To The Grand Canyon And What Find On The Way

Today, we left the Golden Nugget and drove by some of the famous casinos that we had seen on TV, notably the Luxor, Treasure Island, MGM Grand, Bellagio, Circus Circus, New York New York, and more. It was interesting to see how enormous these places were!  From there, we headed back into the desert to work our way toward the Hoover Dam.

Much like many of the other things that we encountered on our trip, we were amazed by the enormity of the Hoover Dam. We wanted to hit this national landmark since we were going right by there on our way to the Grand Canyon. We drove around and were able to get a pretty good view of the water side (north side), but had to hike up to a bridge in order to see the south side. Alex and I made the trek up. Though it was hot, it was the type of thing that we didn’t want to miss. I really wanted to see both sides of the dams, and it was worth the hike.

One of the things that’s fun about a road trip is that you can just pull over and do whatever you find to do. Heading down the expressway, we decided to make a bathroom stop in a little town called Saligman. What we didn’t realize is that we were stumbling on what they called the “birthplace of Route 66.” The street was lined with shops, motels and restaurants that looked just like I would expect to see based on what I have seen in movies and heard from my older relatives about this famous route. We decided to take advantage of this step back in time and eat at the Roadkill Café. Kristi splurged on a buffalo burger, which was fun to try. The restaurant was full of stuffed animals, as one would expect, based on its name. They were really busy so it took quite a bit of time for us to eat there. After dinner and some pictures of the area, we were back on our way.

Once we were back on the road, we made our way to the Grand Canyon. On the way into the Grand Canyon National Park, we saw female elk in the wild. After going through the ranger station, we checked in at the registration desk for the Yavapai Lodge. Our room was small but comfortable and was stocked with eco-friendly products and a great view out the window of the woods between us and the Grand Canyon. We looked at the Visitor’s Guide and saw information about the sunset over the canyon and decided to check into that. We went to the Yavapai Geological Museum and overlook area, which was a good place to start our hike along the rim. We spent probably an hour and a half enjoying the breathtaking view, snapping pictures, and worrying about the many people who we thought were way too close to the edge of the canyon! It was beautiful to watch the color changes in the canyon as the sun lowered in the sky. We waited and watched the anticipated sunset time pass by and decided to head back to our room. It was then that we realized that we were somehow off by an hour, which we think might mean that Arizona doesn’t follow Daylight Savings Time. We drowned our sorrows over the missed sunset in pizza back in our hotel room.

When we were in town getting the pizza, we saw a commotion on the side of the road. It was a full-sized elk with huge antlers casually grazing right beside the busy road. He did not seem at all bothered by the many spectators, and I was able to get a number of good pictures. Seeing this wildlife, like seeing the bear, was a highlight of our trip! So, day eight was done in "grand" fashion.