After leaving Las Vegas its not long until you leave the concrete jungle and end up driving thru a barren landscape, giving away what the conditions in this part of America are really like, the lack of water and high temperatures. Makes you really question why Vegas has grown to what it is today in the middle of nowhere.

It was a quick drive down to the Hoover Dam which is on route to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

The above picture is tweaked to enhance the colours already in the water and sky around the Dam.

This picture is a 4 picture stitch of a 180deg view of the dam and the water winding its way into the distance.

Next up was a few hours drive to get the first view of the south rim of the Grand Canyon. It hard to describe as the view you get is well sooooooooo huge. Every once in a while a helicopter will fly over in the distance, taking more tourists on one of those magical flights around the grand canyon, only just visible to the naked eye giving some idea of the scale of the place.

People at the right of the photo are at one of the many viewing platforms that go right to the edge of the canyon, quite a drop when you look over the edge, let me tell you.

Driving further along the south rim, the view stays very much the same with various viewing points, never over crowded and easy to get to. Including some which mean a 5-10 minute walk, but they are worth it for a quieter view of the canyon without screaming kids and such….

At the bottom of this post you can see more photos from the trip, but first I have 2 more photos to share the first signals the end of the grand canyon as people know it. wide expanse and huge panoramas, The end it a watch tower and the last main viewing platform before the road that winds along the edge heads more inland and away from the edge of the canyon.

The last picture is a view I was looking forward to seeing my whole trip, horseshoe bend. Well the name gives away what it looks like. Its not marked that well and only has a dusty car park with no idea of what is to come. A good 10minutes walk later up and down the sandy ground finally gets you to what has to be one of those magical views. and not for someone scared of heights. The scale is lost in the picture as there are no guides to compare it against, but the green shrubs at the waters edge are far from small shrubs, closer to full size tress and bushes.

The picture above shows all the safety fences that are in place.. as in none…. you visit at your own risk and the drop over the edge is vertical literally. The time of day I visited wasn’t the best with the sun high in the sky and overcast, but a few tweaks later of the images and you get the idea of what it looked like. THis version was tweaked to give it a little mood and high in contrast.

All in all a great start to my trip around the grand canyon and its national parks.

Andy

A few more pictures…

Back in late 2008 I decided to do a little road trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon and a few other National Park’s in America. This is the first post to detail my trip, things I did, places I went and what I will do next time as America is a big country and still has lots of places I want to visit.

Well the journey starts in Las Vegas, and boy was it HOT HOT HOT…….. 110+ during the day, the first time you get off the plane it hits you as a solid dry heat that you just cant escape while outdoors, shade doesn’t really help. This was going to be the start and end of my trip.

As I wasn’t in town long it was a mad rush to visit a few places and take in the strip in the day and night. so on my first night was a late arrival so I only made it to the hotel and a few yards outside before I went to catch up on some sleep. The  first night was in the luxor, not great but was ok for after a long flight.

The next morning and the heat kicked in again, the next picture is while waiting for the air conditioned tram that was available from a few hotels.

For the rest of the day I wandered in and out of the various hotels and shops, stopping to watch a few of the shows at the fountains. Hard to explain the amount of water flying around but it must have gone 10 floors in height.

That night I ventured out again to see the famous lights after the sun went down, It was still way too hot and strange to be so hot at 11pm, still probably the high 90′s.

Below the sun had just set and the lights were on….

Later on when it was fully dark i made it further down the strip to catch a few more shows at the fountains.

Next up the real reason I headed out to Vegas, to get to drive round the grand canyon and take in a few of the famous National Parks….

Andy

Well I ventured out this weekend to see what the over eager mountain bikers would do in the annual Dust ‘Til Dawn race in Thetford Forest. Over 1000 riders going round a 9mile track in the pitch black, the odd crash, the odd grumpy soul as the night wore on, but once the racing started it was a dry race, if a little dusty.

Solo , 2 or 4 person teams entered, why racing solo for 12hrs thru the night could be fun? i’m not sure, sounds like torture. Anyway, off they set into the dark, head and bike torches lighting the way apart from the start finish straight which was lit up like a Xmas tree.

The well named Caravan Club who I partly followed, stayed in a caravan for the night while not racing, they are included in some of the pictures below, In the end I took 200 odd pictures of various people at different points during the night, not as many as I wanted, or in places I wanted to go as a few complained of the flash from behind them (not in the eyes) and then the sudden darkness again, so just watched the racing for a lot of it, keeping tabs on the winners and loser’s, the odd injured rider coming back to camp.

Pre race with the race face on,?

Not long after the picture above the sun went down and it was race time, Full moon was out and I ventured into the forest to get a few pictures of the riders on the 2nd lap, Ok it was dead quiet apart from the noise of riders going past every few minutes. Somehow in the dark I managed to get a picture of the team with number 1, sponsored by wiggle.co.uk (aptly named bike website)

Many hours later It was Stuarts turn to do a lap, having let his team do alllll the work, ok, maybe they shared the work, but here he is, waiting like a coiled spring to jump into action, the faces of the people waiting as the night wore on was classic, the eyes showing the lack of sleep and the ordeal they were taking on showed in the faces. but all seemed to enjoy it when they finished there laps. The handover of a wrist band which signified the baton for the team riders and each number on a bike had a transponder chip in it to clock lap times etc when they crossed the finish line on each lap, a well organised event..

Lastly a couple of pictures of the caravan club actually doing some riding, they didn’t go and just drink beer and eat do-nuts, although it did happen…….  The team was dedicated to the cause….. a fun night of mountain biking…

Then in the early hours of the morning a catastrophe, a major minor injury, well OK, an old one I aggravated again. In the dark I went and twisted my knee again, so ended up leaving the event at around 3am to go get some ice on it, for all I know the caravan club could have won the event, but I doubt it……….

Good going all who entered and managed to finish.

Update 6th Oct 2009:

A mini gallery of some of the pictures is available here

Andy

OK, time share a few more of the pictures from my Canada trip. Part 1 can be viewed here

The trip was very much a last minute thing with all the booking done two weeks before i had my flight over, I was playing the waiting game to see what the weather was going to be like first. It was worth the wait. And I got a few great late booking deals to boot, so all was good.

Anyway back to the pictures, next is Bow lake, its hard to make out but the red dot to the right hand side of the shore line is a two story building to give it some scale. The picture shown is actually a 3 photo panoramic stitch and really needs to be viewed at the full resolution to get an idea of the scale of Canada and its mountains. Bow lake on the day was again picture perfect with a no wind when i drove past.

Next up is the Athabasca river, just before it goes over the Atahabasca Falls, you can just make out the water on the right going over the edge. The water at all points along the drive, was so clear with a hit of a blue green tint to it and quite low due to the time of year I was visiting. All the snow had melted in the previous few months so the river was probably at a low for the year.

Another view that was the norm, quiet empty roads, for all the beauty of the place its not over crowded with visitors. The pace is slow and relaxed and just made the holiday all the more relaxing for me. This road is just on the outskirts of Jasper looking south on my drive back to Calgary to catch my flight home.

While I have loads more photos I could show, this will be the last. Lake Louise and the boating jetty. You can either walk around the right hand shore or hire a Canoe and paddle your way along it.

Well that’s it for pictures from Canada 13-20th September 2007, A great holiday. Well until I visit again that is.

More trips and portrait sessions will be coming up soon.

Andy