Nevada, Utah and Arizona in One Day

Even though we went to bed at about 2am, I woke up at 7am feeling pretty refreshed, despite the odd dream I’d had. I’d dreamt that I was looking after Robin Williams’ father, who was convinced aliens or demons were trying to kill him. He was very distressed and I only left him alone in his room for a second before I returned to find him dead.

I then went through a group of gathering photographers and reporters who were waiting for Robin (about something other than his dead father). I then went to find Robin who was in a shoe story and I was about to tell him his father had died horribly but then thought the truth wasn’t all that necessary in this situation so told him he’d died peacefully. I then woke up. Weird.

Glen and I went to Pantry again, this time for breakfast. The buffet place was closed (thank god as we didn’t have the time for multiple helpings and I don’t like eating much at breakfast anyway) and so was the poolside restaurant Glen wanted to try. We had a very friendly waitress who called me Superman because of the shirt I was wearing and chatted to us about our stay and what we were doing. She told us to be safe on our drive. I ate an egg white omelette while Glen had pork links (sausages) and a croissant.

We left as the place filled up (we’d gone at the right time) and collected our bags from the hotel room and went to find the Avis counter. I was a bit worried they might be annoyed with us as we were an hour late for our reservation. They’d given away the small cars by the time we got there…which SO worked in our favour.

We were offered, at no additional cost, either a Camaro or a Mustang. Both convertibles. JACKPOT! I chose the Camaro as I thought Dad would be impressed (he used to own a 1969 Camaro), though it was a hard choice to make. If I’d asked about the colours, I would have chosen the Mustang as when we went to collect the car, it was packed next to ours. It was ORANGE. The Camaro is just black. But both were nice and such a treat. Before coming to Vegas, Glen had visions of doing a Thelma and Louise re-enactment and brought scarves. Now we had the car to go with it.

It took us a little while to get out of the carpark. This was mostly because I couldn’t find the exit, and then, because we were attempting to get the roof down. It was an involved process but we eventually worked it out without breaking anything and then we were on our way, driving down The Strip with the top down.

It turned out to be a great choice of car because, with the top down, you get to see so much. We drove past the hotels, this time in daylight, and continued down Las Vegas Boulevard on our way to Hoover Dam. It was really obvious when the Strip ends as suddenly all the tall buildings are gone, you can see the mountains/hills/mesas in the distance, and everything becomes more open.

We pulled into Whole Foods to pick up some supplies for our trip. That place is expensive…and more than a little ridiculous. For those who don’t know Whole Foods is a supermarket for people who are really into buying organic, alternative, sustainable produce.

The double-standard though that doesn’t seem to enter into people’s heads who shop here (often in yoga pants or with dreadlocks and hemp clothes) is that the food still has to travel a fricken long way to get to this desert oasis. The grapes we bought came from Chile, for God’s sake. Anyway…we bought stuff and then went on our way.

An Engineering Wonder of the World

Our first big stop for the day was Hoover Dam, which is about an hour east of Las Vegas. We got there without incident. We’d put the top back up as it was getting a bit chill (nowhere near as cold as Toronto where we joke the sun is merely an LED in the sky, but still cold enough and windy enough to be uncomfortable after a while).

We followed the crowds to the dam, paid the $10 to park in the carpark and then went to look at this engineering wonder. If you want to do a tour or go look at the exhibits, you pay more money but we were behind schedule so we just walked around one side (the ‘dry’ side) and then up the other (the ‘water’ side) before heading into the gift shop. As a result, I learned next to nothing about the Hoover Dam, other than that it straddles the state lines between Nevada and Arizona, and that men died while building it.

I was impressed at the sheer scale of the thing, and looking over the edge on the ‘dry’ side can induce vertigo. The memorial bridge that is on one side of it is also an iconic structure and the whole thing is a marvel. Of course, what kept running through my head was a line from Absolutely Fabulous when Eddie says, “Not like Hoover Dam,” when she’s describing ‘modern’.

Back in the car we then had a bit of trouble figuring out how to get to our next destination. Glen had printed off maps of everywhere we had intended to go but the names of the streets had been chopped off so we didn’t know exactly where the turn-offs were. I then tried to use my TomTom on my phone but it was going a bit whacky (though still led us vaguely to where we needed to go). I was fine with the added adventure of possibly ending up in Mexico instead of Utah but I think it stressed Glen out a bit. Either way, we found the road we needed (after going back towards Las Vegas) and we were on our way to Utah.

An Unexpected Treasure in Utah

Our initial plan was to go to Red Cliffs National Park somewhere near St George or Washington in Utah but it took us a longer to get up that way than expected because of the delays we’d had from Hoover Dam so we skipped Red Cliffs. Glen was really keen to get to Zion National Park so we made that our top priority.

Before I talk about Zion though, I must say that the drive from Vegas up to Utah was fascinating. Nothing happened, which is a good thing (no gun fights or accidents) but just seeing the landscape shift and change was a real treat. Everything changes. The colour of the rocks or the soil, the shape of the rocks and the gorges and mesas. It was fascinating. And there was one part where we drove in between rocks, a canyon or gorge, that was…just stunning. I wanted to stop in the middle of the road and just gawp at it all. As it was we did plenty of gawping and drove slowly.

More stunning scenery on the way up to Zion. We got onto the wrong road at Torqueville which took us a bit out of our way but we rectified our error and we soon on the right road to Zion National Park. We stopped in Springdale for a coffee at a place called Oscar’s. We chatted with a woman who was probably the manager or the owner. She was from New York. When we said we were only passing through Zion and had to get to Page in the evening, she was shocked and tried to convince us to stay.

We were already blown away by the place and realised we could have spent much longer there, going for a couple of hikes at the least (and hopefully seeing a mountain lion), but we’d designated this a ‘taster’ trip and had a lot of ground to cover. We ordered our coffees (yes, I had an espresso to help keep me awake, which she made into a double), and once they were ready, we headed off into Zion.

It’s $25 to get into the national park, whether you intend to stay a while or if you’re just driving through. The cost covers you for seven days, which I think is very reasonable. We stopped in at the visitor centre first, chatting to a couple in the car park who were keen to have their picture taken. We then went and bought pins and postcards before getting back into the car and going along the scenic route.

We put the top down on the car so we could both get an excellent view of the rock formations around us. They were stunning, the only downside being that the clouds had rolled in and the sun was quickly disappearing so the valley we were in wasn’t as bright as it could have been. We were still staggered by what we saw.

It was just so beautiful and looked like something straight out of the movies, but was so much better. There was almost too much to take in, not that a lot was happening, but just there was so much to look at. For example, the position of this little jutting up bit of rock in between the two very high sheer cliffs. Or the half-domes that were embedded within the rocks that were just so huge.

The scenic route is only 6 miles long and comes to a cul-de-sac. We got to the end, hopped out, took some photos and then Glen drove so I could look around a bit. Unfortunately it started to rain a little on the way back so the roof had to come up again. Luckily, it didn’t rain for long and we stopped often on our way to take more photos as the sun peaked through.

We then went through the tunnel and popped out the other side in a vastly different landscape. The rock formations looked soft, and like they were slices of thick salami that had been stacked on top of each other but had tumbled. There was also snow – SNOW! – on some of the hills/mountains, which increased the further away we went.

We didn’t have enough time to stop and do a hike but we did get out and have a little bit of a walk. I saw what was probably sheep droppings in one area but sadly didn’t see any wildlife. Not until we were driving down another part of the road and I looked left and saw a very big deer standing on the side of the road. I was so pleased. We later saw turkeys milling about on the side of the road.

The weather got worse as night fell and the rain came down pretty hard and heavy. I was glad Glen was driving as driving at night and while it’s raining is not my favourite thing to do. We reached Page, Arizona, our final stop for the day a little before 8pm. We’d missed seeing the Horseshoe Canyon but neither of us was disappointed in what we’d seen during our jam-packed day. We’re both very keen to return to this part of the US and explore more of it. This trip, so far, has definitely whet our appetite.