My husband is a teacher so we can plan a vacation during his spring break and before my son goes off to work on the USFS hotshot fire crew.  Chris held down the fort here  (with 12 lambs born) while we were gone. Meet the Sheep was Saturday and I didn't have time to prepare for this trip until Sunday.  We packed Sunday morning and headed south. The only plan we had was to get to Hoover Dam for a tour on Monday.

Driving on I-15 east of Tehachapi. We got to Las Vegas at midnight and spent the night there. The next morning we drove to Hoover Dam.

This is a view of the new bridge just below the dam. All the cross-country traffic used to have to follow a winding, tourist-packed road that crossed the dam. That must have been a nightmare for truck-drivers and anyone else that just wanted to get to where they were going.

Here is the dam from the bridge. We took a tour inside the dam. Hopefully some of my videos will come out well, but I haven't even downloaded them to the computer yet.

After sleeping in the Explorer that night (note to self--get an air mattress. The 20 year old foam pad doesn't work anymore) we spent the day at the Grand Canyon. My photography  left something to be desired, but it was just not possible for me to capture the Grand part of the Grand Canyon.  We chose the Kaibab trail and hiked about 3.5 miles into the canyon.

Another few miles would have taken us to the bottom but had not planned an overnight trip and didn't think it would be smart to try it in a day.

If we had the help of mules we could have done it, although even the mules are making overnight stops in the bottom.

See that zig-zaggy trail going up the wall. That's the last leg of the hike back up.

Leaving the canyon late in the day and looking west toward the setting sun.

Stay tuned for Part 2.