AndreasB.Net

Being in Vegas and not seeing the Grand Canyon, that was not an option for me. Taking a break from the Las Vegas Convention center was also a welcome thing. The images are available through the link at the bottom of this post.

I was picked up at the hotel by the tour guide, and with the Excalibur the last stop, we were on our way, after finishing some paperwork with the tour guide, named Don. For some reason, there were also three other Norwegians on the tour. Later, at the ranch, I would learn that they were from NRK, and like me, primarily visiting NAB, but they too, were interested HD streaming amongst other things.

Our first stop was at the Atlantic Air Terminal to watch a security briefing video, as we were going to see Grand Canyon from the air in a helicopter.

Then it was out of Las Vegas heading down the interstate, and leaving Las Vegas valley for Black valley. And as we entered Black Valley, we also entered the Mohave desert. Black volcanic sand and a warm sun makes for quite the oven, and hikers die in Black valley every year, mostly young males, who fail to bring enough water, or underestimate the amount of water the body looses in such extreme heat.

Driving to Hoover Dam first, we passed through Boulder City, which was built by the Federal Government to house the workers who built Hoover Dam. Then through a “city” (small town), called something springs, before we reached Hoover dam itself.

The above picture is a panorama built from images taken by holding the camera, and manually sweeping over the area. It not perfect, but it gives an OK overview over the dam.

Hoover Dam created a lake called Lake Mead, which gives water to Las Vegas, northern California and a few other cities. However, due to the massive expansion of Las Vegas, Lake Mead is quickly running dry. Current estimates project that Hoover Dam will shut down in seven years, and Lake Mead itself history in 13 years. Plans are in motion to run a pipeline from Canada to the area, along with water restriction plans. However, as new settlements relying on Lake Mead are still allowed to be built, it is still loosing water at a rapid rate.

Grand Canyon West Ranch, formerly know as the Diamond Bar Ranch was our next stop. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had used this ranch to launder the gold and money which they stole from the railroad companies, and they had walked the same ground as we did. A couple of the cowboys (and they did still herd cows at the ranch), had a small mock gunfight, showing how bountyhunters prefered taking their prisoners dead over alive.

From the ranch, we took a short diligence ride over to the helipads, four of them, from which we did a 20 minute flight over the Grand Canyon, and that is a sight I will never forget.

Then it was back to the ranch for lunch, which was beans, chicken and corn, along with a cowboy singing for us. He said that lassoing those chickens had been a nightmare. It was a nice lunch, typically cowboyish in an autenthic location.

The ranch was a part of the mormon trail, and had originally been built by a family of mormons, which used the artesian well to establish a small farmsted with a garden and fruittrees, to provide food to the settlers which would arrive later on.

A small horseback ride was taken, it was great to ride through the ground where cowboys and villains once had ridden themselves.

Then we headed back towards Las Vegas, stopping in the Joshua forest, to take some pictures of the Joshua trees. (Technically they are linee flowers, but they look like cactii trees.)

And with that, another eventfull day drew towards a close.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 04:04 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.