On the Holiday Road 2013: Grand Canyon to Vegas

July 11, 2013—Day 6

We were up at around 4:00 am to head out for the sunrise. We drove to the visitor center at Mather Point (I think) and didn’t see one other car. We also had no idea how far it was to the rim from the visitor center. And, it was dark. My niece got a nosebleed. We decided to drive to the next lookout point, which was, I believe, Yavapai Point (or something like that). Still no cars to be seen. I volunteered to see how far the rim was from the parking lot. Armed with the tiniest flashlight ever, I cautiously started down a path. Something small, white-ish, and furry darted in front of me. I stood stone still, afraid that furry thing’s larger, ferocious mother might pounce on me. I thought about my dad’s sighting of a “panther.” Hmmm, was this really worth it?

After a few seconds, I sucked it up and walked a little way to find that we were at the EDGE! I went back to find the rest of my party, and we made our way to a seating area on the rim. We could see a faint orange glow in the distance, but for the most part, we were socked in with clouds and weren’t expecting too much. A few other people trickled in. It was cold and windy. But, we were loving it.

Standing on the edge in the dark. (No worries…there was a railing.)

It’s getting lighter, but not too much sun action.

Ta-da!

We were ready to move on about 5:30-ish. My parents dropped my niece and me off around the Kolb Studio area. We walked back to Yavapai Point to meet them. We saw a few deer (and lots of deer feces) and several species of birds. And, of course squirrels. There were a few joggers along the path, but otherwise we had it to ourselves for most of the morning. It was serene.

Cloudy morning at the Canyon

We saw quite a few of these guys.

We met up with my parents, went back to the room to finish packing and getting ready, grabbed breakfast at the Yavapai cafeteria, and were on the road around 10:30. It doesn’t seem like we were at GCNP too long, but we got a nice taste of different times of day and loved our brief visit.

We made a short stop in Seligman, AZ, which was a cute town that reportedly inspired Radiator Springs in the Disney film Cars. After seeing the Imagineered Radiator Springs at California Adventure Park a few days later, I’m gonna say the similarities were lacking. But, Seligman did have lots of cars around with eyeballs in the windshields. We got some Route 66 junk (and cranked up Nat King Cole’s “Get Your Kicks on Route 66” again, as well as some classic Elvis wailing about the bright light city and his fiery soul).

Not To-Mater

We were able to drive over Hoover Dam. For some reason I didn’t think that was still allowed, so it was a pleasant surprise. We didn’t walk over it because, well, we were just tired.

Hoover Dam. No Dam Tour for us.

We arrived in Las Vegas in the early evening and checked in to the Mirage. I really liked the Mirage, except I did not like that long haul through the casino to get to the elevators to our rooms. Surprisingly, the weather was pretty mild. It had been cloudy and drizzly for most of the day, and Vegas was bearable. We ate dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen in the hotel, unpacked a little, got online to catch up back home, then the niece and I had to hit the sack because we were getting our make up horseback ride the next morning!!!

The Mirage was a little swankier than our usual Hampton, and a definite step up from Yavapai Lodge.

Weather: cool and breezy at GCNP; drizzly and cloudy yet mild everywhere else

Miles travelled: 317

Time zones: 2

Dollars lost on slots: shhhhh