Grand Canyon West

A very big thank you today to Saba and Savta who are watching ND in Las Vegas while U and I have adventures. Last night and tonight we are staying in historic Boulder City which was formed as a place to live for those who created Hoover Dam (tomorrow's destination). We are staying at the historic hotel where, I just learned, Howard Hughes, Bette Davis and Will Rogers (among others) have stayed.

Today we drove to Grand Canyon West. It's about 2 hours away for here by car and is all part of Hualapai Tribe land. To help out their tribe financially they had made it into a tourist spot. You drive up and then pay admission to view several points of the Grand Canyon. The drive there was long and beautiful, all desert. I learned for the first time what a Joshua tree is:

We saw quails, a road runner, a lizard, a few bulls and some birds I couldn't identify along the drive. We also saw some very odd birds that turned about pretty quickly to be helicopters. The first stop on the Silver Legacytour that we purchased was the famous Skywalk. I thought I'd be afraid to walk out on the glass suspended so high above the canyon, but I wasn't. In fact as I walked out I just found myself completely emotional at my first view of the Canyon. Meanwhile Hualapai photographers were coming along the walk taking pictures that you could of course purchase for $30 afterwards. It reminded me of my experience last summer in Tracy Arm Fjord in Alaska. There, too, I stood in quiet awe of the immense natrural beauty surrounding me, and then was amused to see the cruise line workers trying so hard to earn extra cash selling Irish coffee.

The skywalk itself, U and I agree was not so terribly impressive. Opting out to buy the photo they took of me, we instead went to the edge of the canyon and did our own photos along with everyone else. I enjoyed trying to get good shots of "Eagle Point" named by the rock formation in the background, not for Eagles landing there.

 Then we got on the bus and headed for Guano point. This was mentioned in the Grand Canyon West brochure as if an after thought, but what an afterthought it was! We were able to climb pretty easily up the giant red mountain of rocks and stand at this wonderfully high point with the Canyonu tterly surrounding us. I want to remember a particular moment. We were climbing the rocks to the highest spot on Guano Point and a crow flew over our heads. I saw it catching the wind and floating upwards on a draft. It's shadow rode up on the rocks beside me and I caught the view behind of the canyon. By the time we'd finished there we were hot and very very tired.

 In the interest of accuracy, I'll add that we decided to go on to the Hualapai ranch too, after all that, but only because I worried we'd miss something if we didn't. Had we not gone, all we would have missed was a fake western town with some toothless guys shooting very loud cap guns. We bought ice cream and left as quickly as possible. 

It was a very long drive back at the end of which we collapsed.