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.