Our Grand "Grand Canyon Adventure" by Helicopter

Saturday was a big day for us. We checked out of Caesar's Palace and returned to the world of reality in our RV, which was in the RV park of the Circus Circus Hotel in Las Vegas.

Our research had shown that the driving trip to the Grand Canyon in an RV was long and tedious over dangerous, curving roads. Once there, the campgrounds are scarce and not nice.

I had heard about taking a helicopter but didn't realize the best starting point was Las Vegas. We decided that we'd probably never pass this way again and we were just going to do it!

About an hour after we returned to our RV, a shuttle came to pick us up. They also picked up a few other people from several different hotels. We headed south for about 30 minutes to Boulder City.

There we boarded a helicopter for a tour of Grand Canyon. It was my first helicopter ride and it was a blast!!! A couple from Miami, a couple from Ireland, us and our pilot filled our 'copter. We had to be weighed (yikes!) so they could balance the load skillfully.

We had headphones so the pilot could talk to us and we could ask questions. They also played music. You may notice we're rather excited!

Bye, bye, Boulder City. The dam was originally called Boulder Dam but it was later changed to Hoover Dam.

It seemed like we were moving forward at about 30 miles an hour but the pilot said we were going forward at 120 mph.

We flew over Hoover Dam, which is built on the Colorado River on the border of Nevada and Arizona. It was named after Herbert Hoover, our 31st president, and was completed in 1936.They're now in the process of building a new bridge to take the stress off the bridge that crosses over the top of the dam. The $114 million bridge project has been a challenge. Accidents delayed it by two years and claimed one life, as workers battled heat, high winds and heights. They expect it to be finished in 2010. Lake Mead is the largest man-made lake in the U.S.A. It supplies water to communities in Southern California and Nevada (including Las Vegas) via aqueducts. The lake is down about 5 feet this year and there is not a known plan of how to keep up with the growing cities' usage.

They played some really dramatic instrumental music on the way out and as we went up over the rim of Grand Canyon, they played the music from Chariots of Fire. Between the music, the experience, and the immensity of the canyon, I felt moved to tears.There were three other helicopters that left right before us. We all shared the ramada for the picnic. This land is part of an Indian reservation so the company pays for their time on the ground.

We landed and had a picnic, complete with champagne!

"Awesome" hardly begins to describe this place.

The Colorado River carved out this 200 mile long canyon.

After the picnic and photo time, the other helicopters flew out before us.

It was a grand Grand Canyon Angelil Adventure!