Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam: June 24, 2011

So I woke up today in the Grand Canyon.  I set the alarm for 7:15 which made sense because I went to bed around 11 PM Thursday night.  I heard other people leaving in the morning and checked my phone.  It was like 6:15 AM.  I rolled over and waited for my alarm to go off!  I got up and had the car packed up by 8.  I was one of the last people to leave the campground.

The Grand Canyon was only several hundred feet from where I camped.  I looked like Johnny tourist with all my sunblock and my cool straw hat.  The view is hard to describe in words.  Breath-taking starts to describe it.  After a few minutes I heard someone talking that seemed to know what they were talking about.  It was a ranger giving a tour.  And she was cute... so I spent the next several hours going on a tour with Ranger Lauren and four other people. :) One of the other guys on the tour was Oren.  He is from Israel and he is 3 weeks into his cross country tour.  What are the odds of running into him doing the same thing as me? Good times!

From there I set out for Vegas.  I just can't believe that Kenny flew out to Vegas for his birthday on the same weekend that I was going to be near there.  On the way I stopped at the Hoover Dam.  Even in today's post 9/11 crazy world they will let you drive over the dam.  Pretty cool!  Vegas was a blast.  It was good to meet up with Kenny and the two Ashley's for some Vegas fun.  

Mileage: Starting 74,265 Ending 74,572 =307 miles
Stayed in Las Vegas (at the Luxor)
States Visited: Arizona, Nevada

Video of the Grand Canyon:

Lake Mead:

Hotel Coleman (for the brand of tent):

The Cobra is just to the left...

A pretty cool view of the Grand Canyon:

Ranger Lauren:

Another shot of the GC:

Me pretending to not be scared:

More scenery:

Lake Mead by the dam:

Me with a random woman from Texas at the Hoover Dam.  The dam is to the right:

Me and Kenny in Vegas before we went out on the town: