Our Helicopter Adventure

We had booked a fabulous helicopter trip down into the Grand Canyon which would have allowed us to get out and walk around at the bottom.  However, it blew and snowed and the trip was cancelled.  So we did an alternative from Las Vegas.  It included being picked up outside Circus Circus in a stretch limo and driven to the airport.  This is a bonus as driving around in the RV is not that fun.

Here is our helicopter.  It took 6 of us squished in, two in front with the pilot and 4 in back.  Amazingly Clancy and I got to ride in the front.  Included in the tour is a video of our trip including us in the helicopter, music the pilot chose to play us, his information about what we were seeing, etc.  This has been purchased and is being sent to NZ for our return.  

Our apologies for the photos of vegas and this trip as they are snapshots of the kind taken when bouncing wildly about in a helicopter or being jostled in crowds with poor light and no tripod.  But there you are.  Hopefully you will get a feel for the trip anyway.  

Mandalay Bay and The Pyramid are very close to the airport.  No wonder we didn't see them on our walk about.

You can get an idea of the size of Vegas and the city rising from the desert.

And then it all abruptly ends and the desert mountains begin.

Apparently Arizona is the most mountainous state in the lower 48.  That means Alaska beats it, but still....I never knew that.

   

This is the Hoover Dam creating Lake Mead behind it.  It is a pretty huge and amazing lake.

The water has dropped quite a bit in recent years and exposed new fingers of land.  

They kind of reminded us of Marlborough, yet they are so different.  The whiteness is a result of being under water for so many years and then being exposed.  

You can see the white tide mark a bit better in this one. 

One of the roads going somewhere.  

Much of the landscape has been pushed up sideways and torn (in ancient times).  Then erosion does its thing and one is left with a variety of colours, shapes and designs.  

At the edge are new tracts of homes, many with swimming pools and whole sections of similar housing. 

More landscapes.

Coming in for a landing.

And there you have it.  We were driven back to our RV in the same Limo too.

Unfortunately, Mary developed a migraine during the flight which was pretty bad by the time we landed.  Haven't had one in years.  So, we decided to stay another day/night and just rested all day.  We were both pretty tired.  Mary slept most of the day and Clancy read and slept and did photo things.  The next day we drove through Death Valley which is also amazing.  But that's another blog.  Until then....