Sin City

Time for another retrospective post. This time we’re off to Las Vegas. I’ve visited this desert city at least three times in the last 25 years. Growing up, I’d often see the bright lights of Vegas as an iconic backdrop for popular television shows and movies. This gambling mecca, with its themed hotels, glittering stage shows and dazzling lights, was considered Disneyland for adults.

I finally got to visit the infamous Sin City for the first time in 2000. At the time, I was on my way to Text 100's San Francisco office for a two-week General Manager’s secondment. I flew into LA on Friday, 28 July, passed through immigration and transferred mid-morning onto a flight to Las Vegas.

My travel agent booked me into the Circus Circus hotel at the northern end of Las Vegas Boulevard, more commonly known as the city’s famous Strip. At the time, this hotel and casino complex boasted almost 3700 rooms. True to its name, the circus theme could be seen everywhere. Clowns and jugglers roamed the resort’s public spaces, while clown shows and trapeze acts took place several times a day.

For guests not keen on making a wager, the hotel offered a massive video game arcade and carnival-type games. These amusements were in a central atrium called The Midway, which also featured a carousel operating as a bar. I can still recall watching trapeze artists swinging above patrons while sitting at the bar.

However, upon arrival in Las Vegas, I decided to set aside the hotel’s attraction in favour of one that had captured my imagination years earlier. I walked up the strip to Stratosphere, a classic skyline tower with a revolving restaurant and observation deck. The tower is more than 350 metres high, the tallest of its kind in the USA, and second only to Toronto's CN Tower in all of North America.  

The top of the tower contained two thrill rides. Big Shot, a free-fall drop, and High Roller, a spiralling rollercoaster, sit atop its saucer-shaped observation pod. A rollercoaster ride operating 277 metres above the ground sounded awesome. I simply had to try it.

Big Shot was a big mistake! This ride moves up and down the tower's pinnacle needle, dropping riders from a high of 329 m to the top of the outdoor observation deck. Let’s just say, jet lag and an inner ear imbalance caused by 14 juddering hours of trans-Pacific flight played havoc on my nerves. The resulting free-fall sensation, magnified by long-haul travel’s aftermath, was simply terrifying.

In contrast, High Roller proved to be a dud. The rollercoaster circles the pod on tracks with a relatively modest drop, at a relatively sedate speed. It was more akin to an old-fashioned wooden roller coaster ride in terms of its adrenaline rush. The tracks were also set back from the edge of the observation pod, and thus any sensation of flying through the air was limited at best. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one underwhelmed by the experience. According to Wikipedia, the ride was never popular. As a result, it closed on December 30, 2005, and was dismantled shortly after. 

I consoled myself later with a ride on The Big Apple Coaster at New York New York. This rollercoaster travels at 67mph, features a 180-degree “heartline” twist and dive manoeuvre and a stomach-churning 44 metre high speed drop. A section of this coaster even passes through the casino's atrium. Way more exciting than the High Roller, as you can see in the second image above.

I loved my time in Las Vegas. I walked the strip’s entire length, visiting every casino resort. I recall being delighted by the mini Eiffel Tower outside the Paris casino and the faux Italian canals surrounding the Venetian. I watched pirates at Treasure Island do battle in their a twice-daily show on an artificial lagoon outside the resort and marvelled at the tiered interior of the Luxor pyramid.

I also recall checking out the white tigers on display in a glass-walled enclosure inside the Mirage resort. They were part of Siegfried and Roy’s magic show for many years until a tiger mauled Roy Horn in 2003. I never did get to see the show before it closed.

While in Las Vegas, I booked a helicopter flight into the Grand Canyon. I made a return visit to the Grand Canyon when I visited Las Vegas a second time in 2002. You can read about these adventures here.

My return visit was a weekend side trip I’d tacked onto another business trip to the USA. I made the most of my return by visiting attractions I’d missed a few years earlier. This included a day tour to the Hoover Dam. The tour took us along the dam's crest and deep into its interior. A real highlight was a visit to the cavernous turbine hall. It houses 17 massive turbines, the largest of which generates 130 MW. The turbine hall, and its constant hum, is genuinely impressive!.

The story behind the dam’s construction is equally fascinating. For example, its concrete would take 125 years to cure, or harden, by conventional or natural methods. To hasten this process, engineers used some innovative engineering tricks. 

First, the dam was constructed as 230 smaller blocks of concrete, each block five feet in height. Widths of the blocks varied from 2.3 square metres to 5.6 square metres, depending on their location. The blocks were then woven with almost 1000 km of steel pipes filled with chilled water. This carried away the chemical heat generated by setting concrete. The pipes were later filled with concrete for additional strength. Today, the completed structure successfully resists water pressure up to 45,000 pounds per square inch.

Our guide also took us through corridors buried deep inside the dam, before taking a lift down to an outdoor deck above the penstock outlet. Here we could look up towards the crest of the dam, more than 200 metres above us. For a Civil Engineering geek like me, it was pure heaven. 

On this second trip, I visited the Hilton Resort’s Star Trek Experience. This attraction included a simulated bridge of the Enterprise, plus an incredibly well-executed molecular transporter experience that took you into a 270° domed theatre with a four-degree-of-motion base platform where a dramatic Klingon battle took place. Again, for a sci-fi fan, this was another iconic once-in-a-lifetime moment. Sadly, the attraction closed in 2008.

I also recall going to the movies one afternoon to watch the recently released Star Wars prequel, Episode II – Attack of the Clones. However, if I’m totally honest, I saw it because I was bored. If you’re not into gambling, there are only so many things you can do to fill your day in Las Vegas. The evenings are different. I’ve attended many spectacular stage shows over the years.

My Vegas show list includes O by Cirque du Soleil at the Bellagio, a rival water extravaganza called Le Rêve at the Wynn Resort, Mystère by Cirque du Soleil at Treasure Island and the Blue Man Group at the Luxor. However, I’ve never been in town when a major artist, such as Celine Dion, is conducting a residency show.

Garry and I returned to Las Vegas for the first time together in August 2010. Highlights from this trip included the Titanic Exhibition at The Luxor. This was an impressive exhibit of artefacts and memorabilia from the ship, including a large section of the hull salvaged in 1998. This impressive structure weighs more than 14 tonnes and was retrieved from the ocean floor at a depth of 3,700 metres.

The Strip in 2010

The Grand Canyon

Over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to visit the Grand Canyon twice. Both visits were day tours from Las Vegas. I’ve also passed over it at 30,000 feet while flying trans-continental across the USA. My first overflight took place while travelling to Syracuse, New York, as an exchange student in 1983. No matter what your vantage point, the Grand Canyon never fails to impress. 

My first ground visit occurred in July 2000. At the time, I was on my way to Text 100's San Francisco office for a two-week General Manager’s secondment. I flew into LA on Friday 28 July, passed through immigration and transferred mid-morning onto a flight to Las Vegas. 

I spent three days exploring Sin City, including a spectacular helicopter flight that took me into the Grand Canyon at Grand Canyon West. The day trip involved two separate activities. The first was a breathtaking flight from Henderson Airport over the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and the Grand Canyon, concluding with a landing 3,200 feet below the rim. 

We landed on a sloping plateau, about 30 metres above the canyon floor, with an uninterrupted view of the Colorado River below. Our group of four, excluding the pilot, spent about 20 minutes on the ground toasting our visit with a glass of bubbles. 

I’ll never forget the moment we flew over the canyon rim. The sensation of the ground suddenly falling away into a vast abyss will stay with me for the rest of my life. An American couple flying with me made the moment all the more memorable. As we passed the rim, the wife let out a classic melodramatic “wow” followed by more gasps and groans in a distinctly American drawl. Her breathless enthusiasm was rather infectious. 

The tour included a video of our flight. When you play it back, this woman's delirious commentary can be heard in the background. Decades later it still makes me chuckle. I've arranged for the VHS tape to be converted to MPEG4.  I'll try to upload a reel soon.  

Perhaps the most astonishing aspect of this video was its creation. The pilot controlled two cameras as we flew, skilfully cutting from one to the other as the scenery unfolded below. Then, when our tour was done, he opened a hatch at the helicopter’s rear revealing a bank of video recorders. The company had set these up to simultaneously record our flight. The pilot ejected a tape from each machine and gave a copy to each of us. It's hard not to be impressed by such an efficient set-up.

From the canyon floor, we flew to Guano Point on the West Rim. Here members of the local Hualapai Indian tribe took us on a walk to view the canyon from ground level. Along the way, our local guide shared stories of the tribe’s history in the area and explained the magnificent geography unfolding before us. Of course, a ubiquitous display of handcrafts was also on offer. 

In the years since the Hualapai have expanded their simple tourism venture to include an impressive glass floor Skywalk platform. This lets you walk out past the rim and experience the same “ground falling away” sensation I enjoyed on my helicopter flight.

My second visit to the Grand Canyon, in 2002, was also by air. However, this time I was en route to Utah’s iconic Monument Valley courtesy of the aptly named Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines. My day trip started with a flight to Grand Canyon National Park Airport in a relatively spacious De Havilland Twin Otter Vistaliner. From here we were taken by minivan to the Grand Canyon South Rim to soak in a classic view of the canyon itself.

Most of the tourism images you see of the Grand Canyon are taken from the south rim. The canyon is 731 meters deep at this point and spans more than 10km to the northern rim. I can confidently confirm that the vista is every bit as awe-inspiring as those postcards and posters promise. Although, like a typical antipodean traveller, I was equally enamoured by the squirrels running rampant around the lookout’s stunning vantage points.

We then returned to the airport and took a second flight to Goulding's-Monument Valley-Oljato Regional Airport. Landing here marked my first visit to Utah as much of Monument Valley’s famous landscape straddles the Arizona state border.  This remote little airport can be seen in the image above.

Monument Valley isn't a valley in the conventional sense, but rather, a flat and desolate landscape surrounded by crumbling rock formations that rise hundreds of metres into the air. They're the last remnants of a sandstone layer that once covered the region, eroded by hot dry winds that howl through the desert.

Once again, the local tribespeople were our guides. Our Navajo hosts took us on a four-wheel drive through the desert, stopping to take in many of the national park’s iconic views. The area’s dramatic rustic red buttes and mesa have long been used as a classic background for Hollywood Westerns, a tradition that began with Stagecoach, starring John Wayne, in 1939. 

It also provided the backdrop for one of Forrest Gump’s more memorable scenes. Do you recall the scene where Forrest Gump runs across the country? After gaining a large group of followers he decides it is time to stop. This pivotal moment in the movie was shot on Highway 163 in Monument Valley. The Forest Gump viewpoint has become so renowned that Google Maps now marks its location a few kilometres north of the state border.

However, my day tour focused on classic vistas south of the border including North Window Overlook and John Ford Point.  The latter location is ironically named after a Hollywood producer. Here you get a stunning view of the Three Sisters, a tripartite collection of soaring rock pillars.

The image of me in a cowboy hat above was taken at a stunning lookout in the Monument Valley Tribal Park Visitor Center. It shows West Mitten Butte and East Mitten Butte, just two of at least a dozen similar formations visible from this elevated location. Just out of view to the right is the equally impressive Merrick Butte. It's best viewed from a lookout called Artist’s Point, as shown in the third image above.

At John Ford Point, a Navajo local kindly rode his horse onto an outcrop overlooking the valley below. As you see above, this allowed us tourists to capture an iconic Lone Ranger moment. Then, for a healthy tip, he let us sit on his horse for another memorable photo opportunity. Naturally, I was inspired to capture my own cliche moment for immortality.  

However, the breathtaking views of the two Mittens ultimately captivated me. These photogenic buttes, each with an opposing rock finger, are the iconic formations most often associated with Monument Valley. Driving past these towering burnt ochre outcrops was awe-inspiring and worth every penny of my pricy day trip.

The tour finished with a return flight to Grand Canyon National Park Airport where I transferred onto a tiny Cessna Caravan. This aircraft normally seats nine passengers. However, for reasons unbeknown to me, the pilot flew a weight-restricted flight back to Las Vegas. As a result, there were only four of us on board. I was even weighed before take-off.

I vividly recall buying a souvenir shirt and some sort of knick-knack at the airport, then witnessing an airline staff member's crestfallen face as I returned to the gate with my goodies. Thanks to my shopping spree this staff member was unceremoniously offloaded from the flight.

Then, as we prepared to take off, the pilot kindly warned us that the afternoon flights are often rather bumpy. As he explained, the sun’s unrelenting heat generates increasingly turbulent updrafts as the day progresses. He wasn’t wrong. More than once our tiny aircraft was bounced around in clear air as we passed over the Colorado River’s ancient rifts and gullies.

NOTE: April 2024

The images illustrating this story were scanned from original printed photos. As you can see, I have plenty of spectacular Kodak moments waiting to enter the digital era.