8th September 2008, 01:43
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| BHPian | 210 Horses around a River - The GRAND Canyon Lets embark on a journey that I have nurished since my childhood. I have seen it numerous times in Discovery or Nat Geo, and it was probably the time to face it. The Labor Day weekend (Sep 1) was coming up and the planning was in process. I was pounding furiously at my laptop just to ensure that all my projects at office are in good state, before I leave for the long weekend. The post from 1100D (Anirban) could not have come at a better time. Some tips from him made me plan my tour better and also encouraged me to include Monument Valley in my itinerary. I was so happy that I did it. Rudra-da also helped me solve some corner vignetting problems that I was facing with my lenses and a big thanks goes to him. As the plan stands, I have taken an additional day off, Sep 2, to make it a 4 day trip. I have distributed these 4 days, into 1 day at the sin city, Las Vegas and 3 days at the Grand Canyon. I knew it was going to be a very tiring 4 days, covering almost 1500 miles around the canyon along with an additional 300 miles of drive. It was going to be more of a reconnaissance tours for me, trying to cover the Grand Canyon (GC) as much as possible, before I visit again with my family on a less tiring trip. So, here is how the plan stood: Day 1: Leave Greenville, SC by noon and drive to Atlanta (150 miles) and take a 4hrs flight to Las Vegas, across 3 timezones and pick up the rental car from Hertz Reach Las Vegas in the evening and explore the main attractions. Day 2: Leave Las Vegas as early as possible and reach the North Rim of GC, cover Marble Canyon and then spend the night at Flagstaff Day 3: Leave Flagstaff early and reach South Rim, then move onto West Rim and further to Monument Valley, before retiring for the night at Flagstaff Day 4: Leave Flagstaff and follow the East Rim, Take the Historic Route 66, Cross over Hoover Dam and back to Las Vegas airport where I would return the rental car and take a flight back to Atlanta. There would still be a 150 mile drive left, for me, to reach home at Greenville, SC. I always knew that it would be a race against time for the last 3 days and I was ready for it. Day 1: I leave my home at Greenville at 10:30am and pick up my friend and soon we were gunning down Interstate 85, driving towards Atlanta airport in my trusted Mazda3. We reach Atlanta airport by 1:30 pm, drop the car at a ParknFly parking lot near the airport and take the airport shuttle which dropped us at the Delta terminal. After checking in and having lunch, soon we were airborne, jetting towards Las Vegas. The weather was mostly clear and we see the first views of the GC from air, as we were preparing to land at Vegas. Here are some of the pics taken from the flight: The first sight of the amazing landscape  One of the best sights I have seen from air  It keeps getting better  This is probably Monument Valley in the far end  First sight of the mighty Colorado  Lake Mead formed out of Hoover Dam  Count the shades of brown, if you can!!  I had a 1500 mile drive ahead of me and wanted a car that would be sturdy, reliable and also a bit fuel efficient. I had booked myself a Mazda 6 (Obsessed with Mazda  ) online with Hertz. Back of my mind, I was always very tempted to book an exotic car. How about an Audi A4 or a Mustang Shelby GT-H? Vegas was one such airport locations, where these cars are easily available for rent. However, I did hold back my temptations and walk over to the Hertz desk at the Vegas airport and show my confirmation receipt. We have a corporate tie up with Hertz and always get special treatment from them. That was the last saving grace to get away from the Mazda 6.With fingers crossed as I stood, the lady at the counter pull up my booking on their system. She looks at it and smiles back at me. "Sir, is it ok if I give you a ******* instead?" It took me 2 seconds to comprehend and I involuntarily uttered, "Oh yes, of course". The thought of fuel efficiency went out of the window and there I was, holding the keys of the *******. I am still required to pay $20 per day only for the car which also included with LDW (Loss Damage Waiver), which means that I can simply walk away from the car, if something happens to it and bear no liability. Oh yes, did I say that it came with a GPS, as requested in my original booking? I familairized myself with the car and soon, we were out of the parking lot and onto the streets of Vegas, driving towards our hotel, The Stratosphere. I park the car safely at the parking lot and check in. It was already 5:45pm and we only had the evening to ourselves before we leave Vegas. We leave the hotel around 6:30pm, to take in the sights and sounds of famed Vegas. We decide to walk around and leave the ******* behind in the parking lot. For those who have not been to Vegas, all major hotels in Vegas are located along the 4 mile long Las Vegas Boulevard, also know as the Vegas Strip. The major hotels are built around a theme and all of them carry out free shows for the public. In the Circus Circus hotel, you can see free circus for every 15mins. In the Treasure Island hotel, there is a Pirates show with acrobatics and fireworks, the Flamingo hotel has a musical fountain display. There are other hotels like MGM, New York and Paris, built around the theme of these places. The Venetian is built around the theme of Venice while Caesar's Palace brings a mini Roman Kingdom into Vegas. What can be a better place for a Ferrari ad!!  Will upload the hotel pics in the next post, due to limitations of number of pics per post. While walking, on the way, I came across 2 Lambos and 2 Ferraris. What more can you expect in Vegas, seeing these cars roar on the streets within a span of few hours. One of the Ferrari's was standing at the red signal, first in line and roaring to go. I held my breath to see it zoom as soon as the light turns green. I was so mesmerized that I forgot to take a pic. As soon as the lights turned green, all the prancing horses came to life, filing the air with a roar that only a Ferrari can give out. In a blink of an eye, it was gone and away.  There is much more than these in Vegas which I cannot mention here . However, we did not intend to spend much time and planned to return to our rooms by 12 midnight. The various shows took away most of our time and when we returned, it was already 1:30am. Vegas was coming to life and the night was still young, while we prepared to sleep, thinking about the 3 days ahead of us. I was very excited about what to come next. Knowing fully well that we will be having a very tiring 3 days ahead of us, I barely catch any sleep, due to the excitement. We planned to leave Vegas by 7am latest as we had a full 490 miles of drive ahead of us, for the day, before we could rest at Flagstaff. |
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8th September 2008, 01:49
| #2 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 170
Thanked: 76 Times
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8th September 2008, 05:20
| #3 |
| BHPian | Day 1 continues.. Here are rest of the pics from Vegas: Hotel Stratosphere, where I put up for 1 night  Believe it or not, this machine actually moves   The interiors of Caesar's Palace shopping mall  Caeser's Palace from outside.  The Venetian from outside   Our Day 1 ends here. We plan to leave Vegas by 7am tomorrow. Still to come: Day 2: Zion National Park, Grand Canyon North Rim Day 3: Grand Canyon South Rim, West Rim, Painted Desert, Monument Valley Day 4: Grand Canyon East Rim, Route 66, Hoover Dam While I prepare for Day 2, lets see how many of you can guess correctly, what ******* could be. |
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8th September 2008, 05:58
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| Senior - BHPian  | Good show so far. Sure more is coming. Curious about which car you got. The hotels look nice. Have been to Atlantic City once and spent one whole day in Donald Trump's Taj Mahal there. What a horrendous reproduction of the Taj there. But the Vegas reproductions look better. Keep the pics coming. Sudipto PS - You helped me with the route to GPKot !! Hope to take help from you for this as well in the near future  |
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8th September 2008, 07:49
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8th September 2008, 08:19
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8th September 2008, 11:20
| #7 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: bangalore
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9th September 2008, 03:01
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9th September 2008, 03:21
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| Senior - BHPian  | |
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9th September 2008, 04:17
| #10 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Toronto / Kurukshetra
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9th September 2008, 04:34
| #11 |
| BHPian | Day 2 - Zion National Park Day 2 - Zion National Park We wake up at 7am in the morning. Roaming around the streets of Vegas last night has taken its toll. We were supposed to leave Vegas by 7am. The plan for the day was to pass through Zion National Park, onto GC North Rim before finally retiring at Flagstaff for the night. It would be a total of around 500 miles to be covered, with an estimated driving time of around 9.5 hrs. Finally we manage to leave the hotel by 8:30am. I think its time to reveal the *******. Well, it’s a Mustang. Here you have the first glimpse of it. The 7 stars!!  Soon, we were gunning down Interstate 15, towards a town called Hurricane!!. I get a first glimpse of the arid Arizona region. For miles across, you wont find anything except sandy/rocky surfaces with bushes at places. The speed limit was 75mph and I comfortably settle down for +10 on the cruise control. It was time for me to start admiring the Mustang. The God Forbidden Land  The car is quite heavy, low slung, a very precise steering, though a bit on the heavy side, has fat tires and is ultra smooth at high speeds. You wont realize that you have crossed 80mph, unless you see the speedo. We stop for breakfast at a Mac and soon we reach Hurricane. After Hurricane, the roads start winding up the mountains. The Mustang remained undaunted as I took the curves with little care to slow down. Peanuts for the Mustang  We were racing against time. We need to reach North Rim to explore the surroundings and also watch the sunset. On way to Zion NP  The "freeway"  We entered Zion NP by 1:00pm. The landscape is simply out of the world and needs to be seen to be believed. First Glimpse of Zion  Passing through Zion  There's always light at the end of the tunnel  The rock structures are straight out of a Structural Geology book and I was just unable to stop me from taking pictures. Ideally, one should take a hike or two to see Zion better, but, we were just passing through. Behold nature's creation Attachment 47163 At one place, we came across a Mountain Goat, happily munching on the thorny bushes. The Mountain Goat Attachment 47162 Stay tuned, we have not reached the Grand Canyon yet |
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9th September 2008, 05:19
| #12 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Detroit, MI,USA
Posts: 834
Thanked: 335 Times
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9th September 2008, 05:29
| #13 | |
| BHPian | Well done Mohit and Abhiram for making the right guess. Quote:
While returning from North Rim, I had to tackle a rabbit that suddenly came on the road, out from the forest. I was doing 85mph and I just flicked the steering so that the rabbit stays between the wheels. The car simply did great. In the RVM, I could see the rabbit still treading merrily across the road, as if nothing has happened | |
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9th September 2008, 05:37
| #14 |
| BHPian Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Detroit, MI,USA
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9th September 2008, 06:23
| #15 |
| Senior - BHPian | |
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