Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Day Trip from Vegas


My next trip will be to fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada at the end of April with the BF. He's never been to Las Vegas, and this will be my 5th trip there, so there will be a lot of beginner Vegas activities - fine by me.

Another thing we'll be doing while we're there is driving ourselves to Grand Canyon West and walking on the Skywalk.

I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about the whole endeavor. The Skywalk is a glass walkway that allows you to see down into the Canyon. I'm not sure why standing on the edge and risking getting blown off (it was windy at the South Rim when I went 5 years ago) is less scary than walking on a glass walkway with the Canyon spanning underneath, but I think it's like car sickness. You get car sick because either your eyes see movement that your body doesn't feel, or your body feels movement that your eyes don't see. My eyes will tell my brain I should be falling.

The one thing I haven't done is drive over Hoover Dam, which we will be doing this time. When I went to the Grand Canyon, we went on a bus tour and pretty soon after 9/11, so nothing bigger than a car could cross the terrorist-target Hoover Dam and we had to take the long way. There's an overlook stop where I'm looking forward to getting some serious photos.

Here's our secret. We'll be going to the Grand Canyon on a Thursday. By doing this, we're hoping to avoid some of the traffic - both car and foot traffic. We're going to rent a Hummer H3 (We're in Vegas, live a little) for about $200 for two days (we're going to drive to nearby Red Rock Canyon on Friday). Include the outrageously high gas we'll have to buy, the $20 parking fee at the Canyon, the entrance fee to the Canyon and the $30 ticket to the Skywalk, and this is likely to be the most expensive adventure on our trip. But it's new for the BF and slightly new for me, and it's the Grand Canyon - I can testify that it's well worth the price.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about the great (and I mean great) deal that we got to Las Vegas, where we're staying, and what we're doing in Vegas itself.

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4 comments:

Renee Nefe said...

Well our last trip to Vegas we got free hotel and free meals...so can you beat that? ;-) course DH is a regular there and plays in the slot tournaments with all the old folks...ha ha, last time he came in 7th place and won $777!!!

I think that I would be freaked out about that skywalk thing too. We've never done the Grand Canyon though...we did do the Hoover Dam thing...it was about the only time I felt okay (I was pregnant with DD at the time and felt like I was gonna hurl everywhere else...course it was probably my body saying get away from all this cigarette smoke!!! LOL!)

BTW: My last trip was 2 years ago and of course the trip to the Hoover Dam was 11 years ago. Wow! Time sure flies.

Unknown said...

Sigh. Jason and I have been yearning to go back to Vegas. We went 4 times in one year! But it's been a while and we've been looking into deals.

I love Red Rock Canyon! Have you done Valley of Fire, too? Equally pretty.

There's horseback riding in RRC--we did that and loved it!

A friend and I went to the Grand Canyon on 4th of July last year--I'd never been, but we took the Grand Canyon Railway. Lots of fun! You don't have to worry about driving or paying for parking or anything--and you get plenty of time to look around.

P.S. When I looked up info on the Skywalk, I read that they don't let you take your camera out there! What the heck would be the point?! :)

Hope you guys have a fabulous time! I'm jealous!

Heather said...

Ooo that sounds like fun, although I would be scared to do that!! I liked red rock canyon a lot :)

Gemini and Ichiro said...

I want to see photos when you return. You always have such spectacular trips!