Hiking the Grand canyon for Hooowwww Laaawwwnnnggg?
Grand Canyon -> Las Vegas, 5th November 2001
Groooaaaannn! At 7:30am promptly our alarms beeped at us. At 8:00ish
we promptly thought about getting up, but the rain made us change
our minds. At 8:30ish promptly, we forced ourselves out of bed, and
started to strike camp. Once everything (including the soaking wet
tent) was packed away, we headed over to the Angel Lodge to leave
the rest of our stuff before taking a walk down into the canyon.
The bellman at the hotel was a young American guy who was really
friendly to us because he loved the 'British Empire'. As he packed
our bags into the bag room (at a very reduced price for us) he told
us proudly about his collection of British memorabilia. Just before
we left, Nat decided to give him some English coins she had in our
pocket, and the guy practically did a jig in excitement, this really
must have made his day...no...his whole year!
 After lunch, we started our walk down into the canyon. As we
descended, the red and yellow rock began to close in around us, and
the light foliage made us feel totally isolated. There was no sound
or sight of civilisation, except the donkey poo from the regular
mule treks up and down the path. The feel of being inside this
natural wonder was quite amazing. We'd walk along a steep path, and
stop to admire a stunning view, then take a few photos. We'd then
round a corner and we'd be faced with an even more breath-taking
view!
 While we were hiking down, it started to get incredibly hot. We were
in the start of November, and the temperature was easily in the 30s
(Celsius). This is definitely the best time of year to hike the
grand canyon, in the middle of summer, the heat would be unbearable,
and dehydration would be dangerously likely. We still had to be
really careful at this time of year, and luckily we'd brought plenty
of water with us. The walk down was fun, the only niggling feeling
we had, was when we occasionally passed other tourists, walking back
up. They were completely breathless and drenched in sweat. We'd have
to go up again soon.
After we'd made our way back to the top, we stopped to have a bite
to eat after our hard climb. It was the ultimate scenic picnic.
Sitting on a small outcrop, overlooking the stunning panoramas of
the Grand Canyon. I'll remember that view for a long time.
 We made sure we got back to the train station in plenty of time, and
got the train back to Williams without any hassles. The only
interesting thing on the journey, was that we started talking to a
Chinese man travelling on his own. He was very friendly and was
particularly interested in the Henna Tattoos that Stinge and I had.
He said that it sort of meant 'Fire Monkey' but only in a very
ambiguous way. Oh well, at least he didn't tattoo, 'I'm a smelly
monkey' on our arms.
Back in Williams, we made more use of the free facilities and the
luxurious hotel. I also phoned around for accommodation in Las
Vegas, our next stop. It ended up costing me all my loose change and
a bit more, so I advise that you get a phone card when you're in
Western countries. It's always best to phone ahead to check
accommodation, and phone card are not only more convenient, but
often work out cheaper. I eventually decided on a cheapish
backpacker place that said they would pay for our taxi from the
Amtrak station to the hotel.
After a quiet evening, chatting with some American people in the
luxurious lounge, the same mini-bus driver we had last time came in
and told us it was time to go to the station. We all hurried to put
our bags in the van, and off we went, back into the darkness of the
forest around the tiny Williams station.
When we arrived at the tiny, quiet, isolated station (the square of
tarmac), it was in complete darkness. The driver drove slowly up to
the tracks, and leant out of his window. Bing! Suddenly we were
bathed in a soft red light, the driver then continued to drive along
and manually turn on all the street-lights at the station. We then
unload all our bags and waited patiently. The pin-pricks of light in
the distance, quickly grew into bright yellow eyes as the train got
closer. As soon as the train came to a stop, we all hurried on to
find our seats.
After about 3 hours of sleep, we were rudely awoken by our watch
alarms, so we hurried to collect our things together, and rushed
downstairs to wait in a quiet daze for the train to stop. By the
time we reached the station, we were pretty much fully awake, and
when we stepped off, we could take in the whole scene around us,
which was actually quite strange. It was late night/early morning so
the small village, Needles, was peaceful, with a very tranquil air.
The town, was just a small collection of white brick buildings with
quite a 'Mexican' feel. We were actually in the middle of the
desert, and the buildings & signs of life quickly tailed off in all
directions. The small crowd of people headed towards a indescript
building on the other side of the road, so we followed them over.
Inside, the building was very clinical. Simple white walls, simple,
plastic chairs along the walls, a pile of magazines, and two small
counters at the far end. We quickly realise that we're supposed to
show our passes in order to collect the tickets for the next shuttle
bus journey to Las Vegas. After we'd all got our passes (included in
the price of our Amtrak Rail Passes) we filed out to wait with the
small crowd for the bus to get ready.
As we stood their with our rucksacks resting uncomfortably on our
shoulders, we slowly realised how out of place we were. We were
surrounded by a small crowd of excited, old ladies with big white
hair and drawling Southern USA accents. They all growled (from many
years of heavy smoking) in anticipation at the imminent hours of
gambling, betting and losing money. After about 10 minutes of
waiting, the excited growls turned into frequent moaning growls, the
fact it was 2:30 in the morning didn't help their moods.
We eventually got on the road, not before one particularly insistent
& noisy old lady made sure she got the front seat next to the
driver. She practically wrestled everyone else to the ground in her
attempt to get it, although her iron stare was enough to make most
people let her have it.
The journey passed slowly as I drifted in and out of consciousness,
barely able to stay awake. At about the half way point, we stopped
for a short break. What happened next was one of the most amusing
quotes, that we remembered for the rest of our travels. The van
stopped, and the driver turned in his seat and said "We're going to
stop here for a little break. You have 15 minutes", then
immediately, just before he finished the sentence, the vicious lady
at the front hollered in a scratching southern accent, "Hoooowwww
Laaawwwnnggg?". It's quite difficult to re-create in writing, so
I'll add an audio clip later. It really was really amusing to hear,
we almost fell off our seats laughing, and from then on, we used the
quote countless times.
During the 15 minutes break, the hardcore gambling grannies, set
about playing some jackpot machines, probably as a warm up for the
next few days. Once they'd all add their gambling fix, we set off
again on the last leg of the journey.
After driving through rolling brush and scrubland, with few
landmarks and almost no life, we suddenly noticed a glow over the
horizon. The driver informed us that this faint hum of light was
from the millions of watts of light power emanating from Las Vegas.
65 miles away. Wow.
Soon enough we were driving through the bright lights, towering
hotels and buzzing casinos. We passed quickly through to the
airport, our drop-off point. After quickly grabbing our bags, we
moved through the airport to the taxi rank, and after a long wait, a
taxi finally came, and off we went to downtown LA where our hostel
was located. The long journey cost a whopping $24, we were very glad
that the hostel had promised to pay it for us. After ensuring we got
a receipt we carried our things inside.
The hostel was a bit of dump, but then we have only stayed at really
classy places, so maybe we're making an unfair comparison. We didn't
get off to a good start though when they tell us that they only pay
for the taxi ride from the Amtrak STATION, not the Amtrak drop-off
point in the airport. The taxi ride from the station only costs a
few dollars, so that's why they pay for that journey. Taking that,
and the state of the hostel into account, the price was way too
high. We tried every approach to barter him down, but the best we
could get was $18 with our student cards. We also eventually manage
to get him to pay part of the taxi fair. When I say that we're only
going to stay one night and move on tomorrow, he quickly dropped the
price to a much better $15. (What we didn't mention, was that we
couldn't stay in any of the other hotels because you've got to be
over 21 to stay in them!)
It was now 4:30am, and we wandered off to our rooms in a half-daze.
When we got there, we found that the lights didn't work and the
toilet didn't flush, but the rest was clean, if basic. Far too tired
to complain or argue, we all climb into ours beds and quickly fall
fast asleep.
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