Las Vegas, the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon

There were a lot of places I would have gone to see on my road trip if I hadn't been there before (and a lot of places I simply didn't have time for). It would have seemed an omission to have missed seeing Las Vegas, the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon, but I have been to these places previously.

The occasion was a business trip over a decade ago, and I extended the trip a couple of days to drive around and take a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon.

Downtown Las Vegas was every bit as over-the-top as you would expect, but it is also a large city and the suburbs of large cities in the USA tend to be very similar. One difference about Las Vegas is that where the suburbs finish, the roads just run out and become part of the desert beyond and you realise this city is an accident of state laws. I enjoyed visiting the Hoover Dam, which in my mind evokes the spirit of black and white Hitchcock movies - it did feature in one, Saboteur, but nothing like as centrally as other tapesties of the USA that Hitchcock used as a backdrop to his movies.

The Grand Canyon was impressive and taking a helicopter ride out from Las Vegas to see it was a bit decadent, but a lot of fun, thoroughly in keeping with the place and an opportunity for some great snaps. One of my childhood memories was of my father returning home from an RAF posting in the Pacific after many months away and regaling us with incidents from his time abroad, including the story that he was in the airplane toilet when they flew over the Grand Canyon, so he missed seeing it. I've seen many wonderful sights out of airplane windows, and always take a window seat if I can. And yes, i have seen the Grand Canyon out of an airplane window.