Grand Canyon to Las Vegas

Awake early at 6:30 we briefly talked about going to watch the sunrise but soon S was back asleep. I rested a bit longer then got up to pack up and prep for the day. I served the driver hot coffee in bed along with a gourmet hotel breakfast of left over steak strips, hard boiled egg and orange juice. We had everything loaded up and ready to tour after checking out at 9 (mst)

right out our window

First stop was to check out the historic el Tovar hotel lobby, look over the Grand Canyon edge and check in at a visitor center to get the road advice to head north or south. Did you know it is the Grand Canyon National park is 100 years old this year??

this is one of the 4 boats that the 1 armed Powel brought down the Colorado river to find the grand canyon!!

But first we had to make the desert view drive to the watchtower. The watchtower was super cool and well worth the drive.

raven watching us and a cool outcrop rock behind him

watchtower

On route to Cameron which is the main road intersection we stopped at a Navajo outlook with the little Colorado river that runs thru the gorge during rainy season. The rain started a bit as we got to the car. It was only 50+ with 90% chance of rain and possible snow. We decided that this may not be the best wether to do switchbacks thru the north rim and pass so headed south to the I40.

look down, way down that is little Colorado river that is dry most of the year

The new plan was to drive Route 66 but maps took us to Williams which was where we’re got gas and groceries yesterday but not main route out. Back to the interstate we attempted to follow if thru australianstockhorse fork which did the same crazy loop. Eventually after asking some locals we hit the actual Route 66 but it was nothing special. Perhaps it was the raining weather. Near sp.... we got back on the I40 and the rain really came down. I made guacamole as the last of our usual travel lunch of jerky, string cheese and a cold brew.

Christmas tree in Williams and below my fixings for our on route guacamole in the rain

The interstate took us to Kingman where we got fuel then turned onto highway 93 which was painful as semis seemed to black both lanes rather then stay right. The time swapped back an hour again so now it was around 3. Even though the lanes seemed blocked we still made good time in spots of 70 mph.

We pulled into Vegas around 5 and made the trek across the city to chuck and debs arriving around 5:30. We were welcomed with a frosty margarita and spent the rest of the evening eating drinking and visiting. They invited their neighbours over to join us for awhile as well. Around 10 we all called it a night!