This trip was planned at very short notice, around five days in advance. The combination of people to go changed a couple of times before we fixed on the five of us, me , Anubhav, Tamhant, Nishant and Tarkeshwar. I'll refer to the last four as Sudha, Tommy, Dhollu and Tadu over here.
We rented a Ford Windsor from Enterprise for the trip. This van is good, spacious , comfortable , smooth with enough room for luggages and makes a trip of five people become very comfortable.
We set off on Friday the 28th of December at about 1 in the morning. Sudha took the drivers seat and soon we were cruising along I-5 towards Los Angeles at around 95 miles per hour. Sudha and Tommy shared driving turns at night while the remaining three of us were asleep at the back. I took over from tommy about 110 miles from Las Vegas on I-15. We reached Las Vegas at about 9 in the morning and checked into Monte Carlo.
Myself, Tadu and Dhollu took off wandering in the strip two hours later. At daytime, Las Vegas doesn't present much apart from the restaurants and casinos in the hotels and the impressive shopping malls. The strip is choked with traffic. We entered Aladdin, designed as a castle. The lighting inside was extremely impressive. The roof is decorated with skyline which almost lends a natural blend to the surroundings. The castles themselves look very rich and well ornamented. We walked down the strip to Hotel Paris where we climbed up the replica of Eiffel Tower. The skyline from the top is amazing, you can see all along the strip. The height of this tower is about two thirds the height of the original one, the height been kept less because e of the Las Vegas Airport nearby.
We relaxed in the hotel at afternoon and took off in the evening. Sudha went with Dhollu to try out bungee jumping. Las Vegas looks very colourful at night, each hotel having its own unusually. The best are the musical fountains at Bellagio where the fountains dance to the tune of music, the one we witnessed against the score of 'My heart will go on..' from the Titanic was brilliant. The Mirage offers the erupting volcano every 15 minutes. Treasure Island offers a theatrical performance in which bandits attack the treasure island which is defended. Joined by Anubhav and Dhollu later in the evening we walked to hotel Stratosphere where amusements rides are offered at the top of the tower. Although we didn't take any of the rides, the night time view of Las Vegas from the top was great.
The next day we picked up the road to the Grand Canyon with Dhollu at the driver's seat. Hoover Dam fell on the way so we spent about an hour there. There was also a substantial delay because of the traffic at Hoover Dam. Dholly drove all along I-40 east till we reached the exit to GHrand Canyon. It was almost dark there, and it was snowing so he promptly handed over the steering to me.
We reached Tusayan village at the outskirts of the Canyon where we had reservations at about 8:00. It was snowing heavily, this was my first glimpse of snowfall in my life. The snow on the ground was about 2 inches thick, and Tadu promptly engraved his name in the snow. After dinner we sat down for playing cards.
The next morning, the weather was clear but it was snow all around. Never in my life have I seen so much snow, except for the road which had been cleared and a couple of trees, all you could see was white snow all around. The breakfast at Tusayan Cafe was nice and refreshing.
We entered the Canyon national park at about 10
am, the first destination was Mather Point. We were utterly disappointed,
there was thick fog all along the Canyon. Visibility was just restricted
to the sides of the Canyon.
At Yavapai point, the visibility was slightly
better, at least the base of the Canyon was now visible. From Yavapai point
the road along the Canyon splits into the East Rim and West Rim. After
much debate, we decide to explore the West Rim.
At about noon we set hiking along the Little
Angel Trail. All trails in the Canyon lead to the bottom down the South
Rim where you can camp al the base of the Colarado river. After crossing
the river you can explore the trails of the North rim. The difficult
part of the trails at Grand Canyon is that the return journey is steep
and very painful because you are already exhausted by then.
The trail at this time of the year was a mix of snow, water and loose mud making conditions extremely slippery. Luckily I had my Hiking shoes which made life easier. Tadu and Dhollu wore tennis shoes, so they constantly kept slipping, Dhollu was almost walking in ministeps. But after some distance both gave up, they decided to return up and we agreed to meet in another 3 hours.
The trail was definitely worth it because as we went down and as the day progressed, the fog cleared and the visibility was much better. The sides of the Canyon were rough, covered with lines of snow. Occasionally we got the glimpse of the Colarado river at the bottom of the Canyon. At some points the views onto the Canyon were particularly impressive. We met all sorts of people on the trail, exchanged customary hellos, mainly couples but sometimes a man with a little kid. We even met a couple who were at least 80, and wondered how cowardly we were compared to these people.
Later in the day we drove to the end of the west rim from where we observed Sunset. At night we matched a movie at the ImAX theater at Tusayan.
The next day, the 31st again had heavy snowfall.
We were indeed lucky that the only day we had reserved for the Canyon didn't
have snowfall, at least we could take the 4 hour hike and enjoy the beauty.
We reached Las Vegas around 3 pm, getting stuck at the strip amidst heavy
traffic for almost an hour. It being the last day of the year, hotel rates
were exorbitant. In the evening we ventured out in the strip which was
already jam packed with people and traffic at the strip was gradually being
cut off. We ventured into the Venetian, decorated along the lines
of Venice, MGM where a lion is caged, the egyptian and Hotel New York-New
York. All Hotels apart from small peculiarities resemble the same, the
glittering casinos, the cheap restaurants and the dazzling lights. By night
the strip was almost overflowing with people, you could see joyous people,
hugging , kissing each other on new years eve.
The fireworks were counted down at a large screen
on the crossing at the Flamingo where we had waited to observe them. They
lasted for about ten minutes.
Although Dhollu wanted to set off early the next day it was almost 12 by the time we left our hotels. I-15 was jam packed, vehicles crawling at hardly 15 miles an hour. I was unfortunately at the wheel. We had lunch at Bakers from where I unfortunately took a wrong exit and it took us another 10 miles for us to get to the next exit and take a U -turn. I was seven when we reached Bakersfield, had some dinner and I handed over to Dhollu. We were back at the bay area at around 11 pm, thus bringing an end to one of the most memorable trips in my life.