Grand Canyon Centre Parks

Some pictures!

We haven't stopped for the last two days!

On Friday we drove out to the Hoover Dam. Ok, we've got dams in the uk, but they're not set in mountains like these, nor are they quite so HUGE! (and this one is only one of a series of 4 that control the Colorado River from it's source to southern California.) Until you realise that the majority of the towns and cities rely on this arterial flow, the enormity of the system is difficult to appreciate. The destruction caused by the river during the spring snow melt surges flooded the majority of the usable land which then went to drought conditions during the summer. Understandably, the Americans are very concerned about terrorist attack, so they have security checks on all cars approaching the dam. There are times I'm very glad we live in England.

So what's all this about Centre Parks? Well, if you've ever visited one you'll understand, but for those who haven't, let me try and explain.

"They changed paradise –put in a parking lot with a pink hotel, a boutique and a swinging hot spot! Don,t it always seem the same, you don't know what you've lost till its gone". (Joni Mitchell)

Centre Parks is very much about an image – the same lodges in beautiful areas, shuttle buses to transport you around an enormous site, twee shops and themed stores to attract (or repel!) customers and helpful liveried staff ready to answer your every need. Got the picture?

Ok, now put all that on the edge of one of the most mind blowingly beautiful pieces of God's creation. Yep, thats the South Rim of the Grand Canyon! Sadly mankind would never have visited it at all had it not been for early entrepreneurs wanting to develop it as a tourist site. It has no other value for the developer. But to lovers of beautiful scenery, and wild and wonderful places it calls!

Why? Just take a look – and as usual, the pictures never do it justice.

Fortunately it's not quite as bad as it sounds! The Canyon itself is relatively untouched, and you can walk along much of the rim with a view unobstructed by the ubiquitous safety barriers you'd find in the UK. All of the buildings are set back from the edge of the canyon itself, so maybe I've been a bit unfair.

But the views! My mind is still in overload!

So, how did we get there? Jen warned it was a long way (we'd worked that our too!) To be precise, if we'd driven straight out there, it would have been 290 miles each way. !!!!!! Hmmm – and much of that with 25, 35 or 55 mph speed limits L

We left Las Vegas at 5.30 ( it was supposed to be 6 but neither of us could sleep with excitement!) Drove straight there, with one stop at a diner for an all you can eat breakfast at a town called Kingman, which is really only known about from the song Route 66. We'd made a second stop at an Arizona Tourist information this time...nothing to do with the fact that it was on Route 66, and had a Route 66 museum and a very large Locomotive outside it, was it Ron? The information we got from them suggested an alternative route out of the Park, for several reasons.

After travelling up to an elevation of over 7000 ft we paid our 25$ to get into the park (ouch!) and spent a great time, taking LOADS of photos, and saying "Wow" far too often than is really healthy! It had snowed leaving a real Christmassy winter feel with blue skies and warm sunshine over sparkling white snow which contrasted with the red and grey rocks below. We were able to see the Colorado River 4000ft below when we went to Desert View on the south eastern rim, in Naverjo country. As the sun went down so did the temperature, we left the park at dusk and drove through Flagstaff, (also Route 66 fame) and saw a 1 mile long train pulled by 2 very large diesel engines which we had to stop for as it crossed our route back to LV. The Hoover Dam in darkness was a second bonus as it looked liked a dwarfs workshop, all lights and tiny machinery, when viewed from the top of the hill.

The light pollution from LV can only really be appreciated when you can see nothing in the black desert but the stars and then in the distance the grey glow; and guess what, we only saw two or three PV collectors in the GC National Park. The USA has soooo... much sun, and yet doesn't think to use its free energy. The power of the oil companies!

This return loop on route 64 added an extra 100 miles to our journey but was well worth it even though we didn't get back to LV until 11:30pm.

A little bag repacking was required this morning (ugh!) On the way up from LA our bags were technically 5 and 9lb overweight respectively (strangely Ron's was the heavier – I think it's the bigger walking boots!) All the airlines have different rules – American said you could check 2 bags each in, no problem, but they shouldn't weigh more than 50lb each. Our luggage weighed a lot less than 2x50lb, but were in one case each. Thereby hangs the problem! On the way up, the girl at the check in very kindly waived the 125$ charge for each bag she could have charged (another definite ouch!) but suggested that we repacked into two bags each for the return journey.

Not wishing to risk either of our decent rucksacks to the tender mercies of baggage handling, we decided to get the weight of both cases down just under the 50lb limit by putting walking boots, travel books, lots of the chargers for laptops, phones etc and our Trangia cooker into Ron's daysack (this being the oldest and tiredest one we have with us) on the grounds that if it gets damaged, he could probably do with a new one anyway. Sorted! Or so we thought. At check in, being a different airport, they were going to charge 85$ for checking in the 3 bags! Arghh! However, the check in clerk turned into another of our "angels" when he asked whether we were flying home –no, to the Cook Islands – "oh, that's ok, if we send them straight through to Rarotonga, there'll be no charge – we don't charge for transatlantic or transpacific flights!!" So the bags have the correct "RAR" labels on, and we won't have to lug than around at LA....Lets just hope they get to Rarotonga at the same time as we do!!!

As we say good bye to LV we are looking forward to our overnight trip from LA, via Phoenix (and by the time we get there you all will be sleeping!) to a south sea paradise. South Pacific here we come!

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