Las Vegas, NV to Page, AZ
The next leg of our trip was one of the most diverse in terms of climate. We reluctantly left snowy Mammoth and headed into the flats and toward the desert. We didn’t intend to drive the long way directly through Death Valley National Park, but we missed a turn and that’s where we ended up.
As we looked ahead at 80 miles of desert I sent a quick text to my sister to let her know where we were in case we lost cell service and didn’t come out the other side.
As it turns out, Death Valley is not as scary as it’s name. In fact, in March it’s quite lovely and the ideal time to visit. We enjoyed driving past rocky basins, Joshua trees, and sand dunes. We ultimately made it to a point that was ~180 feet below sea level; quite the difference from ~8,000 feet above in Mammoth!
We journeyed onward and arrived in Las Vegas on one of its busiest nights in years. We had unintentionally landed here on the rare Trifecta of Saturday + St. Patricks Day + March Madness. While looking for accommodations we learned that dogs are banned from the Las Vegas Strip most hours of the day. Additionally, almost every hotel on the strip charges at least another $100 per night as a dog fee! These restrictions coupled with the high nightly rates (due to the Trifecta) had us staying at a nice Best Western about a 20 minute drive from the strip.
After we stopped at a dog park and checked in, Mike and I got dinner across the street at the Black Bear Diner. This place was actually recommended by Mike’s family as somewhere to stop in Bend but we missed it there, and when we saw it in Vegas we had to go! All-in-all it was hearty and basic diner food but it did the trick. We were in and out quickly, grabbed an uber, and enjoyed the rest of the night on the strip.
Both of us had been to Vegas when we were teenagers and had vague memories of it but wanted to check out the hotspots again. We grabbed some drinks, wandered around and hit the biggies - Venetian, Mirage volcano, Cesar’s Palace, Bellagio botanical garden and the fountain show!
The next morning we took a quick trip to the Vegas sign (turned green for St. Patrick’s day!) before slipping out of town.
Truth be told, I’d been looking forward to the next portion of the trip for my entire life! When we were planning our road trip, I would often exclaim “I’ve never even seen the Grand Canyon!” to illustrate just how little of the US I’d visited. Well that was about to change as we took a planned detour on our way to Page, Az and drove along the southern rim of the Grand Canyon.
Although dogs aren’t allowed beneath the rim (which I hear is the best way to experience the canyon), we found an AWESOME tip via Lonely Planet to do the short hike to the hidden Shoshone Point lookout. We stopped at the information desk at the park entrance to clarify the route there and it took us a couple tries to find a ranger who knew the path we were looking for. After warning us not to let the secret out, he told us where to go. The trail was an easy and flat one mile walk through the (snowy!) woods to the most unbelievable view. On our way in we passed a couple leaving, and when we arrived we were the only souls in sight. There were no fences or railings interrupting the magical views and it was glorious! I was finally at the Grand Canyon!
We were treated to many gorgeous views as we drove along the rim, and when we noticed the time we decided it would be fun to let Merlin dine along the canyon’s edge.
As we drove on toward Page the landscape gave way to flat desert and the occasional plateau popping up in the distance along the way. We enjoyed the drive but it was a long one and we got to La Quinta in Page pretty late.
Mike was looking forward to seeing this area of the US ever since he read Canyons by Gary Paulson in elementary school, so that morning we set out early to see the Colorado River’s Horsehoe Bend. There was about a half mile walk to the edge of the river and, after yesterday’s private viewing of the Grand Canyon, we were somewhat disappointed to arrive at around 9 am on a weekday and find an endless stream of tourists walking to and from the site. The view was none-the-less breathtaking and we couldn’t help but think how fun it would be to take our boat out here!
Our next stop was the Glen Canyon Dam down the road. It was a little less inspiring but also a lot less crowded and offered views and outcroppings to explore.
At this point it was really starting to warm up so we headed to our last stop - Lake Powell National Park. We thought that we would be able to go to the Marina on the lake just to see it and take a few photos, but we were stopped at the entrance to the park and told we would have to pay $25 to get in. It was at this point that we realized we should have gotten a national park pass for the trip. Although we didn’t go to too many, we would have just passed the breakeven point making it worthwhile. Mike was very disappointed that we couldn’t just have a look at the lake and we decided we’d see it another time when we had enough time to rent a boat and really explore.
We turned the 4Runner around and started out on our drive to Colorado, this time Telluride, for the last ski runs of our trip.
