More Fun & Good Times: Las Vegas, Lake Mead, Hoover Dam & the West Rim of the Grand Canyon

It really does not seem possible that we are heading into the last week of the this amazing trip; The Southern Safari has been so much fun and we had done so much, we are lucky to be able to embark on these crazy adventures. We have been enjoying the Las Vegas area for the last 3 days. Always is incredible to come to this city and see all of the lights, actions and buildings that continue to sprout up between our visits. This visit is a bit different in that we are staying at Circus Circus RV Park in the MoHo, not quite the same as the more up-scale Casinos we have stayed in the last 2 or 3 visits, but still a lot of fun. The facilities were good, clean black-top, I am not missing the dust that has plagued us in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona; nice fenced K-9 play area for the “Boys” and the location is good, just at the end of the STRIP. We had fun contributing to the Vegas Tax Base, no big winners here. Of course we made our pilgrimage to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaretville for one of his “Cheese Burgers in paradise”.

Sunday morning, early (5:55am) we were picked up by “our” big black stretch limousine and taken to McCarran Airport where we boarded our helicopter out to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon. The weather was very cooperative; a smooth flight of about 45 minutes out to the Grand Canyon West. We had a bird’s-eye view of, Lake Las Vegas (a very exclusive area where Oprah and Celine Deon both live) Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, some extinct volcanoes, and of course some more beautiful canyon and Colorado River views. After landing we were taken by van to the Hualapai Indian Nation’s world famous Skywalk. Fantastic cantilevered Glass Bridge; you walk about 70 feet from the rim and about 4,000 feet above the floor of the canyon. The construction of this amazing place was very interesting, our guide, explained about how it was planned and built, there are 6 layers of laminated glass that you walk on (wearing stylish little paper booties), it can withstand the weight of 71 fully loaded Boeing 747 airplanes, is immune to winds in excess of 100 miles per hour and supposedly will withstand and 8.0 magnitude earthquake. Walking on it was not scary at all, and very enjoyable, quite an incredible feeling viewing the canyon between your feet. The rock walls surrounding the bridge give it a very natural feeling, despite all of the modern materials and methods used. You could not take your camera out there, so we had to make do with some not great “professional” pics that they take for you. After what seemed like just very few minutes they usher you off the bridge and you can walk down and see the bridge from a distance, take pictures, have a snack etc. Definitely glad we went; check another one off the ol’ Bucket List. Our flight back to Vegas was good, we flew over more of Lake Mead, saw where the Colorado and Virgin Rivers, enter the lake, this area like so many are in a pretty severe drought, you can see how low the lake has gotten, our pilot John said it was only about 2/3 of its normal depth. The final flight pattern took us back over Las Vegas. We flew over the old downtown, Freemont Street and then right over the Strip, a great vantage point to view all of the unique and colorful structures that make up Las Vegas. Would love to do this at night when the neon lights would really illuminate the ride. We completed our Vegas stay with a run into the old part of Las Vega. We wandered around the Fremont Street Experience; light, music and some very interesting people were there. For dinner we enjoyed a great pizza at the Lucky 777 Brew Pub, Mike liked their beer too. Tomorrow we are off; back into nature, get the cigarette smoke and bright lights out of our systems for a few days.