More Grand canyon.

The alarm went off at 5:45 am, I got up in a daze and managed to get myself out the door, into the car and over to the Visitors centre by 6:15. Here's a map explaining it all. My lodging were at A, the Visitors Centre is at B and after parking the car, I caught the free shuttle bus to C.

This was my first real look at the canyon and it looked amazing in the dawn light.


Why was I up at this time in the morning ? Not just for the photos, the plan was to join a ranger guided walk to Cedar Ridge. This map shows Cedar Ridge.
We walked from the lower carpark loop to the green arrow. It doesn't look very far but it took us about an hour and a half. (Here's another map.)

You can see the trail going along the lower part of the cliff.


The colours were amazing in the subdue morning light.


This was only a little walk. Cedar Ridge is a mere 300 m below the South Rim and only 20% of the way down to the river.


The sun started to peek over the top of the rim and dapple the canyon.


There were a number of animals about. Can you play spot the Least chipmunk?
Here he is for those that missed him.

The sun continued to dapple and lit up the top of Zoroaster Temple.


For those that are interestd, (Hi Louise) here is a table of the ages of the Grand Canyon rocks. We walked from the Kaibab formation to the Coconino Sandstone.


Our ranger turned up and she was fascinating. She's been a ranger for 31 years at the Grand Canyon. (And yes, I've forgotten her name.)


After a quick chat about what to expect, we started down the trail.


There were more animals about. I think this one is Abert's squirrel.
Here he is closeup.

Just a pleasant stroll down the hill really.


There were lots of interesting things in the layers as we walked down the paths.


And the ranger stopped and had people hold cards against them.






The sea lily was tiny.


In contrast to the canyon walls, which were huge. (There's two people on the trail at the bottom.)


This is a native pink thistle. Ach aye and all that.


We continued on. By now the sun was up and the clouds were retreating.


The cliffs were amazing.


So were the warning signs. It can be 15 degrees hotter on the canyon floor that on the rim, and a number of people have died of heat exhaustion.


I love the red colour and the layers.


Looking back up the trail to where we started.


Big chunk of rock that had slipped.


Another nature lecture on the types of animals.


The ranger at one point said that they had a slight erosion problem.


Ouch !! Spikey and purple !


Some of the layers were really well defined, like someone had painted them.


This looked like the same someone had been stacking rocks.


The light was incredible.


Cedar Ridge is the red bump in the lower left corner.


More amazing light and cliffs.


The Colorado river is down there somewhere.


Final zig zag to Cedar Ridge.


Fossilised lizard footprints.


Froma another angle.


Cear Ridge with O'Neill Butte to the right.


Getting to the bottom. Optional.
Getting to the top. Mandatory.


See !?! I really am here. ;)


Looking back up the trail. The start is the first notch to the right from the highest point.


A closer view of the start, you can just make out the zig zag trail below the horizontal part ot the cliff edge.


O'Neil Butte and Zoroaster Temple. One of my favourite photos.


I was playing around with the tilt-shift lens that I rented and making the cliff look like a model.


Looking the other way.


I'm not sure what he is, but he wasn't very afraid.


Going up was harder than I thought it would be. The air gets thinner at 7000 feet.


Looking back at Ooh-Ahh point. So named because you walk down the steps and suddenly see the canyon spread out in front of you.


Halfway up the final zig zag.


I made it back to the top. Caught the shuttle bus back to my lodgings and had some lunch. Then I had a nap and went out to shoot the sunset, but that's for another post.

(PS. I used a larger size click thru photo for the post. I'd like some comments on whether people prefer the larger size or should I go back to the normal size. Here's a comparision to help you. Normal size. Larger size. Thanks.)

To the Grand Canyon and beyond !!!

After a lovely night in the Luxor hotel, breakfast in the most American of breakfast restaurants ("Did you want artificial maple syrup on your artificial maple flavoured bacon bits, honey ?"*), and a wander through the Titanic exhibition, I caught a cab to the car rental center and picked up my car. The guy at Hertz was fantastic, he made sure that I would save $110 on the weekend and gave me an upgrade for free. So I then drove to the Grand Canyon village via the Hoover Dam.

*Ok, so she didn't quite put it like that, but that is what the gentleman at the next table was asked.

I stopped just outside Las Vegas and took a photo looking back at The Strip.


I also stopped just over the mountain range on the southeast outskirts of Las Vegass and took a photo.


Or two.


I eventually made it to Hoover Dam, where it was very hot. 42 deg C or thereabouts.


I stopped at a lookout overlooking Lake Mead, which is the lake formed by the hoover Dam. It has been full once back in 1983.


I went on the tour of the Generator room and saw some of the bolts and tools used to construct the dam.




And most fascinating of all, a concrete sample ... ;)


We went in the elevator down into the mountain to one of the pipes that feed the turbines in the power plant. It's 9 metres in diameter (about 30 feet)


You can see from this photo where we were. (Look for the 30' Steel Penstocks in the middle of the drawing.) It indicates that we were 350 feet below the water surface.


We then went further down into the power plant.


I then went up to the top observation platform took this photo, looking downriver at the power plant and the new bridge.


I wandered across the dam. It was very windy and hot and a long way down.


The intake towers were huge, considering they were 395 feet tall. (120 metres) These are the two on the Arizona side.


The white rock shows the highest level of the lake in 1983. It must have bleached the rock.


The border between Nevada and Arizona runs right down the middle of the dam. Left foot in Nevada, right foot in Arizona !


I walked back to the Arizons side and passed the offical monument for the dedication of the dam etc. It has an interesting star map and various quotes on it, as well as two beautiful Art Deco angels.


The hippie chick on the left was oooing and aaahhing over the star map ...


I got back in the car and stopped for a final photo at an outlook on the Arizona side. (Note: in America, they don't have Lookouts, they have Outlooks. Go figure.)


So, after several more mountains...




And several hours of staring at this rushing by...


And a weird American billboard or two...


I finally arrived at the Grand Canyon Village in time for a spectacular sunset.






and then I checked in, ate some dinner and went to bed early.

Viva Las Vegas ! - Grand Canyon Adventure Part 1

I flew into Vegas on Thursday night and caught a cab to the Luxor hotel. The hotel is shaped like a pyramid with an Egyptian theme.

The lobby is a pyramid shaped space inside.


With scaled down statues and free cars to be given away.


And of course, people playing the pokies.


Upstairs they had an oblisik, as well as a small city, urns and two exhibitions, one on the Titanic and the other on human bodies.


And a Sphinix.


There were some familiar and unfamiliar eateries. This was taken at 1:15 in the morning !


And there had to be an American flag there somewhere. The rooms are built into the walls of the pyramid and the elevators travel at an angle up the big columns you can see at the top.


And you wonder why Americans are overweight...


Anyone else know what Australia's hottest export is ?? Me either.


I then walked through the tunnel to the casino/hotel next door called Excaliber, which had a medieval theme.


Although I'm pretty sure any castle that they didn't paint their castle like this in medieval times.


New York was right next door.


And the MGM Grand was on the opposite corner.


There were walkways over the road all the way down The Strip, I guess that was cheaper than all the lawsuits from the drunks who were hit by cars. This is from the walkway between New York and MGM Grand looking north down the strip. The lit tower just right of centre is the Effiel tower, of course.


Closeup of the MGM Grand lion with his multi-colour background.


And there had to be a stupid sign to finish with.