The Grand Canyon, Valley of Fire, and Las Vegas, Part One

THE GRAND CANYON

We finally got a late winter road trip (after flying and picking up a rental car).  We took off for Vegas on Thursday morning with Southwest Airlines and picked up a Ford Escape to drive to the Grand Canyon for two nights.  Our first stop was at one of our favorite breakfast spots, the Coffee Cup Cafe in Boulder City—

they make the best pork chili verde omelet.  From there the rest of the drive is rather boring.  Seventy miles from Boulder City to Kingsman, 129 miles from Kingsman to Williams, and then a final 55 miles to Grand Canyon.  

We drove right to Mather Point on the South Rim for our first Grand Canyon sunset.  

Weather was a little cloudy and we had missed the early sunset, but still got to see the effects of the falling sun on the canyon.

After a pleasant night at the Best Western Premier Grand Canyon, we drove the six miles to the Rim for our first Grand Canyon sunrise—

not very spectacular because of heavy clouds, but the weather was to improve during the day.  

There is a person sitting on the ledge in front of the person standing where neither should be.

     Breakfast was back in town at RP’s Stage Stop, a cafe/coffee shop/gift shop, which made nice bagel breakfast sandwiches and lattes.  

With breakfast out of the way we went back to the Canyon.  

We got views from most of the south South Rim vantage points—Moran, Navajo, Lipan, and Grandview Points. Each of the lookouts had a slightly different view than the next, although at some point the rocks began to all look the same.  We spent some time at Tusayan Village and Museum (Ta’-sa-in like “just sayin’”), 

an ancient Native American stone village. We also spent time at the Desert View Watchtower, designed by

famous woman architect Mary Colter.

The last of our day at the Rim was spent in Grand Canyon Village, the old main area that Anne remembered from the 60s with Bright Angel Lodge (1935),

Lookout Studio (another Mary Colter design),

Hopi House, a nationally registered historic building from the early 1900s,

and the famed rail station.   Our light lunch was an expensive and forgettable Wendy’s burger back near our hotel.  Good or interesting restaurants is not a strong point of the Canyon area.

After a little rest in the hotel, we went back to the Rim for our second sunset. 

This was quite spectacular.  With clear weather we could get the full effect of the play of light and shadow on the cliffs and bluffs of the canyon. 

       Then in the morning we got a fantastic show again with clear weather.

The temperature at 6:00AM was about 25ºF (that’s minus something or other C for our Scottish friends)—cold and clear. 

Again the light did an increasingly bright dance in the canyon—just the opposite of the night before.  

Fortified by another breakfast at RP’s we made a quicker trip back to Vegas—I just kept up with traffic, 85mph most of the way—in plenty of time to check into our Worldmark Las Vegas Blvd. Resort, our home for the next week.

Got to work on this Selfie thing.

The story of the rest of the week in Las Vegas will be the subject of the next post.