Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon Tour 20/9

As we had some extra days in Vegas we thought we would make the most of it and take in the Grand Canyon. Our bus tour picked us up from our hotel at 6.15am and took us to the tour depot where we signed in and got some breakfast. We were out on the road in an almost full double decker bus by about 7.30am and made it to the Hoover Dam in a bit over an hour. Just before the Hoover Dam is a huge electricity sub station that we are sure my Dad would have appreciated. The Hoover Dam is a masive structure and well protected by local cops and homeland security. There is a checkpoint everyone has to go through before crossing the dam to a lookout on the other side. I’m hoping the pictures will do it justice as it’s too big to really describe properly. The trip out to the Grand Canyon took a couple of hours from the Hoover Dam. We changed buses for the last 15 miles as it was dirt roads and not suited to the double decker. Once we arrived at the first tourist station we changed to a local shuttle bus that loops the main viewing areas and a ranch all on the Western Rim. We headed along to the first viewing area, Eagle Point, which is home to the Skywalk. It is named Eagle Point after a rock formation that looks similar to an eagle spreading it’s wings. The point is on the western side of the canyon and provides excellent views, all the way to the bottom and the Colorado River, about 5000 feet down. The Skywalk is a glass and steel structure built out from the side of the canyon wall, so that when you walk out on the U shaped Skywalk, you can see right through the glass and down to the canyon floor below. It is quite an amazing effect and some tourists were coping better than others. We did fine and quite enjoyed it, the only issue being we couldn’t take our own pictures while we were out there. We had our picture taken by one of the on site photographers. We will hopefully scan it at some point and add it to the blog to give a clearer picture on how amazing the Skywalk and Canyon are. We had lunch at Eagle Point before heading to the next viewing area, Guano Point. So named as some of the caves on the cliff opposite were formerly mined for nitrate rich guano deposits (bat poo). A huge winch on our side of the valley showed how the guano was transported across the huge canyon mouth. The view here was even more impressive than at Eagle Point as the rocks stick out forming a peninsula into the canyon. I’m not going to worry too much about writing about it, apart from saying that we were both really amazed at the shear scope and size of the canyon. It is very beautiful and the ever changing rock colour amazing. We spent quite a while sitting and taking in the view at Guano Point so we didn’t have time to do the third stop, The Ranch, but as it was more a cowboy display and pony rides we preferred to see the canyon anyway. Once back on our tourbus we headed straight back to Vegas and to the hotel. The return journey took just over two hours. It was a big day and combined with the drive the previous day, we were both very tired and had a relatively early night.