Las Vegas, The Beatles, and Hoover Dam

The last officially planned stop on our USRT 2011 was Las Vegas! And although I've heard it said, "what happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas," I have to confess my main reason for going to Sin City was LOVE!   (Be sure to watch the trailer once you go to the link.)

The Beatles Love show was more fantastic than we had imagined! The staging, the costumes, and of course the music were wonderful! I cannot say enough about it. If you haven't seen it, you should, and if you already have, you know what I'm talking about. First-class entertainment!

Until last month, the closest I have gotten to Vegas in the last 38 years was a short stopover at the airport. Boy, has it ever changed! 

The strip is an amazing display of flashing neon and very interesting people watching.

The Bellagio's beautiful fountain show, every half hour (?), is awesome!

At first, we were a little overwhelmed, after all, we had just come from the peace and serenity of the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and Zion National Park. Though once we got our bearings, we thoroughly enjoyed the chaos, and we want to go back, maybe see Love again, and explore the area with a little more time.

On our one full day in Vegas, we drove out to see the Hoover Dam, which we had heard was really worth seeing, and we have to agree. What an amazing feat of ingenuity! 

3.25 million cubic yards of concrete were poured to form the dam itself, and another 1.1 million cubic yards were used to construct the power plant -- enough concrete to pave a two-lane highway from San Francisco to New York! The dam is 45 feet thick at the top of the wedge and 660 feet thick at the bottom. It was built during the Great Depression, employed thousands of otherwise unemployed workers, and was completed two years ahead of schedule!

Although the dam's main purpose was to control the dangerous waters of the Colorado River, which caused death and destruction in its path when it flooded, harnessing the river's power to produce electricity is how the government has paid for the dam and its maintenance. It is the largest hydro-electric power plant in the world, and because of it, Hoover Dam has not cost the American taxpayers one penny! (Seems we could use some infrastructure projects like that now!)

Inside the power plant at Hoover Dam.

The face of Hoover Dam.

From the top of the dam, looking down at the power plant, and over to the new bypass bridge that takes through traffic, that used to go over the dam itself, over the Colorado River and the Arizona/Nevada border.

One of the power plant intake towers in Lake Mead.

The  Hoover Dam Bypass, also known as the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.

View of Hoover Dam and power plant from the bypass bridge.

Canyons!

Finally, we had reached the last week of our USRT, and some of what I consider the most gorgeous scenery on earth! Yes, we had been to several beautiful sites, but in my humble opinion, you just cannot beat the western US for jaw-dropping magnificence!

After we left New Mexico, we drove through northern Arizona to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We had visited the South Rim back in 1993, and although it was a very enjoyable trip, being on the rim of the Grand Canyon with three girls, ages 11 thru 17, left me unsatisfied. Whereas I wanted to just sit on the edge and meditate, all they wanted to do was go down into the canyon, and if that wasn't going to happen (which it wasn't), then they just wanted to leave once they'd seen it. (In all fairness to my daughters, going down into the canyon would have been a wonderful experience, I'm sure, but we didn't have the time, and it was summer -- the canyon floor is really hot in the summer time!)

Luckily this time, I was traveling with a fellow photographer (actually, a videographer now, which can be more time consuming), which was great because if I wanted to wander around by myself and get "lost" on one of the trails, or just sit and contemplate what lay before me, I could. So, I did. 

Since it was the last week in October, the North Rim Lodge was already closed for the winter, and there were only a few visitors in the park. It was very peaceful, the wind whistling through the aspens was delightful, and the view was to die for! (Forgive me for including so many photos, but I couldn't decide which ones to leave out!)

Angels Window in the lower right hand corner of this shot. There are railings on the top of this lookout point, and you can walk out to the edge for a breathtaking view of the Colorado River!

Another view of Angels Window.

This funny looking little guy turns out to be kind of a rare thing. Called the "Silver Ghost of the North Rim," the Kaibab squirrel lives only on the North Rim and nowhere else in the world!

The other Silver Ghost, my travel companion, and the park lodge in the background.

By the way, we stayed at Jacob Lake Inn, about 45 minutes outside of the park entrance. It is fairly decent lodging, with a good restaurant and bakery, but the cabins inside the park, on the rim, seemed to be a really great place to stay between May 15 and October 15 -- if you make your reservations early!

From the Grand Canyon, we moved on to Bryce Canyon for a slightly different kind of jaw-dropping grandeur. There, the park lodge was also already closed for the season, but we stayed at Ruby's Inn, which is a very large, old west resort kind of place, just outside of the park entrance, where we got a very good internet price on our big, comfortable room, overlooking a small lake. 

We drove into the park in the early afternoon, and found it to be very car-friendly, meaning, you could drive through, and then stop at all the lookout points on your way back out of the park in a few hours.

These other-worldly rock formations are called Hoodoos, formed by erosion and freezing and thawing of water over millions of years, creating a very unique landscape.

Trail below Sunset Point, where one can walk among the hoodoos, as a large group of Korean students did, yelling and laughing at each other, listening to it echo off the rocks.

 It was a lovely afternoon, a little windy, but fairly warm and sunny. It was dark by the time we got back to the inn. We checked into our room, went to dinner, and then went to bed so we could get up early to see more of the hoodoos, this time in the morning light. Much to our surprise, when we awoke, it was snowing! Apparently, it was only 28 degrees, and the expected high was only going to be 38!!

View of snow flurries from our room window.

Sam scraping snow off of our car with a info card from our room -- without gloves because he didn't pack any!

 After buying some gloves at the general store, we headed out to see the hoodoos covered in white powder! It was sooooo cold, but sooooo worth it!

Poor little pine tree, hanging on for dear life!

Probably my favorite part of Bryce Canyon, and this point is actually outside of the park entrance, so you can see it for free!

On our way out of the Bryce Canyon area, we noticed the Bryce Canyon Airport!

Next stop: Zion National Park. Truthfully, we only drove through the southern most corner of this magnificent park. It wasn't even an official stop on our USRT, but to have missed this incredibly beautiful drive would have been a real shame! I remember seeing a bit of it, way back in 1973, when we moved from the west coast to the east coast. Some thirty-eight years later, I have a much greater appreciation for such things.

I just love all the wavy patterns in the rocks, and it's amazing how some very determined plants (like that pine tree pictured a few photos above) can manage to survive on rock.

Jabba the Hut rock! (for my Star Wars-crazy grandson)

Along the Canyon Overlook Trail, quite an overhang! Wouldn't want to be in here during an earthquake! ( Notice the Maidenhair Ferns growing along the inner corner. Probably my favorite type of fern, and so difficult to grow in Sacramento.)

This is the opening to the 1.1 mile long tunnel that was cut through the mountain, and includes two or three openings (windows) to the outside, the only light in the tunnel.

This is one of the "windows" in the tunnel, from the inside.

And this is what the window looks like from the outside.

(If you want to see a photo in larger format, click on one of them, a slide show will come up with all of the photos. When you close the slide show, it will return you to the blog.)

New Mexico

Until now, we had not ever been to New Mexico -- Arizona, Utah, Colorado, yeah, but not New Mexico. On this trip, we only actually saw a small part of it, but what we did see was very beautiful!

Our destination was Taos, a place we had heard was magical and spiritually inspiring. I must say, I don't think I have ever seen road-side, impromptu memorials quite like the ones we saw along the New Mexico highways.

Of course, probably the biggest attraction to the area is the Taos Pueblo - multi-storied adobe buildings that have been continuously inhabited for perhaps 1000 years.

Note that doors and windows were not part of the original design. Entrance to these dwellings was through holes in the roof, for security reasons, much like fortresses in old Europe, that had doors mounted on the second story, with ladders that could be pulled up inside.

We took a tour of the Pueblo, guided by a nice young man (16 or 17 years old), named Aspen, who gave us historical background and information about how the buildings were made and are now maintained. Apparently, there are only a small number of families still living there. Most of the buildings are used as shops where the natives sell their crafts, freshly baked bread, and other tasty treats. 

Ovens still used to bake bread. Covers are put over the openings to prevent dogs from sleeping in them.

Interesting door for my collection...

One family's home, with drying racks for animal skins.

Ceremonial post for Native American religious celebration.

Although the native tribe still practices its ancient native religion, they combine it with the Christian religion brought to them by the European invaders. Our guide revealed very little about their ancient ceremonies. He only pointed out to us an area of the pueblo that is used for their most sacred ceremonies -- the kiva -- an area no outsider is allowed to enter.

Entrance to the courtyard in front of San Geronimo, the Catholic church on the Pueblo, built in 1850.

The old graveyard near the ruins of the original Catholic church and bell tower, built in 1619, and destroyed by the US Army in 1847 during the War with Mexico.

While staying in Taos, we drove out to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, the fifth highest bridge in the US.

We walked across the steel bridge and looked down 650 feet to the Rio Grande.

Rio Grande Gorge

Ubiquitous symbol of New Mexico.

  
Our last day in the Land of Enchantment, was spent driving through incredibly beautiful scenery, stopping often to take photos.

Beautiful autumn color near Abiquiu, a town close to the Ghost Ranch, where Georgia O'Keefe lived for over 40 years.

"Ship Rock" in the distance, rising almost 1600 ft. above the high-desert plain

Slightly closer view of Ship Rock.

Other, much smaller, rock formations on the high-desert plain of northern New Mexico.

(If you want to see a photo in larger format, click on one of them, a slide show will come up with all of the photos. When you close that window, it will return you to the blog.)