What Happens In Vegas Ends Up In Tourists’ Photo Albums

You’re tired of reading about canyons, we’re tired of writing about canyons, so it’s time for some Vegas, baby! Almost.

Interstate 15 made for a very long day’s journey from Cedar City to North Las Vegas, with the added “thrill” of the Virgin River Gorge, a pass through the mountains that was so intense Susan had to drive Nippy through it while Simon hooted and hollered and had a hellofa great time taking the gorge’s grades in Fati. Sometimes you have to split up to keep everyone’s sanity intact.

There are no photos of this pass, of course, since Simon’s full focus had to be on the road and Susan’s was on praying for Simon’s safety. He was perfectly safe, as he knew he would be, and we made camp for four days in Vegas once we put the gorge behind us.

Our view of the Strip out Fati’s living room window.
The sunsets were spectacular!

Valley of Fire State Park had been our goal for this leg of the trip, and we originally intended to spend three nights in a campground inside the park. Unbeknownst to us, Valley of Fire began a reservation system two days prior to our visit (it had been first-come), and we missed our window of opportunity. In the end, it did us a favor. It would have been a challenge getting Fati into the campground.

Instead, we visited in Nippy and spent a lovely afternoon enjoying the outstanding crimson Aztec Sandstone hills and pale limestone cliffs that were laid down and risen up during the Jurassic and Paleozoic eras, respectively. During the Mesozoic Era, 20 million years ago, this area was a sea.

We’ll only show you a small snapshot, since you’ve already seen more rocks than any blog should make its readers endure.

The color of that sand!
“Yikes!”
Petroglyphs in Valley of Fire were more recognizable as human than most we’d seen.

Hoover Dam was sort of on the way back to Vegas, so we took a little detour to see this human-made marvel of engineering. To say the guard at the security gate was “unhelpful” when we asked if there was a parking area before the dam would be an understatement. “It’s too complicated,” he said, and waved us through.

The answer to our question is “Yes.” The Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge just beyond the security gates not only had a parking lot, it had the premier view of the Hoover Dam for those who enjoy high places suspended over an 890-foot drop to the Colorado River.

Dam that’s big!

The next day offered perfect blue-sky weather for a trip out to Red Rock Canyon, which featured the best Visitor Center we’d seen so far, and a feature-packed scenic drive that hit every high note. But I’m going to run screaming from the room if I have to post many more photos of rocks, so here are three, and we can only highly encourage you to put this superb park on your itinerary next time you’re in Nevada. It’s lovely.

This isn’t a mural, it’s a wall of windows in the Visitor Center that looks out onto the park. How fabulous is that?
This isn’t a rock, but this lady rocks! We got the impression she’s a dog walker who’s taking her charges on a field trip.
Climbers (smack in the middle of this photo) who are much more adventurous than us. We watched them scale what seemed to be a flat wall.

Our third full day was intended to be a work day “at home,” but the lure of the Strip was too strong. We decided to check it out during the day, then return for its famous after-dark personality in the evening.

Simon had the brilliant idea of booking Ruthie for a grooming at PetSmart, which would buy us about two hours of free time to go into a few casinos for the atmosphere, and give her some spa time for a bath, tooth brushing, and nail trim. Bellagio was our goal, and we’d fit in Cesar’s Palace and the Venetian if we could.

Bellagio’s lobby.
Simon risking it all on one pull of the handle (not really; we didn’t actually gamble at all, though Simon probably would have had he not been offered the choice between this, or buying $6 coffees nearly every day. Susan’s no fun when she goes all financially practical).

In the end, we only had time for Bellagio, but we did get to see the fountain show, which was probably worth our time. It only does two musical numbers, the first of which was the National Anthem, and the second was the hauntingly beautiful Con te partirò (Time to Say Goodbye), sung by Andrea Bocelli and Sara Brightman.

We kept trying to time our Selfie for the biggest water bursts, but never knew when they would happen.
The Sphere opened on September 29, 2023, but they were doing “rehearsals” while we were there.
The black “arm” sticking up is the X-Scream thrill ride at the top of the Strat. It rocks forward and backward, dangling riders 866 feet above the Strip and suspending them there until they pass out cold. No, wait, that would just be me (Susan). Other people seem to love it.
New York, New York hotel and casino
Outside MGM Grand. So many lights and video ads!
Ruthie often lays down in the back seat while we’re touring, but she was riveted along the Strip.
The famous pawn shop from television’s Pawn Stars.

Even more captivating than the casinos were the bizarre sights we kept seeing, so we’ll share a few of them with you and hope they brighten your day, as they did ours.

Is that a selling point?
His mother must be so proud!
Mattresses with no credit check? The promise you didn’t know you needed.
Mickey, NOOOOOOOO!!!
Ummmm…well….okay, then!

We were ready to leave Las Vegas when the time came. Little did we know we’d have an even more bizarre town waiting for us at our next stop.

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Author: A Year on the Road

International travel writers and book authors.

12 thoughts on “What Happens In Vegas Ends Up In Tourists’ Photo Albums”

    1. You’re braver than I (Susan) am, if you could even do that much! Simon loves those high places, but I’m not a fan.
      Hoover Dam now makes you drive to the end and turn around. It’s not a through-road anymore, so you’d have to do it twice. NOPE!

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      1. I live in Colorado, at the foot of the mtns. We made the mistake of driving a scenic road called Skyline drive. Welp, it was built in 1912, is wide enough for a car and 800’ drop on both sides, no guard rails. OMG, so glad it was only 3ish miles long.

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      2. Good heavens! Yup, you’re brave, even if by accident.
        We had Beartooth Highway on our itinerary, until we realized what it involved. Same with Going To The Sun Road in Glacier National Park. Simon did do that one, but I stayed in the RV and did laundry.

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  2. I don’t think I will ever grow tired of photos of rocks.

    Las Vegas was not really our thing. With hindsight, I wish we had made time for the fountains at the Bellagio. We saw the Dubai fountains perform to Con te partirò (Time to Say Goodbye). This was so moving.

    The flowers at the Bellagio, is this the work of Dale Chihuly?

    We enjoyed our visit to the Hoover Dam.

    Interesting to see that the sign at Circus Circus is still not fixed. It was already broken when we stayed there in 2006.

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    1. Yes, the Bellagio’s flowers are Chihuly. He’s got quite a bit of art out this way.

      Laughing about Circus Circus’s sign. Why does it not surprise me that sign has been wonky for a while?

      Vegas wasn’t my kind of place, but I’m glad to have seen it. Once, just for the strip, it was really fun!

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      1. For us, it was definitely a once and done. But now that I have seen the Chihuly flowers and was reminded how much I loved the Grand Canyon, maybe my arm could be twisted to do just the briefest of visits before heading somewhere more interesting. Ironically one of my California friends moved to just outside Las Vegas a few years ago.

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  3. I have been to Red Rock Canyon and hiked into one of the canyons and marvelled over the colour and smoothness of the rocks.
    The tour we took into the Hoover Dam was so interesting and yes it is huge especially when you are at the bottom looking up the sheer wall.
    I loved walking across the top and being able to straddle two different States and time zones.

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