Welcome back! I am so excited to share pictures of our trip to the Grand Canyon with you. From the onset of planning this trip, I knew I wanted us to take a trip out there because I heard it was close (I thought it was much closer than it actually was, but we’ll get to that…) and it is one of the seven wonders of the world! Plus, I knew this would be much more up Mom’s alley than the other stuff we were doing in the city, but I wanted to see it, too. In today’s post, I’ll be going through our whole trip out there and back, as it ended up comprising the entire day. It ended up being one of my favorite things we did!

I had a day trip saved on Travelocity years ago when I originally planned the trip, and the exact one I saved I couldn’t find anymore, so I had to look up what I thought was similar price-wise. I had two I was torn between: a tour of the west rim with a stop at the Hoover Dam or a tour of the south rim. I ended up going with the latter because it was the closest in price to my original favorite. I didn’t know what the difference in rims was at the time, but I’m glad I chose this one, although I wish we would’ve had time to stop at the Hoover Dam! I’ll share more on this later. For now, let’s get into it.

Day 3: Bus Tour to the Grand Canyon South Rim

Waking Up at the Crack of Dawn

It was 5:19 when this picture was taken and we were dressed and ready to go. We look alert-ish here, but in the pics before this, both of our eyes are closed. We had to meet across the street outside of the Horseshoe shortly after this time. I really didn’t have a lot of expectations for this. Don’t get me wrong, I thought it would be great, but I didn’t know what to expect because I hadn’t done a ton of research on the Grand Canyon. For our trip, I paid about $200 for both of us, which wasn’t bad at all for how awesome and extensive it ended up being, but I paid more than that, too, because of additional things I wasn’t aware of. They included lunch, which was great, but there was an optional breakfast and dinner stop, and the tour itself with our guide cost extra. But I wouldn’t change any of it; none of it disappointed.

On the Bus

Thank God I bought this hoodie!! It was cold in the morning and on the bus for a while. There was another bus that already was there when we crossed the street, but it wasn’t ours. Some other people were there waiting, so we learned we hadn’t missed it. Ours came shortly thereafter, and we got a good spot up top, not right at front but like three rows back. Mom let me have the window again. Our driver and tour guide, Steven, sounded very nice. I was so tired and didn’t feel the best, like my food from the night before hadn’t settled right.

Here’s our view out the front! It was a nice bus! Definitely a lot better than what I was expecting. That’s a little TV screen on top of the windshield, and the gap in front of us is where the stairs to go downstairs were. I loved the views we had from up top!

Leaving the Strip

Steven was full of energy and enthusiasm right away, and I could tell he was fun and goofy and going to give us a good time. He did a great job keeping us informed of every stop along the way and our plans going forward, like letting us know we’d be picking up other people at various hotels (it was nice they come right to your hotel or one very close by). We also were told via email the previous night that we’d be stopping at a restaurant for breakfast and could pay extra to order something from their menu, which we did. Here we are making our way down the Strip going by the Hard Rock Café, which Mom loved because my aunt Connie did when they were younger.

We had been exploring our little area of the Strip—the Bellagio, Caesar’s, Paris, and the LINQ, which were all around us, so this was our first time getting a close look at the other end of the Strip out by Mandalay Bay. Here’s the Statue of Liberty at New York!

We also were by Excalibur, which looked huge.

Leaving Las Vegas

We got out on the freeway and had an awesome view of Allegiant Stadium!!

Watching the sun rise over the purple mountain silhouettes was gorgeous.

There are towers above the mountains, just like we saw on our road trip FIVE years ago already (!!!) out to North Dakota and Montana on our way up to Calgary! This road trip and looking back at the pictures reminded me so much of that trip and the sights we saw. I love seeing new locations regardless of how far they are, and I love worshiping God through it all.

I liked driving through the city and seeing some of what they have out there, like we saw a Bass Pro, but they’re not a corporation I’m fond of. I love this gorgeous pastel outline over the moutains and traffic lights!

I love these pink clouds!

We started out with a little granola bar they gave us until we got to the restaurant in Boulder City. Mom made a mess. 😂 We also got a close-up of antennas on the mountain! It’s amazing how the houses go right up and under the mountain.

Boulder City

Steven was so great about pointing things out along our trip, like some big rows of solar panels on a plain, flat stretch of land underneath the mountains. Right after going through Henderson, we came around to Boulder City, which has its own history Steven told us all about related to the construction of the Hoover Dam and how workers lived there. It was fun seeing brands I know, like McDonald’s, in different settings.

It looked like a nice, clean city!

Breakfast Stop

We stopped at this Best Western hotel that had a nice restaurant inside of it, and we picked up our sack lunches provided to us and our breakfast orders.

We got our waters, too, and I dropped mine and it splattered everywhere, so there was my mess of the day. 🥲 I got a sausage, egg, and cheese English muffin with hash browns and orange juice, and the food was DELICIOUS! They were some of the best hash browns I’ve ever had, and the muffin was great, too. I ate quite a bit of it, but since my stomach still felt uneasy, I didn’t get to eat as much as I probably would have otherwise. I will say that I absolutely detested the orange juice, but I’m not a fan of orange juice as it is.

They had palm trees wrapped in string lights!

Lake Mead

I said we would get to see Lake Mead, and that’s what we drove by next after leaving Boulder City! Steven told us some facts about it and how actually, Las Vegas is very careful with their water usage and recycles most of their water, like the literal tons of water the Bellagio fountain uses (he said something about how it gets stored in big tanks underground and is literally reused). He also said Los Angeles is the city using most of the power generated by this area, so there we have it, blame the wokest city ever for causing “climate change” and drying up this lake. It is so big and beautiful, and we only saw it from a distance! I guess a lot of people do recreational activities on it, too.

We saw this neat cross!

Here it looks like we’re going to drive straight into it!

From here on out, our views would look like variations of this! Rocky, dusty mountain ranges!

Hoover Dam Lodge and Casino

We made our first bathroom stop at the Hoover Dam Lodge and Casino Hotel. I didn’t have to go yet so I waited in the bus, but Mom got some cool pics outside in the parking lot of the rocky views and some of the history inside!

They had pictures of it being constructed! I do wish we would’ve had time to stop on the dam and see it, but I think our trip was much longer because we were going to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. So I got confused with many of the national parks surrounding Las Vegas, and I thought Red Rock Canyon was what they called the Grand Canyon park, and that’s only about an hour outside of Vegas, so I thought oh no problem, we’d be back before five. Uh, NO. The drive out there was nearly five hours! And I thought people said it was close to Vegas?! But like Mom said, we’re closer to it out there than we are here, so I’m definitely glad we made the trip. If we had went to the west rim, that would’ve been two and a half hours, whereas this was four and a half. We also would’ve went through Valley of Fire State Park! But from what I heard, the south rim has the better views, and I don’t regret going there at all.

Here’s what our bus looked like! It was nice!

You can see me looking at my phone!

The trek continued! By this point, it was around eight and we were gaining sunshine. I was cold for a long time, though, because it took a while to warm up! I would’ve literally died without my hoodie. Mom was so kind and told me to sleep on her shoulder. As we were on the road longer, I may have napped for some brief periods of time. I loved how this road just wove through and between these mountains. I was afraid to sleep because of all the new views!

Look how close these rugged hills are! It’s hard to put them in perspective size-wise, especially now that I’m seeing them through a photo, but that tower on top must be taller than a person by quite a bit, so these are definitely huge! I do wonder what it would be like to climb one!

Going Over the Colorado River

We did go over the Hoover Dam but not directly on top of it; we were on a big bridge much higher up. From our view on the way out, we couldn’t see it, but we did get a great view of the Colorado River!

You can see some trails leading out and around by the dam, too!

Arriving in Arizona

And now I can say I’ve been to the Grand Canyon State!

It’s just so fascinating to see this terrain sprawling out for miles.

During this time, I have a video of Steven giving everyone a legit inspirational speech. It was incredible, actually. He talked about knowing our purpose in life and believing in our dreams, and even though it wasn’t particularly religious, Mom and I could tell by some of the things he was saying that he sounded like a Christian and was sharing those values. It was really cool, and I’m glad I got a lot of it on video. He said he brought movies for us to watch there and back, but he was going to give us some time to relax and appreciate nature first after giving this talk. He also played an informational video about the Grand Canyon and its formation which, unfortunately, comes from a secular narrator and was rooted in that narrative, but someone said later on when we were there how it was because of the flood, and he agreed with that.

This little structure was cool! Look how you could walk out there and truly get lost. It just goes on and on. It would be fun to do some hikes around this area! Going forward, I’m starting a “travel spreadsheet” because ideally, I’m going to make more money as I get into the real world and move up with time, so I want to focus a lot more on traveling. It’s my goal to plan around two trips per year, and one would be tropical and warm, like a true vacation where you do nothing but lay in the sun and play in the water and sand, and the other would be more exploratory and adventurous, like seeing a national park or visiting a new state. I had a teacher I loved tell me one time when I was very young that she believed I’d get to travel everywhere in the world I want to…and that made such a difference in my life. I hope she’s right, but I also know that as a Christian, the best is yet to come, so I don’t get anxiety about fulfilling all my dreams, either. At least, I try not to. It’s still always a matter of perspective in a society always pushing us to achieve more 🙂

This gives me western/cowboy vibes! I’m not saying I’d necessarily want to live in that time—there have always been different trials of every time period in history—but it’s so easy to romanticize the past. It does intrigue me, what that life of roughing it would’ve been like. I don’t think I would’ve liked it, but I’m sure it would’ve been gorgeous and rewarding.

Mom had been looking forward to today in particular!

Look at this huge structure!

“Last Stop”

Along the interstate, we saw signs for a “last stop” for a while!

This place is literally called Last Stop Arizona on Maps! I’m not quite sure what this “TURN HERE” sign was directing towards, but as you’ll see in upcoming photos, we saw tons of people just parked out in the landscape.

They have a Last Stop gas station! Gas was much more expensive out here than back home, where it’s still ungodly and UNNECESSARILY expensive, which is something I can’t elaborate on because it makes me see red, so thank God we didn’t drive anywhere.

These are literal houses out there! That would be an amazing view to have every day.

Here’s an abandoned building. Stuff like that always interests me, too, and what its story might be.

It looks like there are a bunch of RVs or trailer houses out here. Mom thought it was so intriguing, too, and wondered what people were doing. She said it reminded her of hunting aliens ’cause she’s heard of people doing that out here. 😂 I do seriously want to look into this further.

It looks like this is by a park called “Rubens Ranch”.

Here’s a house close by! It’s fascinating thinking about different ways of life.

People must camp out here, which would be so fun if I had an RV to stay in! It would definitely feel like the western days, and imagine that sky teeming with stars at night…

Mom had a screenshot of Vegas and the south rim zoomed out, and I didn’t realize Vegas is at the southern end of Nevada. We weren’t even that far from Los Angeles, which I also didn’t realize was so far south in California.

Here’s another camping area.

You can see tons of RVs!

You can go five miles per hour faster on the interstate out here than we can!

Kingman

Here we’re coming into Kingman. This looks like a beautiful little city to live in with mountains adorning the horizon and palm trees and lush greenery surrounding the suburban houses.

These houses are a little too close for my liking, but it looks like a nice neighborhood!

Here I am, out of it and freezing. Mom had to give me her purse to put on my lap because she said having stuff on it will keep me warmer, and that’s actually true.

It’s starting to get flatter and more forest-y!

Seligman

You’ll notice there’s a sign that says Historic Route 66! We got to go on part of this, and Seligman is actually where Disney’s Cars was filmed!! Steven told us about it and we got to see the cars.

Steven also told us that the run-down houses were kept that way because residents wanted to preserve the town as much as possible. As many of you probably know, Route 66 used to be the interstate, but the new interstate we came off of replaced it. We ended up making another bathroom/rest stop at a gas station here, and he told us to be back on the bus by a certain time so we could stay on a good schedule and have time for everything. I thought they did an excellent job timing everything to ensure the best day possible. Steven was downstairs most of the time with the other passengers; we had a full bus on the bottom and up top, but he had a microphone so we could hear him clear as day, and he’d pop up from time to time and have fun with all of us, too.

It’s the sheriff!!!

I love this little area!

Here’s where we stopped! It was a gas station with some Route 66 gifts; Mom got Hunter a shirt because he and I used to love Cars—he would even cry at the part where it played sad music to the creation of the new interstate. ❤️ I also have to give Mom some crap because she cracked me up; look at the following two photos and their background—I told her I wanted a picture here when we got out, and she gets the gas station in the photo originally… 🤣 But like she said, I could’ve wanted the gift shop part of it in there.

But I wanted the landscape! There was a huge line for the bathroom and to buy things; I remember waiting outside to get in and shivering my butt off. I ended up buying a Reese’s peanut butter cup and I think a banana, too? Not that it matters that much, I make these posts long enough without recapping every second. 😂 We were concerned we weren’t going to make it back to the bus in time, but everyone was running late.

Look!! A SIGN TO LOS ANGELES! It would’ve been cool if we could’ve popped over there, but I think that would’ve been another four-hour drive, and we just didn’t have time. Plus, that’s kind of a whole trip in itself—there’s a lot you can do out there. It’s so weird to think we weren’t that far, though.

Eating Lunch

Once it was almost 11:30, I decided I wanted to eat. I got a ham sandwich that was pretty good! Mom likes turkey.

Now we see trees for miles!

Williams

Here we’re around Williams, Arizona. These trees remind me a bit of the ones we see in Ontario!

There was a railroad going through the forest! Whenever we see railroad stuff, we always think of my grandpa and mom’s dad, who worked on the railroad for 40+ years and has an INCREDIBLE train room he designed in a room off his house complete with a town and landscape that is amazing. The Estherville paper just did a feature on him and that not too long ago, which was awesome and SO well-deserved. I will have to show you all pictures of it sometime on here, too.

Another McDonald’s!!

That sign is awesome! I wish we could’ve seen a bear. 😁

It felt like we were getting closer as we took in this variation of the mountains!

If you look closely, you can see a dirt trail leading to the top of this hill! There’s even a small house/building halfway up there. That would be so fun to go to the top!

I didn’t realize how many trees Arizona has. I love this view.

This is one of my FAVORITE pictures from the bus! I love the contrail clouds, beaming blue sky, dusting of mountains on the horizon, yellow-green grass, and speckles of hunter green bushes. It looks incredibly western and wistful. I’m not a huge fan of camping, but this view is incredible.

More houses!

It got really flat around here.

There are trails leading out here, too, and little places where people stop or set up, like below. I do wonder how life is different for people living out here. It would be such a cool, different experience for me.

We’re by the Grand Canyon Junction at this point and went through a town with a hotel and some stuff before arriving. We’re very close! Mom could see this formation on her GPS; I think this is Red Butte!

Coming Into the Grand Canyon—Tusayan

We came into a town with tons more places before actually going into the national park. This is the Grand Hotel at the Grand Canyon, and it looked awesome with an aesthetic that blends in and complements the nature around it. This is Tusayan, which I looked up and read that it’s a resort town by the Grand Canyon.

This is also surrounding Kaibab National Forest. We had also been watching Steven’s movies, and I loved them! This one we’re watching stars Steve Martin, whom I recognized from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles—Cheaper by the Dozen. That was a cute show, and look at how cute baby Taylor Lautner is!!!

Arriving at Grand Canyon National Park

And we’re here!!! At the entrance, anyway. We still would drive through a lot of forest to get up to the south rim. Steven also informed us that we had two options for our time here: we could pay for a tour with him, where he would lead us around and give us some cool historical information about everything and take pictures for us (he said he takes awesome pics, and he did!), or once we parked, we could go on a trail by ourselves with a map they would give us and convene a couple hours later at Bright Angel Lodge. I wanted to go on the tour with Steven because I already liked him a lot, and Mom and I didn’t know much at all about the Grand Canyon or where to go, so we wanted to learn about it at the same time. And I, of course, wanted great pictures. I forget how much extra we paid for that; I don’t think it was too much, maybe like $30 per person? I could go back and look at all my statements, but it wasn’t that bad, and it was a great experience.

I LOVE the nature surrounding the road here.

We finally got off the bus! It was just after one when we arrived. It was still a little chilly! I didn’t realize it would be colder there, so it was like high-60s, but the sun was out in full radiance, so I was grateful for that. I did eventually warm up on the bus! Some other freeze baby more vocal than me inquired about the A/C from down below at one of our stops, so they said they would turn it down since they couldn’t turn it off. It helped!!!

The South Rim of the Grand Canyon

Steven was giving us about 20 minutes to walk a short distance from our parking lot to the south rim to check it out for ourselves and take in the views before those of us who were going on the tour with him would board the bus again, where we’d drive down to Bright Angel Lodge. I had no idea what to envision when imagining the Grand Canyon, but as soon as the top crevice started peeking through the trees, I was in awe. It felt surreal to be here!

When I could see the flat horizon marking the other side…it was breathtaking. There was a big overlook we were walking out to.

Mather Point

We were at a vista called Mather Point, and oh, my gosh, it was so much GRANDER than anything I expected! Look at how it’s so flat on the horizon and then just a HUGE cavern! The beautiful, golden yellow flowers/weeds added a nice touch to this photo and view.

There are no words to describe the expanse of it, how deep it is, and how amazing it is to see all these little buttes and jagged formations inside of it. I don’t even think we could see straight down. OH, MY GOSH…thank GOD this wonderful memory just came back to me: I’m sitting on the couch right now with Mom writing this, and I just told her I remembered how later on in the tour, Steven asked us which state we thought the Grand Canyon is as big as, and Mom so cutely yells out with confidence, “Texas!” before realizing oh wait…it took me a minute to grasp why that was wrong, but when it did, I had to laugh hysterically. I don’t think she yelled it loud enough for anyone else to hear unfortunately, but I’m glad I have that to cherish forever. The correct answer is Rhode Island, which she did remember. 😂

Look at this incredible overlook! The rocks that lead us out to further explore the Canyon, the huge opposite side of the Canyon, which was actually MILES away from us, and how it winds and various buttes stretch to the top!

Here’s a good photo to illustrate its depth. This is right over the overlook! There’s a massive drop-off, and you can see how tall these litte cliffs/mountains are inside.

Here’s another incredible view! As you can see, it’s not always a straight drop-off, and it looks like it descends even deeper along the center where there’s a river of empty space between two ridges.

This is just too profound for words. It is an incredible testament to God and His glory, sovereignty, power, and majesty. There’s a huge shadow going across the center, and I wonder if it gets even deeper there—I think it does because we bought Mom a huge illustrative Grand Canyon book for Christmas that shows how the Colorado River flows through the center at the bottom. I think you can even see trails that look microscopic because obviously, people do take hikes into the canyon. I actually would like to, but I would need to know it’s a hike I have a likely survival rate from (I remember watching a movie where a couple got stranded down there my first year of college…). We learned you have to be very careful and plan accordingly because when it’s hot, people tend to not pack the amount of water they’ll need, underestimating how difficult and exhausting the trek back up will be. But it would be incredible to explore inside of it, even just a little bit.

This background is to-die-for. Mom looks so cute; I love her outfit! She bought this hat the night before in our gift shop.

Here’s another view from our right, the various cliffs and this big drop-off.

I had always wanted to get pics on top of a mountain/hike/cliff, and this felt a lot like it!

People kept climbing on top of this rock for photos.

Look how far down that is and how those trees are bigger than humans…and the walls are nearly straight…

When we came back to the bus, we hurried and took some pics by the sign! While he took attendance and distributed maps to the people going off on their own, we tried to wait for people to be done taking pictures directly by it, but then, we had to get going, so I hurried and took one for Mom when it was finally clear.

Driving to Bright Angel Lodge

When we got on the bus, behind the trees in the parking lot, we saw an elk rustling behind them! Mom got a good video where you can see it walking, but you can’t make out much else. After that, we started driving down to Bright Angel Lodge, which would be our meeting point. We saw the Grand Canyon Railway!

This lodge looked awesome! For a second, I thought it was someone’s house, and it might be, but I’m wondering if it’s the back of Maswik Lodge because that is tagged nearby in this photo. Either way, it would be awesome to live/stay here!

I’m not sure what this building is; it looks like another hotel, and I love its design.

Bright Angel Lodge

Here is Bright Angel Lodge! This was such a cute place. They had restrooms, a gift shop, and even some places to dine, I thought. The back of it is even cuter and leads out to the south rim. It took our tour a minute to start because one of the passengers tripped going down the bus stairs, and they had to call an ambulance. I do pray she was okay.

We’re making our way out to the south rim again.

He pointed out this overlook off to the left, which we didn’t get a chance to go in when we had some free time after the tour, and I wish we would have. Steven told us that the most dangerous wildlife at the Grand Canyon are the squirrels because they carry diseases, and if we tried interacting with them, they could bite us or follow us around and transmit them. He also said that about the birds, and we saw a sign prohibiting feeding of wildlife. Thankfully, we didn’t see any squirrels. He also warned us not to take any rocks from the site because he’d heard of people doing that and then being haunted, but he said it’s our call since he’s not living with us. 😂

Tour with Steven

Up there is a great view of the El Tovar Hotel. I know that now because of Google Photos. 🙂 The hotel looks gorgeous, with the most incredible views, but in a book we would later buy and read, it says it’s haunted, as is a lot of stuff around here, supposedly. We’ll come back to that.

As we walked along the South Rim Trail, Steven told us a lot about the Grand Canyon and some of its history. He said planes are now prohibited from flying over the Grand Canyon after a wreck occurred back in the 50s due to the Canyon messing with the gauges and getting them off, causing the two planes to hit each other head on. He said that most of the wreckage is still down there but blocked off as a memorial, and no one was able to be identified. 😢 As you can imagine, there’s a lot of sad history surrounding the Grand Canyon, which the book we bought also detailed. I had never heard of that crash, but it was decades ago. Still, I’m surprised I didn’t know that, and that means we wouldn’t have flown over it like I wondered.

Here’s the back of Bright Angel Lodge! This was such a fun area to explore.

Steven did take excellent photos of us! Here we are by an overlook with no boundary…Mom is always careful not to let us get too close.

We happened to be first in line to get our picture taken at this spot, and he tried to hype us up and make us pose more because we’re “at the Grand Canyon”!!! I’m not a huge poser anymore because Instagram has ruined me, seeing girls go through their 200 poses every time they take a picture; I find it nauseating. Some posing is nice, though.

Mom took some photos of me looking out at the Canyon, and it got warm enough with the sunshine and our walk that I was able to take my hoodie off!

There were actually a lot of spots without boundaries where people were walking out on ledges to get their photos taken. Mom thought that was so stupid and wouldn’t let me because even back on our trip to Banff, she’d heard of people falling to their deaths doing that. And that has happened at the Grand Canyon.

Steven told us about these huge birds, how they’re literally 10 feet in width with their wings spread and they like to perch on the ledges nearby. Mom really wanted to see one, but we didn’t unfortunately. I would have loved to see a bird that big, too!

Mom took this awesome panorama. I made her take a lot of pictures for me near the end because I shut my phone off to save its power for the ride home, knowing now that we wouldn’t get home till 10 at night.

This is our view to the left side of the Canyon, and it definitely looks like a remnant from the Great Flood. That’s when someone mentioned that.

I don’t remember what this building is, but again, it looks beautiful.

Hopi House

I do know what this is: the Hopi House, which has a lot of history Steven told us about. The Grand Canyon is still occupied by some Native American tribes, we learned, which I had absolutely no idea about, and they have been there for centuries and accustomed to that way of life, so they know how to survive it, Steven was telling us, which I think is amazing. I think if we had went to the west rim, we would have seen one of the reservations and a lot more of their culture where we potentially could have learned more about how they do it, but that’s something I’m going to look into further. Eventually, I would like to go out to the west rim, too.

Anyway, this house has a lot of their arts and crafts inside and was built by Mary Colter, he was telling us. It was built like one of their dwellings, and many of the Hopi who worked in it used to live upstairs. We didn’t go inside because Steven said it has a low ceiling and you have to duck when you enter so you don’t smack your head, which he said he did one time when one of the people on his tour yelled his name. It was great to see.

There is Steven by the door telling us about it. 🙂

There’s someone out on a ledge…Mom wouldn’t let me go out there. 😂

Here’s another awesome pic Steven took!! I look like I have the hugest hands in this photo but it’s fine. 😂

This is one of my favorite photos of us. ❤️ I am so thankful we got to experience all this together.

After our tour, we had some time to explore the lodge or walk the trail a bit like we had been, as long as we were back by a certain time. We got some more cool pics!

Mom started telling me to pose, too, so I came up with this…very classy for such a sacred site! Ugh, I was trying to mock the idea of posing, but I do wish I would’ve done something different. 😄

Bright Angel Lodge Gift Shop

Next, we made our way inside Bright Angel Lodge’s gift shop! I died when I found this snake because a long time ago, very early in my youth, I had an obsession with snakes, which I’m sure had to delight my mother, but she still bought me all sorts of books on and stuffed animals of snakes, bless her heart. When my other grandpa died when I was young, I remember being at the funeral home where they had this awesome room full of stuffed animals and toys, and there was a green and yellow snake like this there that I fell head over heels for. I was so sad when I couldn’t have it; we had bonded. Mom later bought me a big fuzzy pink and red one that I loved (that I hope she kept but she probably burned it…), but I never forgot about that specific snake, and I think I even found it this summer up in Okoboji at The Barefoot Bar, where they had a bucket of stuffed animal snakes. And now I found it here, too!!! That part of me from childhood was healed. This is where we bought our book, Ghosts of the Grand Canyon! They had a lot of books that looked interesting, but we get interested in that kind of stuff, so we decided to get that.

Leaving the Grand Canyon

We left soon after. We got a great view of the horse barn! Mom loves horses. I’d like to buy her one someday.

Steven bought us all these cookies, which was so nice! He put some movies back on again, and I started reading our book. I told Mom my goal was to finish the whole book before we got home because it was short enough, and I needed to stay off my phone to keep it charged enough for pictures of sights on the way home. I started reading right away. Steven was also going to take our orders for dinner at that same restaurant in Boulder City, which we got.

You can kinda see the Grand Canyon airport behind the trees, where some helicopters were.

This totally reminded me of Alberta, the flat land stretching to the horizon. You can see some mountains in the distance, though. It was around four when we left, so we weren’t at the Grand Canyon for a huge amount of time, but it felt just right. Someday, it would be nice to go back on my own time with a bunch of people and maybe hike.

I liked this Trump sign in Arizona!

Look closely—cows! They’re different kinds than what we typically see.

There are some more familiar black ones roaming out here!

I did get a good chunk of the book done, but I made sure to look out the window often! I love these rock formations! The book was informative and light reading, providing a lot of history about the Grand Canyon in addition to the supernatural sightings people had recorded. The book was kinda creepy, I’m not gonna lie. When it comes to ghosts, I am skeptical, but I’m not doubting supernatural experiences or sightings, either. As Christians, we know that demons exist and so do spirits, so it’s definitely not something I like to mess with at all, even though it’s interesting to read about. I thank God we didn’t experience anything eerie when we were at the Grand Canyon because the cool thing about the book is that it focused on experiences right where we were—the South Rim Trail, Bright Angel Lodge, etc. It even said some experiences happened in broad daylight, where people would feel like a spirit was compelling them to jump off the edge. I never felt unsettled while we were there, but I can see where it would evoke those experiences because of all the tragedy surrounding it.

The evening sunlight peeking around this mountain and over the mountains in the distance looked heavenly.

More campers! That would be a great location.

Another Los Angeles sign! Only 345 miles away!

This is gorgeous. Mom zoomed in on the windshield. It looks like Jesus coming on the clouds!

The views of the desert landscape in the evening light were so picturesque and soothing.

The prettiest colors and red rocks!

Kingman

Here we’re coming back through Kingman again! This is a pretty solid town, and I just can’t imagine living there and going about my everyday life with those views. It’s hard to wrap my mind around because it’s so different and novel compared to the midwest, but I absolutely love where I live, and actually, this trip made me love my home even more, which I’ll talk about in the last post. I suppose you get used to your environment wherever it is, but I thought it was really cool.

Just imagine playing football or baseball on this field below the mountains at sunset! What an aesthetic. God is so kind to shower us with His beauty and romance absolutely everywhere.

See, there’s a casual mall right there! I could see myself doing errands in a place like this. It would be so cool.

I love this little area; it looks like more trails extend outward here.

There are houses and roads nestled in this ravine! How cool.

Darkness fell fast after sunset. It was almost a little creepy how dark it got when we turned off on a road that didn’t seem very busy with luminous black mountains surrounding us.

And we’re returning to more civilization and the remainder of sunset! I have a BEAUTIFUL video of us coming into this valley (I think it’s Golden Valley in Arizona still) from over the hill and seeing an array of city lights stretched out before us. I will include it in the vlog someday. 🙂

Boulder City

Right before we came back to Boulder City, we went over the Hoover Dam again and I did get to see it out our window! Since it was so dark out, I decided to record it instead of photograph it because I didn’t want to miss it by trying to adjust the exposure. I will add it to the vlog! The dam was all lit up, and it was breathtaking.

Back in Boulder City, we had the most stunning view of the city lights under the mountains and some lone stars above them, which make my heart overflow. We had to stop either there or shortly before to switch drivers since they can only drive so much. Our driver, Earl, who had driven us most of the time, was so nice. I had to quit reading my book at that time because it had gotten dark then. When we were driving through Boulder City, I feel like we came from around a different way and were going up and around these big, mansion-like houses that I got on video. I used to look at luxury homes in Las Vegas on Zillow, and there are some amaaazing ones out there. I don’t think I could live out here, though. Just visit. 🙂

Dinner

We got cheeseburgers at that same restaurant from this morning, and they were great!! I LOVED the fries, too. I definitely recommend that hotel restaurant! The food did not disappoint on this trip. 😂

Back in Las Vegas

I have a whole bunch of videos coming back into Las Vegas, and oh my gosh, it is unlike anything with the literally sparkling lights glittering the horizon in rolls. It will be the coolest vlog. When we got back, we started doing drop-offs at various hotels, and we made our way onto Fremont Street, the old downtown! I got to see the Golden Nugget!

It was still hopping at nine!

Back on the Las Vegas Strip

We came back from the opposite end of the Strip and were super close to the Strat!! That was cool to see; we hadn’t been down on this side either yet. I got a video of us going by the Mirage, which looked awesome, and I mentioned earlier that I would be staying there when I came back to Vegas with my cousin and aunt!

There’s the exterior entrance to The Forum Shops, where we were the other day!

A great view of the Colosseum!

Back at the Flamingo Hotel

And at 10:30, we were settled back in our room. Wow, was it a memorable and amazing day. And we had our beautiful views of the Bellagio fountain!

Somehow, I mustered up the energy to clean my corner! I didn’t want it to be a mess before we had to leave.

Organization makes my heart happy. 🙂

We got nestled into our cozy bed and watched Friends for a little while, which was so fun. That show is so funny; I got into it over the summer with my friend, Kelsey, when she came up to Okoboji and stayed with my grandparents and me for a couple days. We would hang out in their old living room and watch it at 12 in the morning. 🥰

I was able to tip Steven via Zelle, another banking app like Venmo where you can transfer money digitally since we had no cash, and it was SUPER important to me that we tipped him and our driver, whom he would share it with, because they made the day absolutely incredible for us. I was able to do it from my local bank’s app, which had that built in, so I was grateful for that.

It was a wonderful day, a great break between exploring the city. I hope you enjoyed seeing this natural wonder! If you’ve ever been out to the Grand Canyon, I’d love to hear about your experiences, so please leave a comment!

Next Post:

In our last full day in Vegas, we would continue to explore the Strip and do everything left on my list! Stay tuned to see more of the hotels we hadn’t been to yet and their amazing sights! We would be taking the monorail all along the Strip. Thanks so much for following this journey; we’re almost to the end!