Printable View
Howdy all,
Megan and I are taking a roadtrip from Las Vegas to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We are realizing a long-held goal of staying at the El Tovar Lodge. We will be there two nights at the end of January.
Today's storm is expected to drop 8 inches of new snow in the village. We are hoping the weathers moderates a bit so we can drive in a bit easier. Our current road trip ride doesn't have 4-WD.
I will post photos of the how the south rim looks with snow on the ground.
Mark
A well deserved break for the two of you and the South rim always brings with it memories of our first ever trip to the States ! Hopefully the roads are clear but you will get to see a snow covered rim and enjoy a great sunset. Looking forward to the photo's already !
Have fun
Dave
Be advised that even as I type this it's snowing in Tucson! Yes, it's literally just a few flakes rather than a true nor'easter, but still it 'snows' here.
AZBuck
And this is how it's looking right now.
South entrance
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...and-canyon.jpg
Bright Angel trailhead
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...ngel-trail.jpg
Current conditions
Hopefully things will start to improve but we will still enjoy some images of a snow covered South rim !Quote:
Road Closures > Desert View Dr. CLOSED & Hermit Road CLOSED — 7 am Monday, Jan. 23, 2023
Alert 1, Severity closure, Road Closures > Desert View Dr. CLOSED & Hermit Road CLOSED — 7 am Monday, Jan. 23, 2023
Desert View Drive (SR 64) remains CLOSED due to icy conditions. Winter storm in progress. An additional 2 to 6 inches of snow expected today. All trails into Grand Canyon and footpaths along the rim are are snow-packed and icy.
Dave
Snow is still coming, but nice day in the Canyon today.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...8_SouthRim.jpg
January 28th
Megan and I will be driving in on Tuesday.
Mark
Oh wowww. Looking forward to seeing pictures and hearing you both had a fantastic time.
Keith
Woke up to 5 inches of new snow in Williams and the roads were in pretty good shape going to the south rim. A little icy with blowing drifts of snow.
This is our "home" for two days, the El Tovar Hotel.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...23743_HDR1.jpg
Waiting for the sunrise!
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...110671_HDR.jpg
First light
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...929335_HDR.jpg
Grandview Point
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...35621_HDR1.jpg
Duck on a Rock:
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...DR-rotated.jpg
Views from the Rim Trail:
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...416869_HDR.jpg
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...658928_HDR.jpg
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...557771_HDR.jpg
I think that hiker is in shorts!
Glorious icicles
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...45682_HDR1.jpg
Hard to beat this view:
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...432567_HDR.jpg
Can't beat blue skys with snow on the ground and no better place than the Grand canyon to witness it !
Would love to be able to join you on that Veranda for a 'Hot Toddy' or two ! Great photo's.
Have fun.
Dave
Thank you for showing us the pics Mark and Megan. Makes Margaret and i so happy to see one of our favourite places to visit. So many memories. The hot drink with that view sounds good to Dave.
Keith.
Yes, it would be fun to have hot toddies with you on that deck
Keith, more photos to come.
Still a chilly day here
Awesome. Looking forward to seeing them. Air con going here.
Keith
Cocktail hour on the deck -- February 1st More photos later.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...156120_HDR.jpg
Sunrise Day #2:
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...620452_HDR.jpg
More icicles ~ 20 degrees
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...DR-rotated.jpg
30 minutes past sunrise:
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...853634_HDR.jpg
Morning, temps up to 32 degrees F.:
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...511567_HDR.jpg
Fantastic BBQ place in Village of Oak Creek and the view from our hotel room
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...742668_HDR.jpg
Colt 804 Grill -- AWESOME ribs and BBQ mac-n-cheese!
Onto Phoenix today via the back roads around Beaver Creek.
A side trip from Sedona to Camp Verde:
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...aver-Creek.jpg
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...unner-area.png
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...Camp-Verde.png
Great photos, I love the icicles but they are making me shiver!! Enjoy the rest of your trip
Dave
More photos to come of the second part of the trip. Need to catch up on my day job first!
Mark
So, Megan and I have driven hundreds and hundreds of miles in Arizona over the last three decades and yet when we drove home from Chandler, we managed to drive on roads that we had never seen before!
This was the view from our room on the 10th floor of the Gila River Resort hotel looking NW or so on the morning of Saturday, February 4th. Nice hotel. Very friendly personnel.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...lView_0203.jpg
We drove west through the Sonora Desert Monument on AZ-238 to the town of Gila Bend. We have many fond memories of Gila Bend -- but it seems the intervening years have not been too kind to Gila Bend -- so after looking around we head north along the Old US Hwy 80 that roughly follows the Gila River.
This is the route that we found where the Salome road turns to gravel just north of I-10:
This was a power plant we passed on this route:
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...nt_OldUS80.jpg
Along the way we reached the historic Gillespie Dam Bridge near Arlington, Arizona. It is a mystery to me how we never knew about this bridge-- What a classic.
This is the approach from the east side
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...spieBridge.jpg
And this the amazing view from the midst of the bridge heading west.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...spieBridge.jpg
After leaving Old US Hwy 80 we decided to drive along the Salome Road and very surprisingly it turns to gravel shortly after passing I-10. All was great until we hit a deep water hole and then had to find a way around the mud by driving around agricultural fields. I wish we had taken some photos -- but we were preoccupied with finding our way back to pavement!
Continuing our way to the NW -- we proceeded on AZ-72 through Bouse, (another place we had never been before) and eventually reached the Colorado River heading to Parker, Arizona.
Our next bit of road adventure was to cross the Parker Dam on the Colorado. Parker Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam that crosses the Colorado River 155 miles (249 km) downstream of Hoover Dam and the coolest part is that cars can still drive over it. Parker Dam creates Lake Havasu--Interesting fun fact: The dam face is 320 feet tall (235 feet into the riverbed) making it the deepest dam in the world!
So here are some views from that area:
On the west side of the Colorado after the Dam crossing
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...rkerDam_02.jpg
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog..._ParkerDam.jpg
A bit closer to the dam:
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...arkerDam01.jpg
This is actually driving west-bound -- pretty cool eh?
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...pParkerDam.jpg
We drove across London Bridge and drove out to the point where it bends into the Colorado River and then drove along London Bridge Road and checked out some of the Arizona state parks along the river. Wow! They are really nice.
We jumped back on AZ-95 and drove that to the Toprock exit and drove around the bird preserve a bit before rejoining AZ-95 north of Needles and drove through the Mohave Valley. It is sorta of amazing to see all of the house development in the Los Lagos Golf Club area. And then made a point of sticking close to the river as we drove through Bullhead City. That took some doing -- but there are some pretty parks and a mix of homes along the river. After passing The Big Bend of the Colorado State Recreation area we reached Laughlin and then home to Las Vegas.
Lots of fun!
Mark
It always amazes me how we can always find a different route or attraction no matter how well we think we know an area. All you gotta do is seek !
Great report and photos that also reminds me of our unexpected visit to Gila bend and the small 9/11 memorial there that contains an iron girder from one of the towers, having had to detour because of snow and road closures.
Dave
Hey, Mark! I really enjoyed this; glad to see that some of us are out there on the road again. And you even discovered some cool stuff I hadn't seen before, right in my own back yard.
Happy Trails to all!
Rick
And I hope the upcoming surgery will enable you to get back out there soon!
mark
Hwy 238 in Arizona is a rather lonely road. My parents chose to take it one time, towing their travel trailer. Then they had a tire issue. Fortunately, a young family stopped, and the man changed Dad's tire for him. Otherwise, we aren't sure that the ERS that Dad belonged to, would come out that far from either GB or Maricopa.
Gila Bend has had its issues, which pretty much started when I-8 skirted around it. We started to travel between San Diego and Casa Grande, before I-8 was finished. You had to go through GB and Yuma. Yuma took the opportunities to build on the exits; Gila Bend did not do so right away.
Donna
Boy, we are fortunate that today wasn't when we were planning to drive to the South Rim! Heavy snow and windy conditions there today.
We even had some snow flurries at our house in Las Vegas!
Mark
Meanwhile, here in NY they are forecasting possible record highs in the upper 50's to 60 range for tomorrow, and so far only a trace of snow this month (which of course sounds nothing like winter in this area would normally be).Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Sedenquist
I know that has happened at least once before ! It was February 20th 2019. Haha !Quote:
We even had some snow flurries at our house in Las Vegas!
Dave
Yep, that is true. And I have photos of heavy snow falling on the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign and snow on the pyramid of the Luxor!Quote:
Originally Posted by Southwest Dave
That was a memorable visit!
Mark
(An aside, we are about 2 minutes away from having the search engine fixed.)
Yeah, that sounds pretty crazy -- and in the west there is an expected super bloom of wildflowers!Quote:
Originally Posted by BillyGr
Mark