Las Vegas Adventure: Grand Canyon and Utah

Every year we plan a major trip, and it seems like the bonus side trips turn out to be the best part!

Take our Vegas Adventure. Could we stand the glitz and the noise of downtown Las Vegas for 5 full days? Well, since we're not gamblers or drinkers or clubbers, no. But there is so much in the area! What to do? What to do? 

Early Thursday morning found us boarding a bus at Treasure Island for a day touring the Grand Canyon (western rim) and the Hoover Dam. We had a Dam good time!

This tour traveled to Arizona, drove through Joshua Tree Forest, and deposited us on the Western Rim of the Grand Canyon on the Hualapai Reservation. This is the site of the glass skywalk over the canyon. We stopped at Eagle Point, Guano Point, and the Hoover Dam. Added bonus was a delicious breakfast at the Omelet House and a tasty BBQ (with an AMAZING view) at Guano Point. So worth the cost.

Joshua Forest - Arizona

Grand Canyon - West Rim - Skywalk at Eagle Point

Can you see the Eagle in the rocks?

TaGeez got a little artsy with Signal

The famous skywalk

Grand Canyon - West Rim - Guano Point

Colorado River

Truly a 360 degree view

View from the lunch table

Hoover Dam

We drove by and then climbed up to the O'Callaghan/Tillman Bridge for a view. The main focus of this tour was the Grand Canyon - the Hoover Dam was a bonus - so we didn't have the opportunity to stand on the dam itself. 

If you are considering booking this tour:

• If you like history, Eagle Point also had examples of different native houses by various tribes.
• Bring some money for the handmade jewelry by local artisans at Guano Point. I have 2 new bracelets.
• You’ll never have a better view from any bathroom as you will from Guano Point.
• I am TERRIFIED of heights, but I never felt pressured to do anything I was uncomfortable with, and, even avoiding the edges, I took many amazing pictures.

🌵

So, we spent approximately 10 hours in Arizona. Being geocachers, we earned our state souvenir, right? Wrong. The only times we stopped were on an Indian reservation or Hoover Dam so no geocaches in site. That's okay, because, for our last full day, we rented a car and took a mini road trip!

We had 14 hours between the time we checked out of our hotel and our flight taking off, so we headed to the airport, and picked up our rental car. Let's go back to Arizona and stop off in Utah!

I-15 Arizona

Just look at this road

We climbed higher and higher

I-15 Utah

Welcome to Utah! We decided to drive through Arizona and head to Utah first! We wanted to make sure we didn't run out of time.

The scenic drive through the Virgin River Gorge was breathtaking! It contained 11 miles of curving roads with spectacular panoramic views!

St George, Utah

The first sizeable town in Utah is St. George. We chose it strictly for convenience because we wanted to get back to Vegas before the evening rush hour traffic. This was such a good choice! One of our first views was this gorgeous, gleaming white church against the red rock background. It turned out to be our first virtual on our list!

Sheer Beauty Virtual GCGXCQ

Sheer Beauty Virtual GCGXCQ

St. George was a cute, clean town with a fun arts district. We walked around snapping pictures of murals and roadside sculptures.

As geocaching is thirsty work, stop off at George's Corner Restaurant for an artsy atmosphere, friendly staff, good food, and a pint of the local brew! 

We made quick work on grabbing a number of the most popular caches in the area including this letterbox. It already contained 2 dozen trackables, and we added another dozen from home.

The Rattlesnake Nest GCA3RBZ

I read the reason you see "Dixie" everywhere is that early settlers posted here by Brigham Young tried to grown cotton in this moderate climate. So, this was considered the Dixie of the West!

Littlefield, Arizona 

Alas! Finally, some smilies in Arizona! We wanted to avoid soft sand and desert critters, so we stopped at the only city of size on this route. Such huge skies!

Our first cache was on the Old Spanish Trail and then a few more in the nearby community. TaGeez stood shaking his head as I raced off, trying to snap some photos of these Gambel's Quails nearby! For birds, they're fast!

Alas, I was disappointed not to see my Wishlist bird, a roadrunner, but this was close enough!

"Phoenix Arizona" Cache GC74M97

FTF - Nevada!

After a lovely day adventuring together, we headed back to Nevada driving through a rainstorm! Can you believe it?! The vistas were amazing, but I was surprised at the lack of pull-offs to take photos. As we entered Vegas downtown there was a backup due to an accident, so we exited the highway.  We grabbed a few more famous caches such as one at a well-known televised pawn shop, another at a drive-up wedding chapel, and even one at the airport. 

So, imagine my surprise as I was driving the surface roads in the direction of the airport to see that a newly published cache was still unfound 10 hours later! DETOUR! We arrived at the UNLV Campus DURING A GRADUATION and mingled with the guests in the plaza until we found the cache! Clean log! First Nevada FTF! 

Let It Shine GCAY6B0

What a great way to end a trip! As we settled into our seats on a red-eye back to Detroit, we marveled at the city lights from above!

And look! You can see the Sphere and the High Roller and our hotel from my window!

Postscript

Until now, even though it's the ultimate in "roadside americana", I've only had a passing interest in doing Route 66. After, however, this trip through Arizona into Utah, I'm determined we will do it in the coming years. We're also planning a trip to Salt Lake City in our future, too.

Las Vegas Adventure: A Virtual's Paradise

Where do you go if you're an adult and love Roadside Americana? Why, the Las Vegas Strip!

TaGeez and I spent a glorious week in September exploring Las Vegas and its environs. Our main focus was a fun environment, lots of photo ops, and people watching! As geocachers, however, you have to get the caches in! We spent the first few days exploring the Strip and grabbing some Virtuals!

Can you believe our first stop our first morning was the iconic sign? Go early! Luckily we found some really nice Aussies who were willing to snap a few pics! Don't forget to grab the traditional nearby.

Welcome to Las Vegas GC729A

Almost immediately we spotted our first benchmark. The sidewalks of the strips are lined with them! 

According to AtlastObscura.com: 

The Las Vegas strip is also known as the busiest street in the world with over 40 million visitors each year. So, it’s very important that its location is clear on maps and GPS. This is typically achieved by surveyors who measure the exact location of several hundred points on the strip, each of them marked with a brass medallion. Besides serving as an absolute position marker, these benchmarks also help surveyors determine if the ground under the strip is stable with the weight of all the casinos surrounding it. 

The weather was perfect for exploring! Shocking to discover Las Vegas was having a "cold spell" - it was cooler in Las Vegas than back in Detroit!

Sphinx in Las Vegas GCAJHYC

Ain't he grand at MGM Grand!

In the Belly of the Beast GC4E94

We spent our first day walking up one side of the strip to the other- clocking almost 30,000 steps! We were fortified by the M&M Store, Hershey Store, and lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. 

MM MM Good GC4CE1

Can you believe we were earning smileys for taking these pictures? Consider yourself lucky that we're only sharing a handful - I took over 2,200 photos!

Eiffel Tower GC9D67

Ooh, time to head in for dinner! This was across the street from our hotel at Cesar's Forum. We met a friend and had a delicious dinner at Carmine's. 

Toga Party GCB0EB

Surprise! Surprise! This turned out to be my favorite virtual. Many of the others were placed in 2002 and have hundreds of Favorite points, but the Sphere fascinated me! You can see it as you land at the airport, from many of the hotels & walkways, and even up close!

💙The Amazing Las Vegas Sphere 💙 GCAJJJJ

Even with shaking legs from exhaustion, we made our way over here to the West Entrance to watch the show. This is a concert and entertainment venue, but the show outside was just as remarkable. We watched as the images danced and changed. 

The Las Vegas Sphere is a music and entertainment arena located east of the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. Designed by Populous, it features a revolutionary 16K LED wrap-around screen and spatial sound system. The electrified ball measures 516 feet wide and 366 feet tall, making it the world’s largest spherical structure

Here's the view from our hotel on the second morning. Admittedly, after all the walking the day before we were a little tired so we took a few minutes to write-out our postcards.

I believe I shared this before, but my family sends postcards when we travel. However, what do you write? Instead, we travel with our little Sprocket printer (so compact!) and print pictures of ourselves at the various spots! As the cliche goes... pictures really are worth a thousand words!

 

We are out and about again. Here's another unique trait regarding these virtuals: many of the CO's have very specific logging requirements involving signs with dates. There were so many on the Strip that we laminated these little cards and took pictures with them at each virtual. There's a circle around our names because that was the requirement at the Sphere.

Hell Yeah! GCAJGZ1

After Hell's Kitchen, we moseyed over to the Bellagio, which SHOULD have a Virtual inside! Oh, the stunning Dale Chihuly ceiling! 

The Bellagio lobby ceiling features a huge hand-blown glass sculpture piece named “Fiori Di Como,” made by famed artist Dale Chihuly. The piece is vibrant and hard to miss because it is made of over 2,000 brightly-colored glass flowers and weighs over 40,000 pounds. [FeelingVegas.com]

Then you walk past the lobby in the Conservatory to walk amongst that season's display! They just changed this over to an Enchanted Fall exhibit! 

Either of these would make phenomenal Virtuals!

Back outside, we visited "Lake Vegas" (the Bellagio Fountain), knowing that we would be back for the fountain and light show the next night.

Lake-Vegas GC4E95

After our afternoon Marvel movie and a cooling siesta, we headed to the Fremont Street Experience! This place was WILD! This was "old Las Vegas" brought into the 21st century! 4 music stages, neon-lighted casinos, side show acts, outdoor eateries, and PEOPLE everywhere!

Make sure the look up!

Viva Vision is the largest LED Canopy screen in the world, and recently got a $32 million upgrade! The renovated screen boasts 16.4 million brilliant pixels, is 1,375 feet long, 90 feet wide and suspended 90 feet above Fremont Street’s renowned pedestrian mall, lined by iconic casinos and hotels. [VegasExperience.com]

So, it was surprising to me that the Fremont Street Experience had so few Virtuals - both a little quirky and off the beaten path.

Manneken Pis GC9P55P

This one was so vague (to me) that we just took pictures of ourselves in front of every piece of neon in the area and sent them to the CO.

Ne-On on the Strip GC4E96

With all the craziness of the strip and the experience, it was wonderful to find such a peaceful reprieve as the Neon Museum. Just north of Fremont, make sure you pre-order your tickets and spend an hour wondering around the classics from the golden neon era. 

Signs of the Times GCHYED

We stayed out late, listened to the bands, did some people watching, and dined at Coney Island. We enjoyed winning a few dollars at the "D" and topping our evening off walking around Fremont Street Experience, Fremont East, and doing a few adventure labs.

Warning if you go to the Fremont Experience. We took an Uber there, which was relatively affordable. However, we learned to late about "surge pricing" and were gouged for the ride back to our hotel. The fare was 5x what we paid going to Fremont. 

All for now! Next, we go from the glittery facades of Las Vegas to the Natural Wonders surrounding it!