Vegas, Nevada

Jacks Canyon has been our favourite sport climbing area so far. It reminds one of being in Thailand, powerful, over hanging climbing on limestone pockets. The rock is a lot grippier, however, and there are some super nice facey climbs as well. In any case, 5 full days of climbing resulted in getting super confident and strong again. Ryan climbed the highest concentration of 12s in that time, and I got my confidence back leading 11's. All in all we had a great week, with some really hot days in the canyon.

After running out of food and water we left Jacks for Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. Flagstaff basically redeemed Arizona for me, it is the coolest place with lots of coffee shops, outdoor stores, and restaurants all in a downtown core. It was also wintery there, lying at an elevation of 7000ft it snowed on us there. There is lots of climbing around Flagstaff but it was too cold for us, so we moved on to somewhere even colder...the Grand Canyon.

We spent 2 nights in the Grand Canyon, making full use of the free, and heated, shuttle bus service all around the rim. We did hike down into the canyon a ways but didn't see the river. For that all we had to do was drive for 15 min and look over the rim in the right place. We thought that was pretty funny, oh well at least we got some exercise. The second night we got snowed in with a few inches of snow. It was time to leave the Grand Canyon and check it off the list.

Getting out of the cold we headed for Vegas. The Hoover Dam was next on our list of rest days/touristy things-to-do. It was incredibly busy there, but definitely worth to check out. We drove over it to find free parking on the other side, avoiding the $7 tourist trap parkade. In the old(er) days the highway used to go right over top of the dam, however due mostly to safety reasons they have built a bridge to avoid the dam. It was only completed in 2004, although it has been in the making since the 60s.

Vegas lured us in, we checked into a hotel and were grateful for a bed and shower after over a month of sleeping in the van. Hotels are relatively cheap here although food and beer has been pretty expensive. We've discovered slot machines and 2 for 1 (still expensive) martinis. Vegas is definitely a different scene, as Jacks Canyon reminded us of Thailand for the climbing, Vegas reminds us of Bangkok, only more 1st world. It is also easy to get turned around in the never ending slot machines and stores, nothing is like a circle in a mall, you walk one way and get completely turned around. We've covered a lot of ground just walking around all day. A little break in the hotel now and then we'll be off again for more Vegas time. I'm looking forward to the camping life again though.