Vegas and Utah


With 300+ photos to go through, a week's worth of stories to tell, and a massive workload waiting for me at the job, this has been several weeks in the making. The full report is mostly for my own sake; you're welcome to read it all or just browse the photos. There are a lot of photos (85), so this will probably take a while to load.

Heather and I drove down to CT on Saturday and, along with Mom, had some take out Chinese since the fridge was empty. I was also nursing a cold I had developed two days earlier. Not the best way to start vacation but I had plenty of medication to keep me awake or asleep, depending on the current preference.

On Sunday, we (Heather, myself, Mom, and Dad) hit the airport for a 5 hour direct flight to Las Vegas. Of course, the flight was full but we managed to get seats together. I was scolded for stealing the window seat but as someone who doesn't need to get up several times to use the restroom, I felt it was fair. I was well prepared with my iPod, movies loaded on my PDA, a book, and my gameboy. Some music, Lord of Rings #1, and some flipping through magazines had me on the ground in Nevada.

Somewhere over the Rockies




Tried to get a fancy shot right after we'd landed





We caught a shuttle to the hotel (Bally's), getting a good view of the area not on strip as we approached the back of the hotel. Its truly an armpit surrounding a gaudy road. Later on, when we were driving in the city but further from the strip, it actually got nicer again.

After a short period to settle in our rooms, we hit the buffet in our hotel. It was $20 but not very good. I guess the hotel/casinos don't make enough money so they have to cheat you on the food too.

Pat and Heather before dinner




Heather, Mom, and I went across the street to the Bellagio to see the Cirque Du Soliel show we had tickets for. "O" was the name and it featured a swimming pool for a stage. But then at times, a solid stage came up from the bottom of the pool. Very cool stuff. Often when people dove in, they didn't come back up. And several times, people just appeared in the water. We had great seats on the right side, in a balcony area, which offered a great view of the stage and down into the pool. The show was great and definitely worth the money. By the time we got out though, it was about 3:30 AM Eastern time. Straight to bed.

Monday was to be the day where we could sleep late and then do whatever we wanted. Heather and I ordered breakfast in, which was not only tasty but included alcohol. We met up with the parents to go see Caesar's Palace and the shops contained within. Caesar's Palace is just huge. We spent a few hours in just a small part of it. The shops are completely indoors but the giant vaulted ceilings are painted and lit to feel like dusk. Its somewhat like being outdoors and definitely strange when you do step back outside into the full desert sun.

After I waited for Heather outside many ridiculously expensive stores, we finally hit the sidewalk for the Sahara (the parent's had ditched us long ago- I don't blame them...). At the Sahara is a roller coaster and more importantly, the Nascar driving simulator. But first, the walk...

Everything along the strip seems fairly close together. You can see hotels way down the road in either direction. After just a few minutes, we could see the Sahara. But after 20 more minutes, it really wasn't any closer. But the end of the walk, we were beat. Over an hour of fairly fast-paced walking on hard sidewalks had taken its toll. The pedestrian bridges add to the time as well. There are very few crosswalks. Generally, you have to go up stairs or an escalator to a bridge over the road, and then do the same on the other side. It really adds up after a while. Plus, the crowds move slower there.

So, we finally made to the Sahara, we got drinks, poked around the Nascar gift shop looking for "Dick Trickle" merchandise for Jonathan, and then met up with everyone (my brother Pat and 8 of his friends, Mom and Dad) to do some driving. First, we had to watch some stupid dvd of how to use the simulator. You'd think it would offer advice on how to control the car. Nope. It covered such important items as watching your step when getting into the car and how to start the car's 'engine'. The guy in the video also said that when starting the race, put the pedal to the metal!

Well, if you don't start the engine, it does it for you. And if you start the race with the pedal to the metal, you just spin in circles, completely unable to regain control until you stop completely. You're sitting in a mock race car with a large screen in front of you and some hydraulics under the car to move it around. The graphics were rather poor, there was no way to know how fast you were going, what place you were in, or way to see anyone behind you. It was still damn fun though.

The first race was rather ugly with everyone just spinning and hitting the wall a lot.

That reminds me of another gripe. If you take on too much damage, it tells you that you have to pit. Well, since you don't know how the race is or how much longer is left, I was unwilling to pit. One guy, Joe, pulled in to pit only to have the race end the second he went to pull out.

Back to the story: The second time through though, it got interesting. I got in a group with Mark and Dan, two guys I've known for years. The challenge was on. Also, Mark had been drinking quite a bit.

Mark ended up in a crash right at the start that I made it through. Although I did get to high and clipped the wall once, Mark watched the back of my car for most of the race. I'm not sure what happened to Dan that race. We were the three leaders and that meant re-match.

This time, I had a couple of hits to the wall. I also didn't see anyone else except really slow lap traffic. When we exited the cars,
Dan was upset because he said he was running a perfect race until the very end when someone hit him and got stuck against the wall. Well, that cost him the race. When the printouts came out, I had narrowly beaten Mark again.

At some point amongst the racing, we rode the roller coaster. Its the kind that doesn't climb a hill to start but instead rockets you out at 80 miles an hour, accelerating there in about 3 seconds. The only other time I've ridden one of these, I told myself to never do it again. Now I remember why. That kind of force just plain hurts. The rest of the ride was good and I managed to get my hands up to my eyes like I was crying at the right time for the camera.

Heather decided she wanted to hit the Spa at Bally's while the rest of us went to the top of the stratosphere. I put her on the monorail (I had the monorail song from the Simpson's in my head the entire time we were there...) and hit the sidewalk to catch up to everyone else. From a distance, it looked like the Stratosphere is almost directly across the street from the Sahara. Oops. It was a good 10-15 minutes walk- almost a mile I would suspect.

The Stratosphere - looks close... nope.



There was some confusion finding the entrance once inside. You have to walk through the casino and past all of the stores, go up several flights of stairs and so on. I was considering riding the roller coaster on the top of this thing but its turns out it was closed. Why? Because it wasn't exciting enough. No comment. I'll let you decide for yourself on that one.

Anyway, we worked our way through security and to the elevator up. It was fast. It took no more time to go up 1000 feet than the hotel elevator to the 23rd floor. We got to the observation deck and had a look around, took photos, and marveled at just how large Vegas is in terms of land coverage.

The tower's shadow



The Strip. Our hotel was the white one with the blue strip along the top, just to the left of the shiny copper hotel on the left side of the road. Its funny how the distance looks more accurate up there.



There were 4 people stupid enough to ride the rides up there and the rest of us were on camera duty. We hit the outdoor deck to watch. The first ride is one of those towers that shoots up in the air. From our point of view, this one wasn't to exciting. The second ride was this roller coaster car looking thing that tips forward over the edge and rides its short track as if you're going down. It doesn't sound bad but it was actually tough to watch. My father and I yelling things like "Its broken!" and "Is that a loose bolt?" really helped.

The final ride was this thing that spins and hangs you out over the edge. This was just hard to watch without getting dizzy. This was also the best one for watching people's reactions, since the ride was quite long. Various people had mixed reactions from "Hey, this is okay." to "I'm not opening my eyes or unclenching my fists until I'm sure this ride is over! @#$! $%^!"

Mark and Joe




Pat giving the thumbs-up




After everyone had their fill of the rides, we took the elevator back down. There was now the question of how to get back to Bally's. Everyone seemed willing to walk but Dad and I opted for the monorail. Just the walk to the monorail was enough for us. It took us a second to figure out how buy a ticket and get through the gate. You just don't put the ticket in but take it back out from a different slot. Until you do that, a loud alarm sounds. Everyone looks at you. Its great.

The monorail was okay. Its mostly back from the strip, so the view is of the back of many of the hotels. It would have been much better going down the middle of the strip, but there's really no way to build that.

The Monorail (feel free to sing the song from the Simpson's)



I had a note for me in the room. Heather was down at the spa. She only a had a 30 minute appointment for something cheap but she managed to make full use of the various sauna/whirlpool/etc facilities there both before and after. Good work honey!

View from the room




It was a while before she got back. Dad had fallen asleep by the time Mom and Pat got back from walking all the way from the Stratosphere. We were all beat and needed to be up for a 6 AM departure for the Grand Canyon. So, we had dinner at the exotic italian Sbarro's pizzeria.

The next morning, we woke up shortly after 5 AM to get ready to get on a bus for many hours. By 6, we (Me, Heather, Mom, Dad, Pat and 4 of Pat's friends) were over at the Paris hotel to meet the bus.

The morning crew, minus Dad and myself, the photographer




The driver we got was pretty good and his plan of attack (which was just that) was to get to all of the stops before the other buses. So, everything was strictly timed. That was fine at the rest stops on the long drive out and back but it felt a little rushed at some of the scenic stops at the canyon. At times, you had to choose between the view and visitor center/restroom.

We drove over the Hoover dam but stopped for photos too far to walk out onto it. That's something I wouldn't mind going back to do. The opportunities for terrible jokes such as 'take some dam photos already' are just too good to pass up.

Dam photo - the top side which isn't as exciting as the huge face.



At lunch on the drive:





The Canyon itself was as cool as I'd expected. The vast size was really hard to truly comprehend. I did remember my binoculars and was able to get a peek at the Colorado river far away and below - most of the river was obscured by ever deeper canyons - all but one spot.

Canyon photos, which of course don't do it justice, since its 16 miles across here:

You can just make out the Colorado River as a green patch just below the center of the photo.









Unfortunate Glare.






A trail leading into the Grand Canyon. It must take forever to get down when you keep going back and forth.





We got back around 8 or 8:30 PM. It was definitely a long day, especially when most of that was spent traveling to and from the canyon. I'm glad I went and if I ever go back, its by car and I'm spending more time there. One of those mule trips down into the canyon sounds fun.

That pretty much summed up the Vegas portion of the trip. Everyone except Heather and I were up early again the next day for the flight home. We were able to sleep in a bit before catching the airport shuttle.

Some final shots of Vegas on the airport shuttle:





The weather was again perfect - 70 to 75 and no clouds - when we arrived at the rental car place. The guy behind the counter tried to talk us into a convertible. Heather's eyes lit up but I quickly shot that one down. We had a choice between a Stratus and a PT Cruiser. The Cruiser was a no-brainer and we managed to find one in a decent color with a sun-roof.

Within 30 minutes, we were well outside of heart of the city and on our way northwest to Utah. We drive a while until we hit a fairly good sized town and drove around lost until we found the grocery store. We spent about an hour picking out food for the next few days and bought a foam cooler and ice. We were now roughing it, the exact opposite of life in Vegas.

After a nice drive up through a canyon to reach the plateau a level up from Vegas, we reached Zion National Park by early afternoon - 3.5 hours after we set out, including the food stop. We were told at the gate that the campground (which doesn't take reservations!) was full. We bought our park pass anyway and went back to town to stay at the campground there. It turned out to be just fine. The difference between the park campground and ours was that ours had better toilets. We checked in and got out spot. In a crowded RV park/campground, we ended up with a fairly quiet spot. We set up the tent and prepared to head to the park.

Zion Canyon, where we were at the south end of park, has a great shuttle system. All shuttles are free and plentiful. First, there are the shuttles that just run around the town (Springdale?). There are stops everywhere, including in front of our campground. We hoped on one to get to the park.

At the park, there are a shuttles that go up and down the canyon road, most of which is closed to auto traffic. I don't remember the mileage but its a good distance in until the canyon gets too narrow for a road. There are 8 stops and each shuttle stops at everyone one going each way. If you just rode the shuttle around, never getting off, its 90 minutes. Its quite a trip considering the stops are maybe 30 seconds long.

Heather and I got our map and guide out. We decided on a few stops to hit that day but we were mostly just checking it out for the following day. We stopped at Weeping Rock, a short hike up to one of the cliffs where a waterfall of sorts is formed by the water coming out of the stone higher up. You can walk behind the water, were it was a great deal cooler.

Shots from under Weeping Rock:







Where water had carved the huge channels. This wall is way larger than me.



After that, we decided to just take the shuttle to every stop. We would jump off and explore until the next one came about 7 minutes later. Besides, just riding the shuttle is great. The canyon walls are all nearly vertical on both sides. Its home to some of the best rock climbing in the world. We saw two different groups of climbers while we were there. It takes 2+ days to scale a wall here- not like going to the local rock gym for an hour. We saw some deer and wild turkeys and various other birds. The canyon, because of the Virgin river and the controlled climate, is quite lush. Its surrounded by arid desert but down in there, its a completely different place.

Some various shots of Zion Canyon:














Not only is this giant wall with the piece missing really cool, but to the left, about 1/3 of the way up from the shadow are a bunch of rock climbers. They look like a black bug.








So, we continued our tour of all of the stops, picking things to explore the next day in more detail, until we came to the second to last stop. This was right by the river and was the start of walking path back to the visitors center. The sun was beginning to set as well, and the colors was getting good in the eastern wall. We got off and went down to the river to search for cool rocks or whatever else we could find. Then we hit the trail.

It was about a 1.5 mile walk, which goes by the campground (how we learned that we hadn't missed anything), that featured several bridges and open grass areas. We had seen a few deer at a distance but Heather has really wanted to see one close up. Well, we got our chance. From behind a large bush, no more than 30 feet away, a mule deer appeared. It looked at us for a bit, then moved on. We were both a bit startled at first, but the deer was obviously much more used to humans than we were to mule deer.

Blurry because it was getting dark but the flash would kill the pic completely. No time to steady the camera on something.



We also came across some tracks in the concrete pathway. If they were fake, they were well faked. They didn't travel in a straight line and faded out where the concrete presumably was already hardened. There also wasn't any sign about what kind of tracks they were. Anyway, fake or not, they were cool.




Sunset views as we walked:







We got back to the campground right after dark. Dinner was eaten in the dark since the night sky was perfectly clear. We were able to sleep with just the mesh of the tent overhead, so whenever we opened our eyes, it was like sleeping completely outdoors.





The next day, we hit the shuttle for the park again. We had to hikes planned. First, we went all the way to the end of line to do the river side hike. If the conditions are good, you can continue further than the trail takes out by walking in the shallow river up into the really narrow part of the canyon. I was hoping we could do this but the river was way too high. It was still fairly early- the sun still wasn't in the canyon yet, and the water was quite cold anyway.

Before the start of the days hiking




Cool stump along the river




Another cool stump




Heather with a big tree with 3 trunks




She is strong



It was still chilly as the sun was just starting to enter the canyon











The sun finally about to reach us



We then hit the lodge for some lunch, ice cream, and relaxation.



After that, we did the Emerald Pool hike. There are 3 emerald pools, none of which was emerald by any means. But they are on 3 levels with the middle flowing into the lower via a waterfall - another one that you could walk behind. The sun was perfect for photos too.

I pushed on to the upper pool, which was a steady uphill hike in the blazing sun. We were hot and low on water by the time we reached in. It was also swarming with loud kids. I snapped some photos and left.

No-So-Emerald Pool Photos:























The extra hiking had us into the afternoon when we returned to the car. We had left the car in our campsite, which was now occupied by someone else. Oops! We moved the car to the parking lot so that we could clean up before hitting the road. Here's where the only negative aspect of the trip occurred. When removing my hat, the strap somehow caught my glasses, sending them from my face to the pavement. One lens was smashed and the other was chipped and had a broken screw holding it on. I'm pretty sure I swore in front of some children. It took me some time but after rationalizing that they're just glasses and I'm still on an awesome trip, I calmed down. Still, they are very expensive and also a gift from Heather.

We hit the road for Bryce canyon, which takes us back into Zion canyon. Its a crazy drive on some sharp switch backs and a mile long tunnel to get to the top. It was a few hours but a nice drive. We passed some Bison in a large field and then saw a sign for a Bison BBQ restaurant.

On the drive out




Tasty?



Now, we were up another plateau and the weather and scenery was changing. It was no longer 75 but 55 and the desert was now grassy fields and pine forests. Still, we passed some cool rock formations, including man-made along the way.







When we got to Bryce, there was snow on the ground in places. Many places. We drove around the campground and decided to hit the motel just outside the park instead. It was well under 50 degrees with the sun setting and we were both ready for a bed and a shower. We got a room and a guide book; then cracked into the beers in the cooler.

After looking things over, it was pretty obvious we weren't going to do much hiking here. The hikes are really mostly strenuous, going down in the canyon. (Unlike Zion, you're on the top. And Bryce actually isn't a canyon, its an amphitheater. Its just drops down and levels out- there's no wall on the other side.) So, we did everything by car. The drive out to the end is 18 miles and we went there and worked our way back. The end of the road, Rainbow Point, is quite high in elevation. It broke my personal best.



We drove back to the entrance, stopping at each scenic overlook. There was quite a bit of snow and it was quite chilly, especially early on when the clouds were blocking the sun. The wind was good and gusty too. Most of the overlooks were nice but the highlights were really the arch and then the two major ones: Inspiration Point and Some Other Point I Can't Remember (or bother to look up). The names aren't important. They were just great to look at. We could see some hikers and some great hiking trails. Heather even said she's be willing to try some next time, when it was warmer and we had more time. Sounds like a good reason to go back! The only issue was that the short amount of walking we did do left us out of breath almost instantly!

Bryce photos. Note the snow on the north-facing slopes.












































After getting our fill of Bryce, we filled up the car and hit the road back to Vegas - the scenic way!

I had heard from a couple of sources about driving Cottonwood Canyon Road. Its really cool and worth doing and its impassible in anything short of a jeep if its at all wet. Both accounts are quite correct. Thankfully, the rain held off although we the dark clouds overhead and clearly visible rain in the distance made me quite nervous. The PT Cruiser is certainly no off-road vehicle.

The road itself is about 30 miles long and quite an undeveloped dirt road. It took us over 2.5 hours to drive it. We did stop a couple of times: once for a few minutes for a side trip to a giant arch and once because the bull in the middle of the road didn't want to move out of our way. I was fairly sure that my insurance didn't cover against bulls, so we waited. I tried to squeeze to the left but the bull just kept moving to block us. Finally, he relented and moved over to eat some grass.

The road obviously drives through Cottonwood Canyon, hence the name. The geology is incredible. The north end was sharp cliffs, rock formations, and steep elevation changes. The southern end was rolling grassy hills, many different deposits of rock making up sections of hills, and had long-distance views. The middle was the true reason to drive it: the cockscomb. This is a crazy formation made by two meeting plates. It pushes one plate up at a 45 degree angle. Its like the rolling scales on a giant alligator or dragon tail. Photos are better than words here.

Cottonwood Canyon Road photos:







The cockscomb: see the ridge going from left to right. It was many miles long and each 'peak' rose up around 500-1000 feet.







The colors here were crazy, including this weird purple top, pure white thing we could just see from the car. It looked like ice cream.







After he decided to move...





The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful. We encountered a quick dust storm in northern Arizona and the light was good for the return drive through the canyon to Vegas.

Our plan was to check out a park and campground just outside of the city. Back to the point about Vegas being so huge: After driving many, many blocks for many, many minutes, we realized we were still a long way from the edge of the city. I estimate we would have ended up an hour from the airport, which is in the center of Vegas, by just being on the edge. We had an early flight, so being that far out wasn't going to work. We searched for a motel (which was harder to find than you'd think- everything is so damn spread out) and got a crappy room for the night.

The next morning we were up, out, to the rental car place, and at security in 30 minutes. We both looked pretty ragged at this point and were definitely ready to get home. A very nice woman moved seats so Heather and I could sit next to each other; checking in an hour before the flights put us in the C group- the last to board.

In the airport, ready to get home



That's about all. We had a great dinner back in CT that night and a quick drive home the next day. An excellent trip- one I'd certainly do again or recommend to others. Although I would definitely split the Vegas and Utah parts in separate trips, or devote two weeks to it.

Posted: Mon - April 17, 2006 at 09:55 AM           |





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