avoid the retelling of the joke. The waiter hardly spoke English — oddly, it improves the Ranch Dressing joke. Dinners were barbecued on juniper which tastes a lot like mesquite. 

A notable oddity: The women's crapper at the restaurant was a two-holer — flush toilets of course but a shared space like at the cottage.

These notes, originally composed by Kate, Cindy and Reg at the time of the trip, were transcribed 21/07/05 with the help of Google voice.