Sixteen Volts

During our Vegas vacation, we also visited the Grand Canyon in a rental car. The drive back and forth was long but worth it, since we got to see the desert. On the way to the Canyon from Vegas to Arizona, the desert gradually changes to arid climate and then normal forests as you slowly climb higher. We took the drive to Canyon at nighttime so we didn't get to see this phenomenon until on the way back.

The sun had already risen when we arrived at the Canyon from the south sde, and after parking the car it was just a few steps to the Canyon itself, which is huge and beautiful. We downloaded the pictures that we took during the trip on our computer last night, so here are a couple of best shots that my wife took of the Canyon at the lookout points:

In the last picture, you can see some people on a further lookout point that the path along the canyon rim would lead to. Starting from the parking lot, there is a path that follows the rim rather closely, leading to these further lookout points and whatever else they have there for people wanting to take longer hikes. For someone like me who fears of heights, this path and the lookout points are a rather unnerving experience, since the path doesn't have any kind of fence between it and the mile-high drop (there is a few feet of ground and vegetation, though), and the flimsy fences of the lookout points are made of horizontal metal bars that barely reach up to my waist. There were numerous warnings about not crossing any fence for a better view because people have really fallen in, and having seen these fences with my own eyes, I don't doubt this for one second. This is not even a question of "if" somebody will fall, but "when", as the whole place is basically just an accident waiting to happen, especially with small children and toddlers. The brochure said that most people who fall go outside the fenced area. For some reason, that particular most just doesn't sound that assuring to me in this context.

On the way back we first stopped at a McDonald's to get some breakfast. This particular franchise location was rather strange in the sense that it was a McDonald's, but I guess that the place had previously been some other kind of normal restaurant, and when it had been converted to Mickey Dee, they hadn't taken out the old tables and chairs and replaced them with the standard McDonald's furniture and decoration, but kept the original look. This visit also made me wonder about how expensive America today is. Now, the Vegas Strip is a tourist destination and you can certainly see this fact reflected in prices, but if I have understood correctly, McDonald's has the same prices everywhere and could thus be used as a general measure of prices. Of course, there has been inflation just like everywhere else so that my 80's mental image of a whole burger meal costing only a dollar is obsolete, but even so. The prices everywhere seemed to be at least in the Canadian level. Is my impression correct, my American readers?

As I said earlier, the smooth transition from forest to desert was very evident on the way back. I regret not stopping to take pictures of the desert and the numerous mountains there, as they were quite beautiful. Along the road to the Hoover Dam there were numerous mobile homes (or whatever prefab homes these are called these days) so that people seem to live in the desert in loose congregations. Heck, you can't beat the view, but I sure hope that these people have some kind of air conditioning system set up.

The Hoover Dam, that famous pinnacle of American engineering and can-do optimism, didn't look that impressive for the simple reason that when you drive there, you don't get to see it from the angle that it is usually pictured from, but from the other side where it is just a normal building -sized slab of concrete. You could also walk across the dam, but we decided not to, since the Grand Canyon (and The Stratosphere two days before that) had already been more than enough for my fear of heights. The road leading to the dam was curvy and mountainous, and before the dam, there was a security check and inspection, in case that some concerned activist representing diverse strata of society wants to drive a van full of explosives to the dam. Just like at the security checks that seemed to be in effect at least in the fancier hotels, we were just waved through after a single glance at us. I wonder why that was.

On the Nevada side of the dam, there was a lot more traffic coming into Arizona across the dam. I swear we drove past a line of stopped cars at least five miles long, without excaggeration. Again, I hope that the AC is working in your car, you poor devils, as you might be sitting there for a while. I sure don't wonder why they are building a whole new highway and suspension bridge above the dam. On the Nevadan side of the dam, we also got a look at Lake Mead and the brand new construction of houses going on around it. Kunstler has occasionally warned about the apocalyptic doomsday that will soon come to Vegas with the water level of Lake Mead decreasing. Looking at the lake and the rocks that surround it, it wasn't difficult to tell where the water had once been at its highest level, compared to where it was now. But that might also be just seasonal variation, so I shall postpone my judgment and dire predictions for the future of this desert oasis until I have found out more about this.

Speaking of The Stratosphere, at least from up there you could see the suburbia that spreads around Las Vegas:

Posted by Ilkka Kokkarinen on Thursday, August 10, 2006 at 9:23 AM