For those of you who have never been to Phoenix, this is a place where they put stop lights on the entrance ramps onto the highways and the city itself must be miles and miles across. It is one huge snarled up traffic jam and of course we were leaving the city just as rush hour was starting. Luckily we did not die and did not get into an accident.

By about 60 miles out of Phoenix you are in the middle of nowhere in the Sonaran Desert, which isn't quite as much of a desert as I thought it would be. It was quite green and fairly lush, but I think a lot of that was because we were out there during Desert Bloom, which means we were out there right after they got some rain and everything was blooming for about a week or 2-week period before it all dries out and really turns to desert.

We drove up through Sonoma and Red Rock country to Flagstaff and from Flagstaff went over to Winslow. We got there about 8pm at night and took a shower (as we hadn't slept or showered in about 36 or so hours). Then out to dinner and off to bed.

Day 2 (April 1) - From Winslow we headed back east to Meteor Crater and spent a good amount of time there and got plenty of pictures. Did you know the meteor vaporized as it hit the surface of the earth so no meteor fragments (except microscopic pieces) were ever found...Also did you know this is one of the areas where astronauts trained for the moon landing.

After Meteor Crater we headed further east to Walnut Creek Canyon NM (National Monument). This is a canyon where Native Americans had lived in small buildings they built into the side of the canyon. The trail in the canyon led to one of the small buildings where you could explore. This was up at about 7,000 feet so you had trees and a fairly respectable climate (no deserts here). They said we might see Mountain Lions on the walk, but we didn't see any.

After Walnut Creek Canyon we headed north to Sunset Crater NM, which is a volcanic cinder cone field that last erupted about a 1,000 years ago or so. It is very interesting, but you are not allowed to climb up on the cinder cones because you will knock the cinders down. So all we did was walk around the lava flows, which do look like they just cooled off.

Then following Sunset Crater NM we headed further north to Wuptaki National Monument, another Native American pueblo ruin. We didn't have all that much time so we didn't spend that much there.

From Wuptaki we went north to the east entrance of the Grand Canyon National Park and entered the park. Just before the park, we stopped at the viewing for the Little Colorado River Canyon.

We stopped at Desert View so Moe could get his first view of the Grand Canyon.

And then stopped at several other of the points and views along the road to Grand Canyon Village. We found the village and Mather Campground, where we were staying and set up our tent and got ready for bed.

Day 3 (April 2) - The Grand Canyon Day!

We got up around 5:30am and had breakfast and began to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon at about 8am. At the top of the Canyon it was about 40 degrees, windy and cold but as we climbed further and further down it became hotter and hotter. By the time we reached the river 8 miles from the rim and 6,000 feet below it, it was probably around 90 degrees outside with no clouds and bright, bright sunshine!

It was noon when we reached the Colorado River and we relaxed and had lunch for about an hour down there before we turned around and started hiking back up. We reached the rim at about 7pm and dragged ourselves to the car. Before we collapsed we had dinner and managed to crawl into our sleeping bags.

Day 4 (April 3) - Still stiff from the hike the day before we set off from the Grand Canyon and started heading towards Vegas. From Grand Canyon Village we head south to Williams and then westish on Route 66 to Kingman and finally up through the desert to Hoover Dam. From Hoover Dam we went through the mountains to Boulder City and then dropped down into Las Vegas. We stayed at the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino which was okay (sort of white trashy - I imagine because of the lower room rates). We checked in and walked about half the strip that evening before heading off to bed sometime around 2 in the morning.

Day 5 (April 4) - We decided to walk the entire strip today and ended up probably hiking it 3 or 4 times, plus all of the walking we did throughout each casino. We literally stopped at every casino on the strip and at each one of them signed up for the slot club comp cards. We are hoping to get some enticements at the very least to come back (since we will definitely be back). We ended up playing the most at the Luxor which was at the other end of the strip from Circus Circus. We had dinner at the Mirage Buffet, which turned out to be one of the best meals we found. All you can eat prime rib, shrimp and crab legs, all for $14.95. We didn't get back to our room until sometime around 3:30 in the morning. Before getting back to the room, Moe won a jackpot (2000 something nickels) on Jackpot Party (5 Jackpot 7's and 5 plums for you in the know)...

Day 6 (April 5) - We had only booked Circus Circus for two nights but they had told us to call if we wanted to extend our stay and we did, but they were booked up. We found a Motel 6 at the other end of the strip near the Luxor and made reservations down there. We moved the car and dropped off our bags before going off to Luxor and Mandalay Bay for the afternoon and evening. We were going to go to the buffet at the Excalibur (tacky hotel - do not stay there) but it was closed so we went to the Luxor Buffet (not worth the money - go to the Mirage). We went to bed at a fairly conservative 1 in the morning.

Day 7 (April 6) - Wanting to stay another night in Vegas, but unable to find a hotel room we decided to leave and do things outside of Vegas and then head back to Kingman via Laughlin, NV, which was supposedly the up-and-coming Las Vegas. We went out to Red Rock Canyon (Spring Mtn. State Park) and explored that area fairly fully. We got to use the 4wd on the rental car on the jeep trails deep into the ravines and mountains.

From there we drove back down through Las Vegas and along the strip to say goodbye to all of the Casinos and get some pictures.

We went to Laughlin and it was like a little mini-Las Vegas. It is located along the Colorado River below Davis Dam (below Hoover Dam but above Lake Havasu) and has a small strip with probably about 8 hotels and casinos or so. Some of the places are from Vegas but with different themes. It's less crowded and less expensive than Vegas is. The buffet at the Hilton was only $6.95 and included prime rib. Moe and I were both pretty impressed. We hung around there until about 8:30 or so and then headed the 30 miles over the mountains to Kingman where we spent the night.

Day 8 and 9 (April 7 and 8) - From Kingman we went back to Flagstaff to explore the places we had missed when we were there last. We stopped in Oak Creek Canyon and went to Tuzigoot National Monument. We also stopped in Flagstaff to get some photographs developed. Then we went to Sonoma, which is south of Flagstaff and right in red rock country. We walked around the town and had dinner. We didn't leave Sonoma until about 8 in the evening or so and then headed towards Phoenix because we had to fly out the next morning. We decided it was silly to have a hotel room for a few hours so we decided we would stay up all night. We found a small Indian casino on the way and played there for quite some time (I won a jackpot on Wild Bear - 2800 nickels) and it killed enough time for us to drive right into Phoenix at about 5am and drop the car off and get to the airport around 6:30. Our plane took off at 8:30 and we landed in Providence at about 4:00pm and met Alicia who took us back home where we took showers and did all of our packing/unpacking/packing type stuff and then went to bed with the intention of getting up early on Monday but ended up sleeping late, but that was okay, we were tired.

Last Updated on February 22, 2003 - webmaster@jeffandmoe.net