Day 1 was full of sitting! Sitting for 5 hours on the plane and sitting for 6 hours in the car as we made our way to the Grand Canyon. Though there was lots of seat time, there was also a lot to look at. This is our first time to this part of the country and my intense (OCD) planning for the past 3 months has led us to find all of the hidden treasures on our path. Our goal was to try to get to the hotel before dark, well....that didn't happen. I forgot to add in the additional time change. We land in mountain time in Las Vegas and then when we cross over into Arizona it switches to pacific time and we lose an hour. So...my plan to get us to the hotel by about 6:00 turned into after 7:00. It was a long day and full of so much...here we go....
After our early flight out, we landed at the Las Vegas airport with no problems, got our luggage, rental car and were on our way. Originally, I had thought a quick tour of the strip and changed that idea when I realized it was in the opposite direction of where we were headed and would add another hour or so on to our drive.
Our first planned stop was going to be at the overlook for the Hoover Dam. It was about a 40 minute drive from the airport. Along the way there was a scenic overlook of Lake Mead, so of course we jumped out and took a look. Definitely different land from what we are used to in Virginia or even in our mountain vacations.
Next, we were on our way to Hoover Dam. One of the 7 Industrial Wonders of the World. We did our homework before we left and learned all about it. We chose to bypass the museum and visitors center because of time and just do the bypass parking lot and walk up to the bridge that gives you a great view. We would be driving across this bridge to head on to the Grand Canyon, and there is no view as you drive. They have a separate pedestrian area where you can walk across the bridge and get some great views. The parking lot is VERY small and we were worried at 12:30 in the afternoon that we wouldn't find a spot...luck was on our side, a car was pulling out as we were pulling in. So we parked and began our walk to the bridge...lots of information and stairs/pathways to get there...
The view from on top of the bridge....
As we walked back...check another state officially off of our list!!
And another...after returning to our car, we started our journey to The Grand Hotel of the Grand Canyon via historic Route 66.
The Hoover Dam was built on the Colorado River and the bridge that we were walking/driving across - one side was in Nevada and the other side was in Arizona and as you crossed the bridge you changed from mountain time to pacific time. Suddenly it went from 1:30 to 2:30 and that is when we had the realization that there was no way that we would make it to the hotel by 6:00.
Part of our drive took us through Santa Claus, Arizona...now a deserted ghost town in the desert. In my research I found that in the 1950s this was a small Christmas themed little town with shops, rides of course Santa Claus year round and lots of other holiday fun. It didn't last long and all that is left are a few graffiti covered buildings.
Our next stop was in the town of Kingman, Arizona where we would eat and pick up Route 66 for part of our drive. We ate at Mr. Ds Diner. It was a very fun place with lots of good diner food. Our 4:30 "lunch" would actually also be our dinner...
We then journeyed on, knowing that daylight would be leaving us soon and we would be driving in unknown land in the dark....
We made it to the Hackberry General Store in Hackberry, Arizona also on historic Route 66. This was a fun place full of silly rt 66 souvenirs. Lots of crazy stuff here. We bought a few things and then continued on our way...
 |
| inside the general store |
 |
| definitely still in the desert |
The rest of our journey was in the dark, so there are no pictures to accompany this. We spent the next 2 1/2 hours making our way from an elevation of about 2,500 to our home for the next 3 nights at 6,500 feet. The temperature on our drive went from probably close to 60 in Las Vegas to about 20 when we arrived at our hotel. We left 66 and did some highway driving to Williams, Arizona and then our last hour was from Williams to Tusayan on a 2 lane road with no lights. It wasn't as bad as the people on TripAdvisor had warned us and we arrived at the Grand Hotel in Tusayan (about 15 minutes from the south entrance of the Grand Canyon) at about 7:30 pm.
We were greeted by this:
A beautiful lobby and a warm fire.....
So..we have no idea what our surroundings look like...and no idea what is actually outside the hotel. :)
Stay tuned for our adventure on day 2 - New Year's Eve at the Grand Canyon starting with Sunrise and ending with a nice dinner at the El Tovar Lodge on the rim overlooking the Canyon.
