Grand designs
The story so far:
The USA's unfathomable governmental structure conspires to close down all the country's National Parks the day before we fly out there for our long-planned holiday. We miss out on a visit to Alcatraz, and have to rearrange our travel schedule for the first week because Yosemite is shut.
Wednesday 9 October - Monterey: with neither side showing any sign of conceding defeat, we are forced to abandon our plans to stay at Grand Canyon Village as well. At least this allows us to (a) we book ourselves into the Monte Carlo on the Las Vegas strip for three nights, and (b) book ourselves on a day tour to the West Rim of the canyon for Saturday.
NB. The West Rim is owned and run by Hualapai Indians... sorry, Native Americans (definitely not Redskins). Although this means it has remained open, everyone seems to agree that compared to the South Rim, aka the "proper bit", the West Rim is smaller, tackier and generally a bit shit. Still, from my point of view any canyon is better than no canyon.
Friday 11 October - Las Vegas - Daytime: although the tour company explicitly advises visitors not to book a Vegas show for the evening of a West Rim tour, we notice that Bon Jovi are playing for one night at the MGM Grand tomorrow, and there are tickets available for $40 at a massive discount. Whilst not exactly my favourite band, only a churl would claim not to like at least a handful of their songs. West Rim tours return in the early evening. We deserve a treat after being screwed out of the South Rim. We buy two tickets. What could possibly go wrong?
That evening: the Governer of Arizona reaches an agreement to re-open the canyon, paying for it from his own state's pockets. The tour company announces it will resume its South Rim tours starting tomorrow. These don't return you to Vegas until 11pm.
Balls.
Looking at things from a glass half full perspective though, an extra 80 bucks is a small price to pay for the privilege of seeing one of the Earth's natural wonders. Plus, the park was about as empty as it will ever get due to the lateness of the re-opening announcement - certainly in weather as lovely as we had it anyway.
Words are horribly insufficient for conveying the immenseness of the canyon, which for a blogger is a rather perilous admission, but there you go. Theodore Roosevelt summed it up thus, which is about as close as anyone will get:
No picture could hope to properly capture the place either, but that hasn't stopped me from putting some in for you to (possibly) enjoy. Oh, one thing I did learn was that a large rock formation can be called a butte, which is of course endlessly entertaining. Speaking of which, Las Vegas is pretty nice. More on that soon.
The USA's unfathomable governmental structure conspires to close down all the country's National Parks the day before we fly out there for our long-planned holiday. We miss out on a visit to Alcatraz, and have to rearrange our travel schedule for the first week because Yosemite is shut.
Wednesday 9 October - Monterey: with neither side showing any sign of conceding defeat, we are forced to abandon our plans to stay at Grand Canyon Village as well. At least this allows us to (a) we book ourselves into the Monte Carlo on the Las Vegas strip for three nights, and (b) book ourselves on a day tour to the West Rim of the canyon for Saturday.
NB. The West Rim is owned and run by Hualapai Indians... sorry, Native Americans (definitely not Redskins). Although this means it has remained open, everyone seems to agree that compared to the South Rim, aka the "proper bit", the West Rim is smaller, tackier and generally a bit shit. Still, from my point of view any canyon is better than no canyon.
Friday 11 October - Las Vegas - Daytime: although the tour company explicitly advises visitors not to book a Vegas show for the evening of a West Rim tour, we notice that Bon Jovi are playing for one night at the MGM Grand tomorrow, and there are tickets available for $40 at a massive discount. Whilst not exactly my favourite band, only a churl would claim not to like at least a handful of their songs. West Rim tours return in the early evening. We deserve a treat after being screwed out of the South Rim. We buy two tickets. What could possibly go wrong?
That evening: the Governer of Arizona reaches an agreement to re-open the canyon, paying for it from his own state's pockets. The tour company announces it will resume its South Rim tours starting tomorrow. These don't return you to Vegas until 11pm.
Balls.
Looking at things from a glass half full perspective though, an extra 80 bucks is a small price to pay for the privilege of seeing one of the Earth's natural wonders. Plus, the park was about as empty as it will ever get due to the lateness of the re-opening announcement - certainly in weather as lovely as we had it anyway.
Words are horribly insufficient for conveying the immenseness of the canyon, which for a blogger is a rather perilous admission, but there you go. Theodore Roosevelt summed it up thus, which is about as close as anyone will get:
"Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children, and for all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American... should see."
No picture could hope to properly capture the place either, but that hasn't stopped me from putting some in for you to (possibly) enjoy. Oh, one thing I did learn was that a large rock formation can be called a butte, which is of course endlessly entertaining. Speaking of which, Las Vegas is pretty nice. More on that soon.
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