Published on Jan, 2025
We took the Half Day Grand Canyon tour with a pick up from our hotel. Our tour guide, James, showed up early which let us get going a little earlier to our first stop, the Hoover Dam. He shared some Las Vegas strip trivia, jokes, and some mellow tunes. James cautiously, yet happily allowed us (me) to add fun facts during the trip. We stopped off at a roadside bathroom, after driving through the Lake Mead area and Boulder City. His information about Boulder City was really informative! We stopped at the Nevada side of the memorial bridge connecting Arizona and Nevada, took the stairs/ramp to the top to see the Hoover Dam from above. It was very windy at the top so we only stayed for a little bit before making our way back to the van. He drove us through the Dam’s entrance area and we stopped for a picture. He gave us some facts about the origination, worker history, and showed us photos of the dam from years ago so we have reference to the water levels.
Next we hopped back in and headed to Grand Canyon West. We stopped for a bathroom/sandwich break at a halfway point. James also gave us snacks and water/sodas to us a couple times on the trip. (The van has plenty of cup holders and usb charging ports!) I learned more about almonds while passing through Dolan Springs than I ever knew, so Jeopardy, here I come!
After the hour and a half ride from lunch, we made it to the Grand Canyon’s entrance. It did not feel that long because of James’s DJ skills at picking music to suit our moods, and his ability to keep up with our questions and conversations. We added the skywalk to our tour and could not take anything with us, everything had to be lockered. We put on our shoe booties to protect the skywalks view and just soaked it all in. They had a camera crew take group pictures and offered packages (totally worth the $50 for all photos! We had five of us in our group and split $10 each for 13+ photos.) We grabbed a drink from the restaurant to continue looking at the view. There are no words. We took a 5 minute bus ride to Guano Point and walked around, climbed some rocks, posed, of course, until we had to be back to the gift shop/entrance by 5:30. James gave us enough time to look around and then we were on our way back. He pointed out coyotes and cattle on the road as we exited the Grand Canyon and back through Dolan Springs. Fortunately for James, we were not finished with our day and entertained each other with carpool karaoke, more fun facts, and his favorite spots to go off the strip. Overall, this tour was definitely a highlight!
