Racing Arizona
Leaving Death Valley we drove South-East through the desert for a few hours passing Nellis AFB, where people supposedly get flown to the secret 'Area 51' where America is back engineering crashed UFOs to make top-secret spy planes. Unfortunately, I didn't see any, only a few tanks in field miles away.
We stopped off in Vegas for the afternoon to check it out before staying a few days next week. We looked at the Luxor (big black pyramid), New York New York (Big Little version of the Big Apple) and the MGM Grand (just plain big) before finding the single, and really expensive (bastards) internet cafe on the strip. After that we went to the Mandalay Bay and saw their 'Shark Reef,' a giant shark filled aquarium. We spent the night in a Casino/Hotel in Henderson, the town next door to Vegas as it was cheaper and closer to the Hoover Dam.
I'm reserving judgment until I’ve spent some more time in Vegas. It didn't immediately appeal to me and seemed to be very big for the sake of being very big. It reminded me a bit of LA, in that it's famous (and big) for the sake of being famous (and big) rather than being worthy. I may be the only person in the world with this opinion, as everyone else seems to love it. I reckon being a backpacker also has a lot to do with it, if I had loads of money and went with a bunch of mates then I'd probably have a wicked time. As it is, I have little money and I don't really 'go hardcore' around my family. We'll see when we go back next week.
Hoover Dam is cool. It's big for a purpose. And it is huge, I couldn't fit even half of it in one shot.
Since 9/11 they've stopped doing the 'hard-hat' tours which is a shame as its fascinating how they built such a massive structure. I won't go in to the engineering stuff as you can see that on Discovery if you're interested, but it is an amazing feat.
We drove East for a few hours and stopped at a town at the gates of the Grand Canyon.
We'd been in the car a lot over the last few days and said it'd be good to spend a couple of nights in one place, either here or at Monument Valley, another long drive away. Though the hotel was nice we decided to stay near Monument Valley as it was the furthest point in the trip.
We spent the next morning at the Grand Canyon.
Dad was very brave though not entirely confident. He could look over the edge at the condors circling below only if he stood back from the edge and leant on the wall!
I was a little bit jealous of him for getting that 'fear factor.' The Grand Canyon is so big its hard to get a grasp of its size. I probably should've spent some of my dwindling money and booked a helicopter ride to give it a more visceral 'wow' factor. Like in Yosemite, I would've liked to have spent longer camping/hiking/abseiling (if you can actually do any of those things here), rather than just walking/driving along then stopping and taking a picture. I suppose I've been spoilt in the last 7 months with the luxury of time and money. As such, I want more from my beautiful vistas! A mountain? Snowboard it. Desert? Sleep out under the stars. Grand Canyon? Ripe for hang-gliding!
We drove for another few hours East towards Monument Valley, I really wished I'd gone out that morning in San Francisco and got myself put on the insurance of the Jeep as its really starting to get boring sitting in the back. Its weird travelling with Mum and Dad. I feel like i've gone from Indiana Jones, out there, having adventures, seeing what the world can throw at me. To 'little matt'. Son of Paul and Gill, Whinging 'Are we there yet?'.
We arrived in the quiet Navajo reservation town of Kayenta. A dust storm was blowing through and tumbleweed was blowing across the road. We booked into the Best Western for two. Er maybe. One night... Dad summed it up when we were getting the cases out with "Bollocks. I was hoping there was going too be at least some facilities here."
To cap it off, 'Intoxicating Substances' such as alcohol are banned on Indian reservations and the whole town seemed to close down at 9pm! We decided to head to Flagstaff on the way back and hopefully stay there for a couple of days!
Monument Valley is worth the journey though. We hired 'Eddie' a Navajo guide to drive us around the park in his rickety open-air truck for a couple of hours.
He pointed out various formations and told us which cowboy films had been shot where, as we drove around, every now and then crossing into Utah.
We could've driven the bumpy dirt track ourselves but there was something about being blasted by dust and sand caught on the desert wind, and talking to a local Navajo that really made the trip worthwhile.
We left the Monument Valley Park and drove Southwest towards Flagstaff.