AmreekanDesi

One of the highlights of our Las Vegas vacation was a trip to the Grand Canyon. Special enough to get its own post.

The Grand Canyon is one of the great natural wonders on the planet. It was formed by the Colorado river cutting through the surrounding terrain, over the course of millions of years. Located at a short few hours drive from Las Vegas, this is a must see sight if you are traveling to that area.

One added bonus en route is the Hoover dam, one of the marvels of modern engineering. When completed in 1935, it was the largest concrete structure ever built. At its base, the dam is 200m thick. That’s two football fields of solid concrete.

Anyway, we decided to cut short the travel time. We took a helicopter trip offered by papilon helicopters. They would fly us to the canyon in about 45 minutes, land on the canyon floor(!), and get us back. We would get to see the Hoover dam as well, and all this would be done in about 4 hours. You could call it a time saver. You could also call it a wallet buster.

This was the Ecostar helicopter that flew us from Boulder city to the canyon.

First stop, Hoover dam. The dam is massive, the water is a gorgeous blue, and you can actually drive over the dam. I remember driving over the nagarjuna sagar dam near hyderabad some time back, and it was quite the impressive experience.

How’s that for a bird’s eye view?

Hoover dam resulted in creation of lake Mead, which extends 110 miles behind the dam and is the largest man made lake in the United States.

Grand canyon, here we come.

The skywalk platform completed at a cost of $31 million to allow people to gaze into the depths of the canyon.

And we landed on the canyon floor. As did the entire caravan of helicopters. All six of them. Here’s a video taken as we approached the landing site.

Here’s another video of the rest of the helicopters landing in the neighbourhood.

A very muddy Colorado river flowing through the canyon. It was interesting to see little patches of green along the river in the middle of the desert.

You can also go for rafting trips along the river.

We were given a sumptous meal of a turkey sandwich (we’re vegetarian), chips, soda, and champagne(!)

At this little shed specially constructed in the middle of nowhere. You are not allowed to leave any trash behind, so the pilot who also served us the food made sure all trash was handed back to him.

One last look, and we were off. Back to Vegas, baby.

Another video shot while flying along the grand canyon.

Related Links:

Papilon Helicopter Tours
Grand Canyon
Hoover Dam

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