Day 12 - Grand Canyon + more Vegas



Hoover Dam

 AMAZING and truly beautiful - the Grand Canyon.
Woke early after a short sleep! Quick breakfast then pick-up by Helicopter people at 8:20am. Short 5 min drive to airport, checked in and boarded our helicopter for a trip to the Grand Canyon. Dave was our pilot.

Took off and had a great view of Vegas straight away, then headed out for our 45 min flight to the canyon. Flew over Hoover Dam and all 3 basin lakes that make up the Mead river system. Pilot gave us good commentary on the way.

It is very hard to describe in words what you can see from up there, the different rock formations and colours are absolutely breathtaking. We flew over the south rim with the glass walkway that goes out over the canyon, then we headed down into the canyon to land.



Jane - Grand Canyon



Had a photo shoot and a nice picnic that was packed into little baskets for us, but we soon had to make tracks back to Vegas so took off again for home.

Sean and I paid extra to have the front sets in the helicopter so we had the most amazing views all around. He took us back a slightly different way so that we could see more scenery - again it was beautiful.



Grand Canyon



Jane & Sean with helicopter

 Coming back into Vegas he started at the bottom end and we flew all the way up the edge then turned and got a great view of the whole strip - awesome! Back to our hotel by 12md, time to


Grand Canyon

 spend the afternoon doing some more sightseeing. To do the trip we did this morning by road would take about 6 hours each way, plus viewing time etc.., so for us it was great to fly in and out in half a day to maximize time spent trying to see it all :-)

Came back to the hotel to recharge camera battery then went to look at Tropicana, Wynn and Venetian. I loved the Venetian - does not just depict scenes from Venice but also Florence and Rome. Brought back fond memories of seeing the real thing in Italy a number of years ago.



Bellagio fountain



Back to hotel again for a shower and change. Had dinner in a restaurant in Paris and then went to see Cirque Du Soleil - O at Bellagio. I don't think enjoyed it as much as the Beatles one called Love. A lot of it was set in water which made it different from the others, but still an enjoyable evening was had :-)

It is nearly our customary bedtime of 1am so going to bed now. Tomorrow golf at Wolf Creek - about 90 mins drive from here but it comes highly recommended. Just about Vegas'd out now, looking forward to Lake Tahoe on Friday.

The Strip - Las Vegas