Vegas and Utah

May - June 2023

A 22-day adventure by Hywel Read more

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Traveler Vegas and Utah
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- May 27, 2023, 7:48pm
- 🌙 30 °C
- Altitude: 651 m
- United States Nevada Clark County Bracken 36.111667, -115.17333336°6’42” N 115°10’24” W
Day 1
Arrived into Vegas
May 27, 2023 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 30 °C
Arrived after a loooong flight.
Moved into the Luxor hotel on the strip, it's very cool being inside a pyramid! My room window is slanted and the elevators go up and also sideways to follow the shape of it.
Needed to stay awake so headed out for a walk and visited the Bellagio fountains which are always good and the conservatory inside the hotel which looked amazing.Read more
Wanda Johns Conservatory does look amazing. Don't fancy the sideways lift though xx
5/29/23Reply
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Traveler Vegas and Utah
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- May 28, 2023, 3:45pm
- ☀️ 34 °C
- Altitude: 655 m
- United States Nevada Clark County Paradise Evey Well 36.085, -115.1736°5’6” N 115°10’12” W
Day 2
Atomic, fish, pinball
May 28, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C
Busy first full day here started with the Atomic museum, all about the Atomic bomb testing they did nearby. It was interesting, talked more about the positives or preventing a war with Russia rather than the negatives. Including one test they did on an island in the south pacific, the island is now a crater under the sea. I did get to play with a geiger counter though which was cool. I'm not radioactive!
Then headed to the Shark Reef aquarium which was really cool, lots of sharks, plus a touch tank with rays!
Next was the Pinball hall of fame. I don't think I've ever played full size Pinball before. My only experience is the Pinball game on Windows XP. So I obviously sucked, but it was fun playing some old and new games.
Finally an obligatory picture next to the sign!Read more
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Traveler Vegas and Utah
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- May 28, 2023, 10:26pm
- 🌙 28 °C
- Altitude: 629 m
- United States Nevada Clark County Las Vegas Convention Center Stardust Helispot 36.135, -115.16833336°8’6” N 115°10’6” W
Day 2
Katy Perry!
May 28, 2023 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 28 °C
Ended a very good day in the best possible way by watching Katy Perry in concert!
She was amazing, played all her famous songs, the stage set-up and costumes of the dancers were the usual crazy and she was just so good interacting with the crowd.
There was even a proposal, he said yes, and the most 'fabulous' 9 year old boy wearing heels who got invited onto the stage.Read more
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- May 30, 2023, 5:13pm
- ☀️ 19 °C
- Altitude: 2,128 m
- United States Arizona Coconino County Pine Tank Perry Tank 35.266667, -112.05666735°16’0” N 112°3’24” W
Day 4
Oh Deer!
May 30, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
So yesterday was a write off, I came down with a cold, barely slept overnight, so was basically in bed the whole day. 🙄

Today I'm feeling a little better and it's car pickup day. Because it has been a 'long winter', some things I want to visit are still closed in Utah, so I've had to change plans.

After a false start, where I picked a car that had the engine light on... I left Las Vegas a little late and headed for Arizona instead. Had a quick stop in Seligman, which was very much a tourist trap. Before continuing on.

Next was the Grand Canyon... deer farm. It promised friendly deer you can feed and then a petting zoo vibe for a number of other animals. I walked in with my $6 cup of deer food, where I was mobbed by about 30 deer who attacked the cup. It was an intense 20 seconds! Would recommend.Read more
Alex Murphy I would have loved the deer park 🤣
6/1/23Reply
Traveler You would have loved it! We also would have spent a lot of money on deer food.
6/2/23Reply
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Traveler Vegas and Utah
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- May 30, 2023, 7:37pm
- ⛅ 21 °C
- Altitude: 2,177 m
- United States Arizona Coconino County Grand Canyon Mather Point 36.063333, -112.11166736°3’48” N 112°6’42” W
Day 4
Grand Canyon - Sunset
May 30, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
So after the deer, I drove up to the actual Grand Canyon and bought my annual pass for all the parks I'm hoping to visit in Utah.

The place is amazing, it's hard to comprehend how big and deep it is. Pictures don't do it justice, but they still look amazing.

I ended up joining the couples and the families to watch the sun go down before heading back to my static caravan for the night. I'll be back there to explore more tomorrow.Read more
Wanda Johns Stunning photos x
6/3/23Reply
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Traveler Vegas and Utah
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- May 31, 2023, 9:36am
- ☀️ 21 °C
- Altitude: 1,893 m
- United States Arizona Coconino County Grand Canyon 36.06, -112.14536°3’36” N 112°8’42” W
Day 5
More Grand Canyon
May 31, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Today I headed back to the Grand Canyon to do more exploring. The place covers a huge area, but I was just going to do more in the South Rim.

My first plan was to head down into the canyon a bit. It's a long way down and to get to the river is an overnight hike, so I did the Bright Angel trail down to the 1.5 mile rest house. That involved a descent of over 1000ft.. and obviously had to come back up again. The views were good though and it was nice to see the walls close up.

I then took the shuttle bus to another part of the canyon and the views were also amazing, you could see the Colorado river, it was cool, then there were some clouds and that was cool... basically it's very pretty.

Cool thing I read was that the canyon is so deep, the temperature increases as you go lower and the top of the rim can be 21C while the inner canyon can be 32C!

Also... next to the visitors centre, there is dedicated space for people to protest against whatever they want, which is cool. When I walked past, cookie monster was there, he didn't say what he was protesting against, but I'm sure it had something to do with cookies.Read more
Wanda Johns Where's the selfie with Cookie monster ! 😂😂😂
6/3/23Reply
Traveler I'm pretty sure that's what he wanted, but I didn't have any cookies to pay with
6/3/23Reply
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Traveler Vegas and Utah
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- May 31, 2023, 8:26pm
- 🌙 10 °C
- Altitude: 2,213 m
- United States Arizona Coconino County Arrowhead Village Mobile Home Park Mars Hill 35.203333, -111.66535°12’12” N 111°39’54” W
Day 5
Lowell Observatory
May 31, 2023 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 10 °C
I headed to Flagstaff and the Lowell Observatory.

This is where they discovered Pluto and you can see the telescope and Observatory that was used. They aren't keen on it not being a planet anymore...

It's also where rich Mr Lowell set-up an Observatory to try and prove that there were canals built by aliens on Mars. He seemed convinced and made drawings proving it. They think it was some psychological thing like when people see faces in things.
They still have the telescope working and it was open and pointed at the moon so got to use it.

There was also a lecture on stars, a very cool constellation tour and about 5 telescopes set up viewing different things, including the ring nebula!Read more
Wanda Johns I'd enjoy that
6/3/23Reply
Traveler It was very cool, they had small ladders so even Dylan could have looked into it.
6/3/23Reply
Wanda Johns Maybe you should take him with you next time x😂😂
6/6/23Reply
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Traveler Vegas and Utah
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- Jun 1, 2023, 5:10pm
- ⛅ 22 °C
- Altitude: 1,695 m
- United States Arizona Navajo County Lookout Point 36.983333, -110.11166736°58’60” N 110°6’42” W
Day 6
Monument Valley
June 1, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
Spent the morning in Flagstaff but there wasn't much there... so I jumped in the car and headed to Monument Valley for the day. It's the place that was used for westerns all the time and now for car adverts apparently. Also run by the Navajo native American tribe. They sold some cool things including hand made pottery, but not $800 cool...

When I arrived there was a little bit of rain and lots of wind, so the sky was a hazy orange, but it quickly cleared.

The place and the views were amazing again (I'm going to quickly run out of superlatives at this rate). There was a driving loop with stops on a dirt road which was fun to drive. It was also more green than I expected, with wild flowers growing but I guess it's the season.

Again, it was very pretty basically.Read more
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Traveler Vegas and Utah
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- Jun 1, 2023, 7:24pm
- ☀️ 21 °C
- Altitude: 1,449 m
- United States Utah San Juan County Rooster Butte 37.276667, -109.80666737°16’36” N 109°48’24” W
Day 6
Valley of the Gods
June 1, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Ended the day by driving into the Valley of the Gods which is also know as a miniture Monument Valley. The difference is that there aren't many people here and you can camp overnight for free, so that's what I tried to do!

I found a cool spot next to the 'Cockrel', but when I tried putting my newly purchased tent up, the poles were missing... thank you Walmart.

Stayed anyway, the views watching the sun go down were really cool and it was just so quiet. Ended up sleeping in the car, although it is not that comfortable.Read more
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- Jun 2, 2023, 10:14am
- ⛅ 17 °C
- Altitude: 1,884 m
- United States Utah San Juan County Moki Dugway 37.276667, -109.93537°16’36” N 109°56’6” W
Day 7
Morning, Dugway and more views
June 2, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
The sleep was not very comfortable and I woke up a number of times. I did see something walk past the car in the middle of the night which was cool, I'm guessing Coyote 🤷

I reluctantly watched sunrise, had some breakfast and then continued around the Valley of the Gods. It was very cool, some of the names I did not see, but Lady in the bathtub you can see!

Then drove to something called Moki Dugway, which is basically a road but it goes up 1100 ft in 3 miles, it was very cool to drive.

Then went to Muley Point for more canyon views, there was nobody there, so I just chilled for a while, and got in a jump shot!Read more
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