Day 10: From Grand Canyon, AZ to Las Vegas, NV

2900 miles driven so far.

Today was the day to truly experience the Grand Canyon, one of the highlights of the whole trip, although it strictly is not part of Route 66. Unfortunately, the weather was not as motivated as us and the day started very cloudy and a bit chilly. Still, this was our only chance of visiting the place, so we started early to explore the park.
This is a huge natural park, and you can visit several places by car, or hike down the canyon or even rent a helicopter to fly around. The park also offers a very useful free shuttle service that takes you to the most interesting viewpoints, allowing one to hop on and off the buses any time you want, so it is really convenient. We decided to use this service and went straight ahead to the beginning of the bus route, where the view wasn't  to bad to make the waiting time more interesting...

The bus took us to several viewpoints where we were able to see different parts of the Canyon, ocasionally catching a glimpse of the Colorado river which, as small as it looks, is responsible of all this mess.

Actually, the view from the different viewpoints was more or less similar. However, the sight was still breathtaking. It was difficult to assimilate the sheer scale of the canyon, it seemed unreal, as it looking at a painted landscape. Still, just by looking down over the fence on to a 1,000 m drop you coud realize this was something unique.

Unfortunately, time was pressing and just after noon we had to get on the car again to drive to our next destination: Las Vegas, over 5 hours away.

This time, the path took us back to Route 66, although only for a few miles, as Las Vegas does not form part of the original route. So, along the way we went back to see remainings of the old Route, mainly in the form of gift shops, vintage gas stations and signs along the road.

Right on the border between Arizona and Nevada, and just before reaching Las Vegas, we made a quick stop to visit the Hoover Dam, which made a welcome break from the long hours of desert crossing.

A few more miles on the road and we arrived at our hotel in Las Vegas when it was fully dark. We were staying at the Luxor Hotel, an Egyptian themed one in a piramid shape.

The hotels here are more like resorts, with their own casino, restaurants, shops, etc, which is a bit annoying when you are walking over 20 min dragging your baggage across the casino just to check in. Very different to other hotels in Texas and Oklahoma where we parked just at the door of our room!

We were very tired after the long day, so we postponed exploring the city until the next day, as we were going to be there for two nights. No rush then.