Las Vegas / Grand Canyon

Nothing could have fully prepared us for what we experienced in Las Vegas. The extent to which the resorts and casinos on the Strip have decorated and adorned their palaces of entertainment and gaming goes way beyond what we anticipated or imagined. Photographs just can't do justice to the detail and scale of the adornments and the window dressing we experienced over 4 days in this mirage-like resort city in the Nevada Desert.

The Strip

The Strip - New York

The Strip - MGM

That's not to say that we were particularly overwhelmed by the artistic or aesthetic qualities of the art/décor/displays/facades, but we also couldn't help be amazed by the extent the corporations and individuals who've created this El Dorado have gone to convey their particular theme.

Luxor and the Great Sphinx of Giza  

We stayed at the 2,500 room ancient Egyptian themed Luxor hotel. The main portion of the hotel is a 111 m high, 30-story pyramid encased in dark bronze glass. The accommodation lines the interior walls of the pyramid tower.

Luxor from Las Vegas Boulevard

Named after the city of Luxor (ancient Thebes) in Egypt, the Luxor is the second largest hotel in Las Vegas (after the MGM Grand) and the third largest in the world (according to Wikipedia). It is possibly the most recognizable hotel on the strip because of its unique design and could be clearly seen from the window of our aircraft on touchdown from Calgary.

Luxor from McCarran International Airport

The huge atrium created by the shape of the building was the largest open atrium in the world when it was built back in 1993 and the Luxor Lightbeam (a fixed spotlight pointing directly upward from the tip of the pyramid) is apparently the brightest beam in the world.

Luxor Hotel Atrium

Luxor Lightbeam

Even though we decided not to spend what it costs to stay at the The Venetian we visited and took some pictures to show you how amazing this place looks like both inside and out.

Inside the Venetian

Venetian Canals

Outside view of the Venetian

Our whirlwind Vegas experience included a scenic flight to the Grand Canyon and a timeshare sales presentation. In case you were wondering, no, we resisted the "too good to be true" advantages of owning a timeshare unit in the Nevada Desert.

Whilst we managed to miss the extreme heat much of the lower 48 suffered whilst we were in Alaska, the weather in Vegas whilst we were there was reminiscent of hot dry summers in western NSW and Adelaide.

The crowds of visitors and The Las Vegas Strip and Downtown Fremont Street stayed up very late and yes we witnessed people still gambling at 5:00am.

Fremont Street (Downtown) Experience

Walking through a resort (from one side of the building to the other) is a bit like the check-in maze at the airport - the casino corridors and signage are designed so you spend as much time as possible being tempted to spend up at the tables. Nevertheless there was no pressure at anytime to participate.

No visit to Las Vegas is complete without spending a day at the Grand Canyon. Our excursion started at 5:00am (which nearly killed Roger who many will agree is not a morning person). We were taken by coach to Boulder City then flew to the southern rim. The flight took us over Hoover Dam and the recently constructed bridge (460 m downstream from the dam) which takes traffic off the existing wall roadway. The bridge was built as part of the Hoover Dam Bypass project in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Hoover Dam

Understanding and comprehending that we were witnessing nearly two billion years of the Earth's geological history was quite awe-inspiring. The Colorado River and its tributaries have cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted creating this wonder of the natural world.

 Colorado River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon

Our tour included spending time on the newly constructed Skywalk - a double steel girder and glass platform overhanging the edge of the south rim but to take our own pictures we had to walk to the unfenced edge about 50 metres further to the east.

Grand Canyon SkyWalk

The swarm of helicopters taking visitors into the valley helped us appreciate the immense size of the canyon as they were transformed into tiny, noisy "insects" silhouetted against the cliffs forming the north rim.

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That's all for now BUT before you leave -

Have you seen the previous page titled " Canadian Rockies " yet?
(click on the link to take you there)