Day 190

Obfuscator writes: After a very restless night near Las Vegas Bay, we opted to make the most out of our Las Vegas experience by minimizing our impact on their economy while still seeing what we could. We did this by hiking around the large canyons that were right next to our campsite. These canyons had caught our eye the night previously, but obviously we couldn't see much in the dark. By morning we could see that there was a river at the bottom, not too far away, and so we grabbed a bit of our gear and started our descent.

The bottom of the canyon was clearly “off trail” as there were no trails and thick scrubby vegetation for us to push through. The river was not very big, but it was pretty, and had a lot of oxbows in it for us to check out. There was also an abundance of litter, as apparently everyone goes down there to toss out their old tires and beer cans. We also discovered some ground very much akin to quicksand when Onaxthiel inadvertently stepped into it and sank down pretty fast. Luckily he caught the sinking feeling quickly enough and jumped clear (it probably wasn't actually deep enough to be a threat anyway). After some photos of the landscape and its black ducks, we got in the car and left.

Our first stop of the day was at the Hoover Dam. I will first point out a helpful fact that we learned too late. The parking on the Nevada side of the dam is about $7. There's parking along the road on the Arizona side that's just a bit more of a walk that is free. Therefor if you plan to stop, just drive over the dam, park on the other side, and walk back. You'll get some great views of the dam from either side, and it's a very impressive structure. Behind it you can also see Lake Mead, which is also quite pretty, and is the largest (by volume) man made lake in the United States. The dam itself has some interesting artistic flourishes that make it even more interesting to look at. The tops of some of the structures would make Andrew Ryan proud, as would the monumental art.

Inside the dam, you'll have the opportunity to just visit the museum, or take one of the tours. The cheapest tour is a few bucks more than the museum, and allows you to see the tops of the power generators and walk around in the tunnels a bit. The more expensive tour sees even more, but was considerably more, so we opted for the cheaper one. You don't get to see much, but it's enough to convince you that in fact the Hoover Dam is another one of those cartoonish super-villain sites. The museum is pretty nifty and will give you a great chance to learn a heck of a lot about the process of building the dam, which was quite the marvel at the time. It eventually spills you out onto a great viewing deck over the dam, from which you can depart onto the dam itself and walk it at your own pace.

When we were all done checking out the dam, we headed across a lot of Arizona and up toward the Grand Canyon. A fair bit of this drive went along Historic Route 66, which I must say, was not nearly as interesting as the movie Cars has led me to believe. Lots of touristy junk though. In the town of Williams, if you ever stop there, make sure you drive at least several blocks off the main highway before you stop for gas, since the thieves of the town apparently make their money gouging travelers at rates about 50 cents higher than the other stations in town. We finally arrived at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in the late afternoon, and set about finding a camp site. We obtained one fairly quickly, which was good, since it allowed us to take a long hike back to the rim in time to see the colors of the Canyon at sunset, with a short stop to purchase firewood (which Onaxthiel good naturedly hauled around all evening) along the way. I'm not sure any of the pictures I took will do it justice, but it was stunning. The deep reds and purples of the Canyon were very visible at this time, and at no others we observed. The Canyon also, of course, puts you instantly in your place in terms of scale.

Later, when the sun had gone down, we discovered the Grand Canyon's wonderful free bus system. I guess they decided to go green, and simultaneously cut down on traffic congestion, and it's great. You can take buses all over the place in the Grand Canyon, and it's all free! This took us back pretty close to our campsite, where we eventually got a fire built, ate dinner, and went to bed.

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