18th June, Wednesday - Grand Canyon
Day 19
So we set off this early morning at an unearthly hour - unearthly cos we had to get up early and pack and check out, then drive over to the USA hostel to pick up Lila who agreed to come with us on our little adventure to the Grand Canyon.. =P
And this driver, didn't feel particularly up to the task of driving 4 hours plus and many many km in an unfamiliar place. Haiz. What to do. 3 other lives at stake.
So we picked Lila up, and began our little adventure to the Grand Canyon! This time, our GPS was slightly more reliable.. Heh.
Drove out on the Interstate to the Hoover Dam where we stopped for a photo shoot! =)
Bordering Nevada and Arizona, this dam has was built in the 1960s and is still functioning now..
And since its nearing the dry season, you can see the drop in water level here! =P
Since the visitors' centre wasn't open yet, we decided to continue on our long drive to Grand Canyon West Rim. Now, we decided on the West Rim cos the South Rim was even further away, and consisted of an at least 5 hour drive one-way, and no way was I gonna drive 10 hours in a single day. I'll just die of exhaustion or smth.
Anyway, the ride to the West Rim which was supposed to be 2.5 hours, ended up taking 4 hours, as one of the roads was not paved at all, and of course, ended up driving at a snail's pace on that gravelly road. Fwah. The dust that simply swirled around us as we drove in - kinda glad for air-conditioning and closed windows. Phew~
Wind-swept..
And so we finally reached our destination - Grand Canyon West Rim!
It was a little too-commercialized for my liking.. -_-" had to pay money to enter the gate, then pay money to enter the park, then pay money to go on the sky walk.. and pay more money if you wanted to eat there.. -_-" Sheesh.
Ah yes, Grand Canyon has been carved out over millions of years by the wonderfully snaking Colorado River.. And my Sec School Geog teacher Mrs Ong WL came to mind almost immediately.. Haha.. =)
Anyway, so Grand Canyon West Rim is known for a few attractions - the Skywalk, where you walk on this glass floor aka CN tower in Toronto. Yah, its damn ex lah.. S$50, but I wasn't going to travel all the way here and not go on it.
Then there's Eagle Rock - if you look at the photo below, at certain angles, you can see the head of the eagle, with its 2 gigantuous wings spreading at its sides..
Eagle rock..
And Guano point - (no i didn't see any seagulls or bats there) where you get beautiful views of the Canyon and the Colorado River..
So nice rite? Beautiful lines etches into the rock face..
Lila, me and Sirui!
So after that, started the long drive back.. On the way back, we came across a car accident scene - this car was just totally wrecked, and the lady in there was badly hurt. However, she was still stable and conscious, but you could smell the alcohol on her and the alcohol bottles that were flung out of the car and strewn around the area. A few other passers-by had stopped and called for the ambulance already. Of course we stopped too to see if there was anyway we could help. The lady was crying out frantically for her baby, who was suppsoed to have been flung out of the car - but thankfully after calling the husband, learnt that the baby was actually safely at home with the father. Thankfully the ambulance arrived pretty quickly and brought her to hospital..
Had a pit stop at one of those kitsch little town diners on the way back for lunch. We had wanted to stop at Hoover Dam visitor's centre on the way back, but was running out of time (cos we had to return the car by 5pm), so I literally floored the accelerator at the speed limit - despite many many US cars still zooming by me on my sides as if i was standing still - in a rush to meet the deadline.
Anyway Murphy's Law came into effect - almost eveything that could go wrong, started to go whacked. First, the stupid GPS which has been working fine throughout the whole day started to act up, giving us crazy and circuitous directions - so much that I was forced to navigate from memory the way back to the car rental once we had reached back into downtown LV. Then obviously we were past 5pm, so began the series of frantic phone calls to the office to try to convince them that we didn't meant to be late!
To cut a long story short, we reached back 20 minutes late, and literally begged the car rental person to help us check out the car cos we were leaving town that very same night. Heaving a sigh of relief, we decided to spend our last night in Vegas by doing a spot of shopping.. Hehe..
After dinner and a quick trip back to the Hotel to grab our bags, we made our way to the Greyhound station for our overnight trip to Los Angeles.. Our last leg of journey in the States!
So we set off this early morning at an unearthly hour - unearthly cos we had to get up early and pack and check out, then drive over to the USA hostel to pick up Lila who agreed to come with us on our little adventure to the Grand Canyon.. =P
And this driver, didn't feel particularly up to the task of driving 4 hours plus and many many km in an unfamiliar place. Haiz. What to do. 3 other lives at stake.
So we picked Lila up, and began our little adventure to the Grand Canyon! This time, our GPS was slightly more reliable.. Heh.
Drove out on the Interstate to the Hoover Dam where we stopped for a photo shoot! =)
Bordering Nevada and Arizona, this dam has was built in the 1960s and is still functioning now..
And since its nearing the dry season, you can see the drop in water level here! =P
Since the visitors' centre wasn't open yet, we decided to continue on our long drive to Grand Canyon West Rim. Now, we decided on the West Rim cos the South Rim was even further away, and consisted of an at least 5 hour drive one-way, and no way was I gonna drive 10 hours in a single day. I'll just die of exhaustion or smth.
Anyway, the ride to the West Rim which was supposed to be 2.5 hours, ended up taking 4 hours, as one of the roads was not paved at all, and of course, ended up driving at a snail's pace on that gravelly road. Fwah. The dust that simply swirled around us as we drove in - kinda glad for air-conditioning and closed windows. Phew~
Wind-swept..
And so we finally reached our destination - Grand Canyon West Rim!
It was a little too-commercialized for my liking.. -_-" had to pay money to enter the gate, then pay money to enter the park, then pay money to go on the sky walk.. and pay more money if you wanted to eat there.. -_-" Sheesh.
Ah yes, Grand Canyon has been carved out over millions of years by the wonderfully snaking Colorado River.. And my Sec School Geog teacher Mrs Ong WL came to mind almost immediately.. Haha.. =)
Anyway, so Grand Canyon West Rim is known for a few attractions - the Skywalk, where you walk on this glass floor aka CN tower in Toronto. Yah, its damn ex lah.. S$50, but I wasn't going to travel all the way here and not go on it.
Then there's Eagle Rock - if you look at the photo below, at certain angles, you can see the head of the eagle, with its 2 gigantuous wings spreading at its sides..
Eagle rock..
And Guano point - (no i didn't see any seagulls or bats there) where you get beautiful views of the Canyon and the Colorado River..
So nice rite? Beautiful lines etches into the rock face..
Lila, me and Sirui!
So after that, started the long drive back.. On the way back, we came across a car accident scene - this car was just totally wrecked, and the lady in there was badly hurt. However, she was still stable and conscious, but you could smell the alcohol on her and the alcohol bottles that were flung out of the car and strewn around the area. A few other passers-by had stopped and called for the ambulance already. Of course we stopped too to see if there was anyway we could help. The lady was crying out frantically for her baby, who was suppsoed to have been flung out of the car - but thankfully after calling the husband, learnt that the baby was actually safely at home with the father. Thankfully the ambulance arrived pretty quickly and brought her to hospital..
Had a pit stop at one of those kitsch little town diners on the way back for lunch. We had wanted to stop at Hoover Dam visitor's centre on the way back, but was running out of time (cos we had to return the car by 5pm), so I literally floored the accelerator at the speed limit - despite many many US cars still zooming by me on my sides as if i was standing still - in a rush to meet the deadline.
Anyway Murphy's Law came into effect - almost eveything that could go wrong, started to go whacked. First, the stupid GPS which has been working fine throughout the whole day started to act up, giving us crazy and circuitous directions - so much that I was forced to navigate from memory the way back to the car rental once we had reached back into downtown LV. Then obviously we were past 5pm, so began the series of frantic phone calls to the office to try to convince them that we didn't meant to be late!
To cut a long story short, we reached back 20 minutes late, and literally begged the car rental person to help us check out the car cos we were leaving town that very same night. Heaving a sigh of relief, we decided to spend our last night in Vegas by doing a spot of shopping.. Hehe..
After dinner and a quick trip back to the Hotel to grab our bags, we made our way to the Greyhound station for our overnight trip to Los Angeles.. Our last leg of journey in the States!
penned in the diary of memories by Alvin at
10:16 PM
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