Walnut Canyon National Monument and The Meteor Crater

Leaving Flagstaff, we headed east for the day to visit Walnut Canyon National Monument.

It's in this canyon, that the Sinagua people lived here in the cliffs.  You can see that there is an overhang on the right hand side of the canyon, which is where the Sinagua took advantage of the natural erosion to live.

So this is the view from on dwelling across the canyon.  Across and all around were their "neighbors".

35 miles east of Flagstaff is Meteor Crater.  At first, it was thought to be a volcanic feature, but by 1961, it was declared the remains of a meteoric impact.  It is so well preserved because of the dry desert climate and the lack of vegetation.

At one mile in 4000 feet across and 700 feet deep, it's considered a small meteor impact.  There was significant mining activity here in the 1920's as a geologist was mining for iron ore.

One key piece of evidence that it was a meteor impact and not volcanic is the inversion of layers of rock.  This sandstone is on top of younger layers of rock.

I thought it was cool to see the rocks that had rolled to the crater floor.  I didn't expect to enjoy Meteor Crater so much.  The history and the geologic explanation of how they proved it to be meteoric was fascinating.

Sedona

I planned for us to have four days in Northern Arizona, so using Flagstaff as our base, we spent one day in Sedona, which is about 40 miles south.  Flagstaff is a flat city on a plateau, but driving south into Sedona, it's a valley surrounded by red rocks.  This is the famous Church in the Rocks.

This is the view from the church....do you see the SIZE of that house there at the base? 

We spent the afternoon just going to many of the places where you could get up close to some of the outcrops.  This is Courthouse rock.

There is these "vortexes" around Sedona, which people claim have energy.  Here's I am on top of the vortex near the airport.

The balance of the afternoon was hiking the "airport" loop, which is about 5KM.  We ended it right around sunset.  Perfect timing.

Hoover Dam

After the two nights in Vegas, we rented a car to drive to the Grand Canyon, but our first stop is the iconic Hoover Dam.  The shadow of the bridge at the base of the dam is the new US 93 bypass bridge.  Previously, the highway went across the top of the dam.  This is a fantastic view of the dam.

The reservoir behind the dam.

So,  for those of you who go and drive, here's a tip.  Don't pay the $10 to park in the lot next to the dam. Drive over/across the dam to the Arizona side and park in one of the free lots there.  This is the bridge that crosses over the spillover pipe.  There hasn't been spillover since 1983.

Looking down into the power plant.  The tour costs $15 and you go down to the base and the plant.

First stop, IN the rock wall is where you see one of the pipes with which they used to divert the water before the built the dam. 

Then you walk through the rock to get to.....

....the power plant.  The water is funneled through smaller pipes to gain velocity to rotate the turbines to generate electricity.   Pretty cool.

The US 93 bypass bridge at sunset.

Built in the 1930's, Hoover Dam has an Art Deco design as seen by the tops of the intake towers.  And off to Flagstaff.

Viva Las Vegas

Since Onions can't leave the country during his immigration process, I thought it would be nice to go to somewhere warm for the week between Christmas and New Years.  Vegas and the Grand Canyon.  Well, I was completely wrong on the warm as we were in long underwear and jackets the entire week!  But Vegas was FUN.

We only stayed a day and a half (that's really all you need!)  But the best part of the Strip is just walking it and seeing all the hotels. We stayed at the Luxor.

We walked ALL the way down to Treasure Island to see the Pirate Show.....but then I looked online and Wikipedia told me the show has closed.  WHY?

The iconic theme resorts are still there, but there are SO many new hotels.  I didn't know they could squeeze more in.

The Venetian is new since I've been to Vegas.

But the highlight is still the Bellagio.  The fountain shows are spectacular.

I have always heard about the conservatory, but this glass ceiling in the lobby is pretty spectacular upon entrance!

The conservatory was a Christmas theme.  I wasn't really paying attention until about halfway through fighting the crowds I realized that all the sculptures were made of FLOWERS! 

The worlds largest chocolate fountain....who knew?

The "ferris" wheel at The Linq, another new hotel.

Our first night, I got tickets to one of the Cirque de Soleil shows.  Parts of it were great, some, meh, the Chinese acrobats do it better.

But the best part is Onions' English is getting good enough that he is getting jokes and understanding innuendo.  I caught him laughing at some pretty challenging jokes.

Las Vegas?  Have to have the buffet.  Turns out Onions can scan the Chinese websites and reviews to find out information about the best of everything.  He found that the buffet at the ARIA (another new hotel) is the best.  So, be proud of my pictures.  Note ALL seafood, no carbs or vegetables here on plate 1.

Ok, now we have some meat on plate 2.

Onions commented on America being the "land of plenty" because were this buffet were in China there would be a "grab all you can" ethos whereas here, the buffet was ALWAYS full and the piles of crab and seafood was always full.

Ok, so plate three had a little rice....I wanted to soak up the paella juice.

Sunday?  Vegas?  Of course, it's time to watch football.  So, I parked myself down and watched the Seahawks lose to the Rams. Yuck.

Onions then decided we wanted to head to a spa.  Turns out what we wanted wasn't massages, he found that Caesar's Palace has the best pool/sauna/hot tub set up.  We spent three hours, soaking, showering and sweating.

Here we are all, cleaned and ready for the next part of our trip!

On our return to Las Vegas before flying out, we had a couple hours so we went to the Las Vegas Container Park.

It's an area where they've turned old shipping containers into a commercial and arts district.  I thought it would be more of a place where people lived, like IN shipping containers.

Oh, and the final tally on the 20 minutes of blackjack I played?  Down $18.  Turns out, I can scratch the gambling itch within about 5 minutes of sitting down.