Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon

On our way to the Grand Canyon we stopped off at Hoover Dam, which is about an hour outside of Vegas. It is a pretty magnificent place and definitely worth a stop off on the way to the Grand Canyon. Here are a couple of my best pictures from Hoover Dam...

It was then another four-hour drive to the Grand Canyon. I had forgotten how much I missed driving, and it is surprisingly easy getting used to driving on the right side of the road.

Half way to the canyon a warning light in the car told us the engine oil needed changing. We called up the rental place who told us it was fine for the next 400 miles.

As we were driving all the way to San Francisco, we would obviously be doing a lot more than 400 miles, so we were told to take it back to them on our way back from the Grand Canyon to LA. It wasn't too much of a problem as we had to drive back to Vegas anyway to pick up my contact lenses that I had been waiting for all week, and typically, arrived two hours after we left Polo Towers!

When we arrived at the Grand Canyon we checked into the Bright Angel Lodge, which is one of only two hotels that are actually on the Canyon.

We had a short walk around the south rim, and took some pretty amazing pictures. I think the Grand Canyon is definitely something you have to see for yourself to really appreciate its true magnificence. I don't think my pictures really did it justice, but here are some of my best ones...

That evening, we had a nice dinner, before a very early night. We had decided we would use our time at the Grand Canyon to take it easy and detox before we went to LA. Even if we had wanted to go out, it would have been impossible. There really is nothing to do at the canyon once you've seen it and taken pictures. In hindsight, we should've booked just one night there.

The following morning we went on a helicopter ride over the canyon, which was amazing! We were able to see so much more than just looking at it from the rim. I was sat in the front with the driver. I have never been in a helicopter before, but I really enjoyed it, especially when your view is the Grand Canyon. Hopefully my pictures will do it some kind of justice...

We arrived back from the helicopter ride much early than we anticipated, meaning we had about eight hours to kill before sunset. I have never been so bored in all my life!

By this point we had taken hundreds of pictures of the canyon, and as amazing and spectacular as it is, we really didn't need any more pictures, and felt we had seen enough of it!

We definitely caught up on our sleep while we were there as there was nothing else to do!

Early the next morning we left the lodge and headed back to Vegas. We took the rental car back and got upgraded to a Jeep Cherokee.

It was much bigger than our Ford Escape but so much nicer to look at and to drive! We finally got out of Vegas and on to LA at around 4.30pm. We thought about stopping at a motel for the night, but as it was only a 4-5 hour drive to LA we decided it would be best to just get there, and we finally arrived just after 9pm.

We had each done about five hours driving so we were pretty shattered. It was also our first hostel we had been in for a few weeks, and after the gorgeous hotels Sarah's parents had booked for us, it was quite a shock to the system!

Our friend Scarlett from university was meeting us for a few days the following day so we checked into just a dorm room for the night and moved into a three-bed private room the following day when Scarlett arrived.