Day 26. 28.4.16. Las Vegas to Grand Canyon, USA.

Up bloody early and awake anticipating the alarm, so about 4.30am.

Final pack of pj’s etc then down to get MORE $$$ and some breaky, before checking out.

It’s been/or is still raining. It could be Armageddon outside these Hotel/Casino/Resorts and you’d be oblivious as you can’t see daylight most of the time.

On the basis of rain, I changed into covered shoes and bagged the sandals. Walked out to the Valet and bus area and we herded onto our coach, where we proceeded to collect folk from a few more Casino’s then out to “Tour Headquarters” where we offloaded and lined up to be allocated another bus number for the trip to Canyon. We were provided a bottle of water, a Danish and a cuppa, which was nice. I lost our stickers so had to quickly go back in and get them re-issued – oops!!! Thankfully I was assisted by one of the nicer, more helpful staff, there were some grumpy ones around.

Finally our bus number 4 arrive and we boarded at 7.30. I think it’s going to be a long couple of days, hope the Grand Canyon is worth it.

Our bus driver, Lucius started with a bit of an attitude. It’s a 277 mile trip out through the Las Vegas Valley, through Henderson, North Las Vegas and out through the Mojave Desert, through Boulder, which grew up around the Boulder (later named Hoover) Dam project.

It's not the best of weather out here today. Some of the hills in the surrounding desert.

Looking at Lake Mead.

The Lake.

It’s a harsh environment out here, lots of RV parks, we crossed the Colorado River and moved from the State of Nevada to Arizona. THe landscape while desert is always changing from Mountains and Rivers to flatlands with Yukka and unseen Joshua Trees.

Crossing the Colorado River, from Nevada to Arizona State.

Interesting landscapes, typical of desert, lots of changing geography.

Mesas out on the plains.

Desert scenery.

Desert scenery.

Desert scenery.

Desert scenery.

Desert scenery.

Desert scenery.

Desert scenery.

A lot of the people living out here do so in mobile homes, Lucius indicated this is the typical living arrangement.

It is raining and cold, not a great day to view the scenery. Stopped for a bathroom break at Castlerock Café in Kingman.

The weather cleared for a little while, but now the roadsides are covered in SNOW!!!  Holy cow, we are going to freeze.

Yup, that's snow on the hillsides beside the road.

Snow on the trees and on the ground.

More Snow.

Lunch stop at Williams at the Grand Canyon Railroad Café – still snowing. We were provided with an extensive buffet, which was well organised and had a great range of options. Then we had a further 63 miles to the Grand Canyon – still snowing.

Snow on the Grand Canyon train.

Snow on our first old car since Cuba.

Snowing as we left. Here is the old steam engine.

A park along the way...only just managed to snap this off in time.

Through Tusayan.

First stop within the Grand Canyon National Park, was Mathers Point, we took a picture at the GCNP sigh, then out to the point NOT to see the view. It was freezing, windy and snowing. The Canyon was filled with fog or cloud, so you could see nothing, a few rocks near the point and lots of people also. Mathers Point is near the Visitors Centre, so I went for a look and had a chat to one of the rangers, to get a map and some guidance about how to best use our time here at the National Park. 

Here I am, it almost looks fine.

Mathers Point lookout.

There is a Grand Canyon out there somewhere.

Mmmmm.

Lots of people, taking lots of photos of fog and not much else.

A carpark/trail marker.

That's snow on the ground and it is actually snowing as we are about to leave.

Dropped into the NP store, before heading back to the bus…one does not want to be late for Lucius!. We left some behind at Mathers Point, as they were not back by the designated time, he needed to take the rest of the folk to the other end of Park, near Bright Angel Lodge – where they could walk the rim trail or the Bright Angel trail down into the Canyon.  We were delivered to our accommodation as Yavapai Lodge, along with some good guidance about possible activities from Lucius. We checked in and walked to our room only to find ONE bed, after a phone call to reception, I walked back to get keys to a new room. Walked half way back only to find they hadn’t filled in the room number, so back to reception I went again to get that sorted. Back to Glenda and the luggage and we moved to the next building and our very comfortable room. We put on as many layers as we had, long socks was about the only extra option I had, we then made our way out to the shuttle bus to head to the Western “Hermits Rest” loop. Saw some lovely blue birds, but had to leave to grab the shuttle.

Here is the little blue bird.

The shuttle near our Lodge, is the Blue Village Shuttle, this does a loop around all the various Accommodations – lodges, hotels, camp grounds/General Store/Administration buildings/Historic area – and links to two shuttle routes – the Red Route at Western end and Orange Route as Eastern end of National Park. 

An elk in the park.

We caught the Blue Shuttle to hook up with the Hermits Rest Loop at the Western end, this loop has 9 view points at which you can hop off, the shuttles run about every 10-15 minutes. We jumped off at the first one which I think was Trailview Overlook – we could actually SEE the Canyon, Yay, we were pretty excited. Then it snowed again and we were keen to get back on a shuttle.

Our first real view of the Grand Canyon.

There was even some sun shining out there in the distance.

A panoramic with the phone.

and again.

And here we are, pretty stoked to see the Grand Canyon at all today.

Grand Canyon.

More.

We hopped off at a couple of other points with plans to ride the loop again to catch sunset, should there be one.

And it's clearing even more.

It's stunning.

We had a lovely bus driver, who has sold up his house and worldly good, and he and his wife bought an $80K 5^th wheeler and he is ‘working the parks.’ He is loving life.

We jumped of at Mojave Point for sunset, which is not looking good. To stay warm and fill in the time, we walked along the Rim trail towards The Abyss, then back to Mojave Point and took photos of no sunset.

This is now getting close to sunset.

Not sure if that is rain of or snow out there in the Canyon.

The clouds are not lifting of the rim.

The light clouds are sort of where the sun is.

The sun making an attempt.

It was cold and wet, but we were hanging in for whatever did or didn't happen at sunset.

Tis all over, no real sunset. But we gave it a good shot.

Back onto the shuttle, then hopped to the Blue route to the General Store for a squiz then tea a Yavapai Tavern – yummy chilli beef and corn chips with guacamole, the soup was basically chilli con carne, so the two went well together. Glenda and I also enjoyed a nice local cider.

The shuttle, was pretty full at the end of the day.

Home, with the heater on and bed writing this by 9.30.

Our room.

Bathroom.

We have plans to be up about 4.30 to see if there is any sunrise. The guy at the store says more snow is expected, the bus driver says there could be 4 inches of snow overnight. Off to sleep with fingers crossed.