Monument Valley to Las Vegas

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13th August, 2022

Another really early start this morning. What a sunrise over Monument Valley. It was so worth getting up early for.

We were on the road by 7am heading for the Grand Canyon. There wasn’t a lot going on in the bus and not a lot to see, so most of us just dozed until we got there.

The weather report said that there may be a storm in the afternoon. When we got there just before 10am, it was a little cloudy and not as hot as Monument Valley. That gave everyone 4.5 hours to do and see what they wanted. Joe handed out our lunches and we all spread out. The two of us walked the rim quite slowly taking in a much as we could and madly taking photos.

We had a one hour helicopter flight booked at 1pm. Joe picked us up at 12:15. Sandra was very excited. When we got to the airport, we were told that because a storm was coming in, they had to shorten the flight to 25mins. We were both so disappointed, but safety comes first. I felt sorry for Sandra because she didn’t get a window seat but there was nothing any of us could do about it because it is all weight balanced. I tried to make sure she could see as much as possible, but of course, when I went to take a video, I had it in her way. After she told me, I made sure that the camera was right down low.

There were dark clouds on the horizon and by the time we turned around to come back, we could see rain just beside us. The pilot did extremely well flying around it and keeping us out of the storm and landing us safely back.

We had to collect the rest of the tour group and by the time we arrived, they were drenched. Only about 5 miles difference and their area had had so much rain that there were large puddles everywhere and water gushing down the gutters.

We headed back to Las Vegas with a stop at Route 66 and had our last group photo. We got back to Las Vegas approx 8pm, checked in the hotel, showered and fell exhausted into bed.

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