Vegas, baby!...our version

Meredith
May 21, 2017
5 min read

In June of 2016, as kind of a spur-of-the-moment trip (because for ENJOYOURIDE, we try to go to as many entertainment-related conferences - but we weren't great [I say "were" because we've gotten much better] at finding them out more than 2 weeks in advance), we decided to head to Las Vegas for a Bowl Expo (bowling).

This was my first time not only in Vegas but my first time experiencing a desert climate. Of course we picked the hottest time of the year to go - late June/early July. My mom said, "It's going to be hot, be careful," to which I replied - ignorantly - "Yeah, but it's a dry heat." Well, she was right - because even a dry 120 degrees feels like you're stepping into an oven to roast whenever you step outside.

*Sidenote, I bought her this magnet.. Mom knows best, kids - I just had to roast a little before I figured it out.*

So we got to Vegas, and aside from it being cool to see in person instead of in a movie (the Hangover), it didn't really impress me. I'm not really into feeling like a sardine when I walk down the street - I dig the wide open spaces with as little people as possible. Plus, sometimes crowd-people don't really leave much hope for humanity, so I like to experience a lot of people as little as possible.

We stayed in the Trump International Hotel (politics aside, it was a very nice hotel) and our room was on the 47th floor. So our view was nice, and our room had a kitchenette so we bought groceries and made meals instead of eating out a lot. My favorite story to tell from the hotel was while I was making breakfast one morning. I had made coffee with the Keurig, and was making eggs and sausage, and it was almost ready. So I tried waking Randy up. And let me tell you - when he is sleeping, NOTHING wakes him up. I first found this out in Florida when we were going to wake up early for early admission into Universal and not even water and an airhorn in his ear got him out of bed. So here I am, breakfast made, nearly comatose boyfriend, and - oh! - the coffee I had made first and completely forgot about and was ice cold. I proceeded to prioritize what I needed to do, and promptly put the coffee in the microwave. You know the cups that are made of paper? Well, let me save you a step and tell you that those DON'T GO IN MICROWAVES. It started a small fire - contained in the microwave - and I shouted, "Randy, fire!!" Needless to say, I know what gets him out of bed fast now.

Our View from the 47th Floor of the Trump Int'l. Hotel

After a few days of experiencing Las Vegas, we decided to see what else lay beyond the horizon created by desert mountains. We rented a car from Hertz (Hertz, donnit?), and drove about an hour east towards the Hoover Dam. The temperature on the car heading there read a nice, cool 105 degrees.

It was crowded when we arrived - although I'm not sure what the usual amount of people visiting there daily during the summer is - and HOT. The side of the dam that's covered to walk across was about 10x as crowded as the other side of the street that was uncovered. For all you wonderful people who have access to wikipedia like me, the Hoover Dam generates about 4 billion kilowatt-hours of hydroelectric power each year for use in Nevada, Arizona, and California - enough to serve 1.3 million people. To quote Forrest Gump, "I don't know much about that," but it sure was a big dam.

I mean, damn.

After sight-seeing the Dam, and drinking the gift shop dry of their ice water, we decided to head a little more east, into Arizona. We drove for maybe, 30 miles? and stopped off in Dolan Springs, AZ. In order to accurately describe Dolan Springs, I must bring forward your memories of old cartoons of the desert, with a bunch of run-down buildings where no one really pays taxes, and there are tumbleweeds blowing all over. Have you retrieved that memory? Good, because those cartoons were probably based off Dolan Springs. We met with a firefighter out there. This guy lives four hours away in California and works full-time there as a captain at a nice fire department. Once a month, he drives out to Dolan Springs for a 96 hour shift, just because that's how good of a person he is. They don't get paid enough in Dolan Springs, are hardly appreciated enough, have to fly out all their serious patients because the nearest hospital is 40miles away - and this guy does this just because he knows that this town needs help and he wants to to do what he can. He really should be a role model to all firefighters out there, Randy said.

After Dolan Springs, we decided to head back into Las Vegas, stopping to enjoy the sunset over Lake Mead on the way. The next day, we decided to drive to the South Rim entrance of the Grand Canyon, just north of Flagstaff, AZ, and about 4 hours away. We could have gone to the West Point Entrance (only 2 hours) but the firefighter had told us that the South Point entrance was more scenic.The drive was an adventure in and of itself.

We stopped in Ashfork, AZ, about 3 hours away from Vegas, and were astounded at the temperature change. Leaving Nevada as basically an oven, we'd had the windows up and A/C blasting the entire drove thus far. When we got out in Ashfork to stretch and check out the neat little local museum, it was 85 and breezy. No wonder everyone loves Arizona for the weather.

Then what surprised me was the Kaibab National Forest that surrounds the South entrance. I thought it'd be red desert sand - it was a legitimate forest around the South rim. Once we entered Grand Canyon National Park, we hit the rim right away. It was shocking; one minute we're driving on a road with no cliffs in sight and then BAM! There it was.

We parked and took a few pictures, and then drove a little further to the Kaibab Trail trailhead. This trail goes 7 miles down the Canyon all the way to the Colorado River, and you can hike it or rent mules to ride on (I don't know why anyone would ride mules down.. at some points the trail is so steep and narrow I could hardly trust my own two feet let alone another creature's four feet). We hiked about 1.5miles down the Kaibab trail (we could've gone further, but there's no saying we'd have had the energy to make it back up). If you've never been to the Grand Canyon, you should reallllly make a point to go. Next time we go we're going to look into doing one of those week-long river raft/kayak tours/camping expeditions through the river at the bottom.

Kaibab Trail

"Ooh Ahh Point"

Our First View.

Kaibab National Forest, south of South Point Entrance, near Flagstaff, AZ.

And then of course we had to stay for the sunset. Who goes to the Grand Canyon and leaves before witnessing the sunset? Which, by the way, looks like the horizon stretches forever over a never-ending canyon, and the colors are indescribable. We left after the sunset, and drove 4 hours through the pitch black desert - stopping to see about a million and a half starts - back to Las Vegas (definitely not pitch black, stars nonexistent). Going back to Vegas after seeing the immense magnitude and extreme nature of the Grand Canyon was difficult. That was when we knew for sure that we are definitely not city people.