Viva Las Vegas!

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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
-Mark Twain




5/16/07

Start - 11:00 AM Mountain Time, Durango Co, 6463 ft above sea level
Finish - 9:30 PM Pacific Time, Navajo National Monument AZ, 7423 ft above sea level
Distance Traveled ~ 300 miles
States - CO and AZ


Mesa Verde National Park

I definately got a late start this morning, but believe me that wasn't because I was being lazy. I actually woke up at 8 AM, but since I had the opportunity to I decided that I was going to hang around in the land of technology (Durango) and upload some pictures to my blog so that everybody could see what I was doing. Apparently that was destined to be a 3 hour long ordeal, and I didn't get out until about 11. It all worked out ok though and to be honest I didn't mind the rest. When I did get going though, my destination was pretty clear. I drove the 40-something miles to Mes Verde National Park. At the front gate I showed my annual pass and the Ranger gave me some maps and told me that the visitor station was 15 miles up the road. Now, I have driven some pretty neat stretches of road, but nothing in my experience can match the one going into Mesa Verde National Park. It was then that I began to become very envious of my dad who had actually driven up this very same road 30 years ago on his motorcycle. I felt almost cheated for not being on a motorcycle (no offense C.J.) and I vowed to myself that someday I'd come back to Mesa Verde on a bike. That's definately a promise I intend to keep (sorry Mom). My dad told me that while at Mesa Verde he was able to do a tour in which he could climb up ladders and stuff and really see the Anasazi ruins up close and personal. Both he and I doubted that was still the case but when I got to the visitor center I decided that it wouldn't hurt to ask. I walked up to the first available desk worker and said, "I would like to take the tour where I could climb ladders and stuff and really see the ruins up close and personal." I had intended to act surprised and disappointed when she said that it didn't exist any more, so you can imagine my surprise when she said instead, "OK, one 'Cliff Palace' tour. That'll be $3, and your tour starts in half an hour." Numbly I said thanks, got my ticket, and walked out of the visitor's center. I wasn't prepared for that answer at all, and it kind of caught me off guard. But I drove to the Cliff Palace overlook (where the tour was going to start from) and stared at the ruins. I had never seen anything like them except in books and movies, and needless to say I was very impressed. I oogled the ruins from afar until the appointed time came and the ranger came over. His name was John and he was a 68 year-old retired high school science teacher from Alaska. He led us on the tour and he was amazing. I learned so much about the Anasazi culture and he taught in a way that was both fun for us and respectful of the Anasazi way of life. He was everything that I someday hope to be as an interpreter. The tour lasted approximately an hour and sure enough it did involve some ladder climbing and getting close to the ruins. Afterwards, I did some hiking but I didn't see anything that impressed me more than Cliff Palace. By the time that I was done with my hike, it was going on 3:00 PM and the park was absolutely full of people. Too many for my tastes, so I decided to head back down that amazing road. I did however stop a couple times during that drive to take some amazing pictures.


Four Corners Monument

At this point in time I faced a dilemma. Option 1 was to keep traveling west on 160 and see some things that I was only kind of interested in (like Four Corners) and one awesome thing that I'd already seen once (the Grand Canyon) but the drive itself would take me through the Navajo Indian Reservation and the Painted Desert which would make the drive awesome. Option 2 was to head way south to I-40 and the west to see the Petrified Forest National Park (which I really wanted to see). Basically, it came down to whether I wanted the preferred destination or the preferred drive. Based on this section's heading, you can see that I chose Option 1. I'm really glad I did too. my first stop was Four Corners Monument, which is that strange and magical place where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona all touch one another. i was worried though that it was going to be closed because everything that is a monument or park seed to close at 5 PM, and I knew that I wasn't going to get ther until about 6. When I got there though, I found out that Four Corners is actually managed by the Navajo Nation's Parks and Recreation Department, instead of by the federal government. This meant two things: First of all, they were open till 8 PM (yay!). Secondly, my annual National Parks Pass didn't work and I had to pay $3 to get in (boo!). But I paid my money and got my picture taken and the whole bit. I even bought some Navajo frybread (it was a little like a funnel cake but not quite as good). I ate it in the car as I drove off to my next site.


The Painted Desert

Deserts are beautiful I think. They are so alien and magnificient to me. As aforementioned, it was actually the prospect of driving through the desert that convinced me to take the route that I did, and it didn't disappoint me. As I drove south west, I began to see a large stormfront in front of me. It was quite awe-inspiring against the red desert backdrop. I tried to take some pictures while driving but I'm not sure yet if they came out. I hope they did.


Navajo National Monument (Entry #1)

You might be wondering why there is an entry #1 (and supposedly an entry #2). The reason for that was that on this day, all I did was camp there and look at the sunset. I didn't actually see the monument itself until the next day. At first I drove past the road to this monument. I knew I did. It was 8:30 (not that it matters but it was apparently 7:30 cause I had unknowingly driven into Pacific Time) and I knew for sure that this was run by the federal governement which meant that it definately closed at 5 PM. I got 10 miles past when I remembered that you could camp there. So I figured why not? I turned around and made my way back to the monument. I pulled into a campsite called sunset cdampground about a half hour before the sun set in a just-cloudy-enough-to-be-awesome sky over a red desert. I must have taken 50 pictures... I hope one of them turns out.



5/17/07

Start - 7:00 AM Pacific Time, Navajo National Monument AZ, 7423 ft above sea level
Finish - 10:00 PM Pacific Time, Las Vegas NV, 1600 ft above sea level
Distance Traveled ~ 500 miles
States - AZ and NV


Navajo National Monument (Entry #2)

So I woke up fairly early, too early for the visitor center to be open. However, I figured that since I was at this national monument, I might as well see what was what. So I drove over to where the visitor center was and hiked a trail that was about 2-ish miles long. It went down into the valley and was really cool. I learned a lot more about the ancient Indians living here and also about the desert in general.


Grand Canyon National Park

Since I made the decision to go to Grand Canyon, I had been planning on doing a nice-sized hike there. Maybe a 5 or 6 mile hike that went down into the canyon and back up. I got to the park around 11 AM and was immediately struck by how developed it was. First of all, the entrance fee was $25. Take into account the fact that the most expensive other entrance fee I had encountered was $10, and this was very high. If I didn't have my National Parks Pass and didn't have to pay to get in, I don't know if I would have gone in. Actually, I'm pretty sure I still would have payed it but I would not have been happy about it. I got there though and took my obligitory pictures next to the canyon, then I asked a ranger which hikes she would recommend for a very experienced hiker that was about 5-6 miles long. I handed her my map and she pointed out a couple trails that I could choose from. I said thanks, and got in my car to drive to the trail head of the first one. Now, throughout this whole time the park was rapidly filling up with people, but I wasn't too worried about it because it seemed like most of them were just hanging around the canyon rim and not going to crowd up the hiking trails. Well, apparently I should have gotten there a bit earlier because every single one of the trailhead parking lots were totally filled up. I couldn't park within 3 miles of any of them. Now, I'm not normally one to be put off by an extra three miles, but the sheer number of people seemed like it might be a bit too much for me. So instead of taking a couple hours to hike then camp somewhere along the road that night, I took a couple more pictures and decided to head for the original Sin City, Las Vegas.


Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

That night (afternoon) I decided to drive all the way to Las Vegas. On the way I was going to stop and look at the Hoover Dam. Apparently though, they were doing massive construction on the Dam and traffic was kind of crazy. Right before I got to the dam though all traffic had to go through a check point. Apparently they were looking for bombs, and as they waved the four cars in front of me through, they waved me off to the side. Apparently I looked pretty suspicioius though so they had to search my truck. That consisted of me getting out of my car and opening every door, then closing it again. I didn't get arrested though, so that's good. I stopped and took a picture or two, then kept going. I kind of wanted to stop and take the tour and stuff, but between the construction, the traffic, and the getting searched, I decided that I'd much rather get to Las Vegas. When I got there (to Las Vegas) I found my way to Alana's house (the friend that I'm staying with for a couple nights) and met her family. They were all very nice and welcoming. Her mom actually made all of us fajitas, and they tasted wonderful. After the fajitas, Alana and I went out to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, about 30 miles south of downtown Vegas. We did a scenic drive and did a bit of climbing (hard Class 4 mostly). It was a great welcome to Las Vegas, and after that we headed back to Alana's house and I hit the sack.



5/18/07

Start - 6:30 AM Pacific Time, Las Vegas NV, 1600 ft above sea level
Finish - So late I want to cry, Pacific Time, Las Vegas NV, 1600 ft above sea level
Distance Traveled ~100 miles
States - NV


Valley of Fire, Nevada State Park

Alana had spoken very highly of this state park just an hour north of downtown Las Vegas, and honestly with a name like "Valley of Fire", who really wouldn't want to go? Not I surely. So we decided to go. Now, in the desert it gets very hot. Uncomfortably, painfully, dangerously hot. In order for us to really get to do anything in Valley of Fire, we needed to leave early. The earliest either one of us were willing to leave Las Vegas though was 7 AM. That would put us at the park by 8 and then we'd have 3 or 4 hours of play time before we had to call it quits. The first part of the plan went pretty well. We got up, ate peach pie for breakfast, got in my truck and drove an hour north to Valley of Fire We got there at quarter till 8, so we were doing pretty good. We were able to do a couple hikes and climbs to see some beehive rocks and some petrified logs (remember that I wanted to see the Petrified Forest National Park, but didn't get a chance to so that was exciting). We saw a bunch of ancient petroglyphs and a pit of nasty water where an Indian supposedly hung out and shot everybody who came close (white men and other Indians). His name was Mouse so we saw Mouse's Tank. We hiked a bit into Fire Canyon and then we saw the white arches, the duck rock, some leftover scenery from the movie "The Professional" (this place is also where they filmed parts of "Star Trek: Generations" and "One Million B.C." among lots of others). By that point in time, it was 10 AM and 98 degrees. That was a bit too hot for either me or Alana, so we decided to call it quits.


Downtown Las Vegas

Obviously I can't be this close to downtown Las Vegas and not hang out there at least for a bit. So that was Alana's and my plan for this night. After resting for a bit (our morning venture into the Valley of Fire tuckered us both out), we headed to the Strip. We took Alana's car because mine wouldn't fit into the parking garages. For those of you who haven't been to Las Vegas, let me tell you it is something else. We parked at the Venetian and as soon as we walked through the doors dividing the parking garage from the resort, we stepped into Venice. They had the people in the boats and the street performers and the sky, the whole bit. It was very neat. The very first thing that I heard anybody say was some girl talking to her friends and she said, "Yeah, I just saw David Hasselhoff." Viva Las Vegas baby. Anyway, we walked through that and then we went into Caesars. We ate at a Cheesecake Factory there and saw the Atlantis show and looked at all of the statues. Vegas is like an adult themed Disney World, every structure there is it's own universe. We saw the water show in front of the Bellagio (twice), very cool. I saw stores full of stuff that I will never ever be able to afford (I noticed that everybody that worked in those strange stores full of useless expensive crap had silly hair styles - one guy even had a slicked mullet with highlights in the "party side", very strange). I tried to get lots of pictures but they might not have come out well as I'm still trying to figure out my camera. After playing on the Strip for a while, we headed over to Fremont Street. Apparently this was the old Strip where all of the original casinos and stuff was, but when the new Strip started being built with the MGM and Bellagio and all that stuff, Fremont Street started losing a lot of business. So the city of Las Vegas put a lot of money into it, covered it with a 500 yard long concave TV, made it a pedistrian-only section of town, and boom! Vintage Vegas lives. That was really neat though because we got to see the light show that they do on the big TV screen (the theme was race cars tonight) and also experience a littl bit of the old Vegas. Anyway, I definately enjoyed my "city trip" and look forward to coming back and experiencing Las Vegas again when I'm not dirt poor. I don't know where I'm off to tomorrow as I haven't looked at a map yet, but I should be in Denver in the next couple of days. Good night everybody!

-Soarpheat

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Comments

[Mom]

Experiencing the west through your eyes
Chris, So enjoy exxperiencing the west through your eyes. You are visiting places many of us have never seen. We are now seeing it's beauty and with humor. Love you Mom

[eli]

Excellent pictures, man. Your trip seems very interesting so far. Can't wait to hear about more of your adventures.

[Dad]

And the journey continues.....
Chris, Looks like you're getting the feel of the camera. Your pictures are great. The ones of Mesa Verde remind me of a trip I took long ago - at least the cliff dwellers houses don't look like they've aged! You are seeing and learning alot of our country. and sharing it with all of us. Safe travels. Love, Dad

[Alana]

Yay for Vegas!
Your pictures turned out really well! Way to represent my town...:-). Thanks for coming to visit...I had lots of fun! Remember to send people out my way to visit. Have a good trip! ~Alana

[Tyler]

So, what's your shower count up...or down to now? I figured that would be a big enough topic that you would write about it since you probably aren't doing it very often since its just you on the trip. :) I guess you were good enough to get into the Bellagio, so you must have taken care of that at Alana's house.

[Andrew]

Dinosuar Footprint.!
The footprint is so COOL! Were you scared that you'd fall into the Grand Canyon? I would be. I learned about the Anasazi Cliff houses last year. So cool.

[eric]

pansies or trees?
So was the "do not disturb" sign because the petrified trees were already so scared or what?