Fear & Loathing...

It was a few hours drive into Vegas, but rather than head straight in we stopped at Red Rocks Caynon, where layers of sand dunes have been compressed into stripy rocks. We did a bit of clambering around and then headed up Ice Box Canyon. There wasn't so much a trail as a dry creek bed but it was fun climbing up to where the waterfall would be if there was one. We stayed in a little BLM site just down the road, and wind storm swept in that night with gusts of 50/60 mph. It meant we got gently(ish) rocked to sleep, but some people had their flysheets in tatters & belongings scattered by the morning.

Hotels are so cheap ($70 for a plush suite) we decided we had to splash out. We'd done LV before when we did our west coast road trip about 8 years before, and that time probably contributed to us moving out here.

The strip hadn't changed much - just a few swanky new shopping malls - so we spent the first day exploring the casinos and tacky strip. Bellagio is still definitely the best draw, with its spectacular fountains, composed perfectly to a wide variety of music. We're not really gamblers but played a few cheap pokies to get some free drinks. We were pretty knackered from the fun and games last night that we didn't party too hard and were in bed my midnight. We feasted to the incredible buffet breakfast and were so full that we only made it as far as the pool where we lost most of the day.

We picked up some cheap tickets for a Cirque Du Soleil for the evening. There were about 6 different CDS shows on and we plumped for Mystere, which is their original. It was pretty impressive modern circusy, but I left a little disappointed with the show as a whole. We then jumped in an Uber to downtown Freemont, which has the world's biggest screen arching over the shopping/partying street. It was a bit more down and dirty but a lot of fun. From their we headed to our hotel terrace bar and enjoyed an expensive cocktail overlooking the lights of the strip.Read more