Vegas Part II

Today was our last full day/night in Vegas and we had our hearts set on a day trip to the Grand Canyon.  Now the TripAdvisor forums has been a valuable source of information, particularly with the planning/preparation of our trip and I’ve read all the tips on the doing tours of the Canyon.  When it comes to options and time needed for a Grand Canyon tour, there’s no one way to do it.

At the end of the day, it comes down to what you want out of a visit to the Canyon.  For us it was simply the experience of doing a day trip by driving on the highway, soaking in the scenery and fresh air.  We’ve been lucky our entire trip weather-wise, couldn’t have asked for nicer weather.  We booked a Ford Mustang convertible for the day and it was a nice choice!  Sure the brand new Lamborghini or Ferrari would have been nice, but the convertible Mustang was perfect.

We left Vegas at around 8.30am.  Traffic was fine; weather was perfect, but at this point too cold to put the top down!  As soon as we hit the highway, we were taken away by the views that surrounded us.

Prior to jumping in the driver seat, I wasn’t so sure how I’d manage driving with everything in the reverse (right hand side of the road, left hand side driver seat, etc).  But as soon as you sit in the driver’s seat, it’s not bad at all.  Drivers instinct probably kicks in or something.  Only thing I was doing, was reaching for the left hand side when changing into Drive/Reverse whenever we’d stop.

Those of you that have been following this blog, will know how influenced we are by everything American.  Mainly TV and movies.  When you see so much of this on TV and movies growing up, being here first hand and experiencing it is something else.

The drive was awesome and everything we pictured it to be plus more.

Back to the drive, about an hour into it, we stopped at a scenic lookout of the mountain ranges.  There was also a couple of native american’s selling some handmade jewellery.  Had a bit of a laugh as we left, noticing the sign after buying a necklace (see pic below).  I bought a necklace made of hematite beads and a tiger eye stone. I believe this necklace has given us nothing but good luck, more on that later ;-).

The sign we noticed 'after' buying a tiger eye necklace. lol

Space missing = my lucky tiger eye necklace!

After a couple of touristy shots with the camera, we went back in the Mustang and we headed on our way.

As you drive along route 93, to get to the Grand Canyon west rim (sky walk), you turn into Pierce Ferry road.  Just as you turn into this road, you pass through a small town in Dolan Springs.  We stopped into a cafe, noticing the “cappuccino” sign, but were turned away as they were closed and weren’t opening till 11am.  (we stopped on the way back, still no go!)

Coffee shop that never opened for us!  Nice people though.

We went on our merry way without caffeine.  Based on the directions we were given and also after some research on a few websites for the skywalk - we were aware that we’d have to stop somewhere and catch a shuttle bus as the pavement on the road stops at some point. 

Being in a rental car, we weren’t supposed to be ‘off-road’ at all.  As these things go sometimes, we ended up on a dirt road. This then turned into a heavily corrugated road with loose rocks.  About 5-10 minutes on the road, we pulled up into the “Grand Canyon Ranch” to seek some directions in case we’d end up on this road for too long.

It was a nice little ranch that offered lunch, tours and horse-back riding.  Horse-back riding was actually another thing we wanted to do, so after asking the nice lady there for directions, we thought about doing this on our way back if time permits.  So we were told there was only another 7 miles of dirt road and then another 7 miles on a normal road till we reach our destination.

Tents at the ranch

Jail at the ranch.  Yes that's someone hung up there.  No it's not real, KN kept telling me it was...

Hung prisoner.

There was no point turning around, so we pushed through for those last 7 miles of dirt road.  Those 7 miles turned out to be more like 9 miles, but felt like 100 miles of painful driving.  The road got worse, only because we were driving a Ford Mustang rental that was fairly low.  I’m used to driving a Toyota Prado 4x4, so driving the mustang on this road – as tame as it might be for an ‘off-road’ track, felt like the toughest road I have ever driven.

Every turn I was cussing, praying the car wouldn’t fall to bits.  Poor KN had to put up with this for 9 miles, when we finally reached that paved road it was like heaven.  Only I was still regretting the drive back.

Another 7 miles we reached the entry point for the skywalk.  A cool set up, the tourist centre is in this complex inside a giant dome tent.

Inside was a store selling touristy gifts, and also the desk for buying the skywalk/tour tickets.  One thing I didn’t realise, was that you had to buy a ticket with a package that contained the skywalk.  I assumed you could simply just do the skywalk, and take whatever time you like on it.  What you are offered instead, are a few packages that include visits to some native American reservations, a few different view points of the canyon, and then the skywalk.

At a minimum you’d need to spend about 2 hours for the tour, so unfortunately we didn’t do the actual skywalk/tour.  Instead, we opted to head back and go to the ranch, and do the horse-back ride with lunch afterwards.

So we made our way back after buying some momento’s, back on that dirt road that I was dreading.  Pulling over on the side, I had to check the car out and found something that made my paranoia worse.  The bottom plastic fender was broken off (not by me), obviously by someone else and they had zip ties to hold it together.  I suspect this isn’t the first time this car has travelled this path!

While we pulled over, we had to check out this snow scattered all over the place to see if it was real.  Of course it was real.  Being the easily amused person I am, I also found some snow on top of some poo!

Snow in the desert!?!

Poo snow!

We finally reached the ranch and booked a horse-back ride, what an awesome idea.  It only goes for half an hour, but it’s at a nice walking pace and the views of Spirit Mountain and the ranch were really cool.  My horse’s name was Ranger, KN’s was Pinball.  A dog named Taco also followed us on our trip, and we had a nice tour guide who gave us the background to the ranch and surrounding area.  I love how much personality horses have, it’s been years since I’ve been on a horse and I always seemed to get ones that ‘have a thing’.  Ranger’s thing was eating.  And just stopping for no reason.  Funny thing, after a while he got used to me talking to him and giving him a bit of a prompt to keep moving.

Pinball and Ranger

Taco!

Spirit Mountain.  In person, you can view faces on the mountain.

After our horsey ride, we went back to the ranch and got some grub.  The whole ranch was like a movie set.  I ordered the ribs with mash, beans and corn.  KN had the pulled pork sliders with chips.  Full on lunch, we bought a few things in the store and headed back to the hotel.

Damn good food.

The drive back to Vegas was just as nice.  We stopped into town to pick up a few things from WalMart (peanut butter supplies we lost in baggage claims).  Afterwards we drove through the strip at night, then dropped off the car at the rental place.

Actually before all that, we went through a drive-thru car wash. All the dirt from that road to the canyon collected on the back of the car, in the end we returned it in one piece, shiny and clean!!

Next up, our last day and final post.  Man vs Food breakfast, chocolate satisfaction, burger satisfaction, early flight back home...