Las Vegas and the western parks; my beautiful trip in USA Southwest

 

Las Vegas

Las Vegas - Day 4

After a flight of 3 hours we are in the capital of gambling, coming from above we can already glimpse the potential of the city: a long way with very special building, a pyramid, a tour eiffel, huge residential buildings. With the time we have almost the entire afternoon free, so, after having withdrawn the car rental at the airport, we arrive at our hotel, the Las Vegas Hilton, near the main road, the Las Vegas Boulevard. The feeling that gave me this city is pure adrenaline, a desire to discover it right away, to leave immediately to see what they offer. The hotel is fantastic, luxury, and think that is one of the cheapest among the "luxury". Return the car and reach the "center", almost 20 km long; parked at:

HOTEL MIRAGE
and we go to visit him. In fact, the only thing to do in this city, is to visit these mega hotels unique, with their attractions. The Mirage is one of the most important. We enter and we are in a jungle, with palm trees, streams, waterfalls and white tigers and two behind the reception desk a long barrier reef about twenty meters, then the usual casino '. But the biggest attraction is outside of the fact, dusk, the huge fountain with waterfalls overlooking the street turns into a wild volcano, with fire and flames rose into the sky: a show breathtaking.
In front of the Mirage, here's another surprise appearance:


the VENETIAN HOTEL
I do not know if the hotel is actually more beautiful in the world, but certainly I think that the expenditure required for its construction has not rivals.
From Las Vegas Boulevard, the most extravagant of the planet, including lights, sounds, fake volcanoes erupting, the Eiffel Tower, pyramids and castles, a "mirage" that you find it hard to believe: Piazza San Marco, with a bell , the Doge's palace, surrounded by the Grand Canal with the famous Rialto Bridge ... amazing. But what you see from the outside, is the smallest part of the surprise that occurs when you enter inside.
The entrance is reminiscent of the great museums of Europe, with huge frescos. Inside the 'hotel zone shopping reproduces the Piazza di San Marco and the sky seems to move the painting in a small channel you can make a ride in a gondola passing under bridges typical Venetian !!!!!! of course the whole life-size, who does not want to throw away many dollars for a ride in a gondola, which leave the unwary Americans who probably will never be in Italy, can safely walk through the streets of Venice, across the bridges and admire the ' Top all of this show.
The atmosphere is typically Italian, with lyrics that famous warm environment, and Italian restaurants with outdoor seating (which to tell the truth are closed because we are in a hotel). The only difference with the "real Venice", which is the one that is original while the other is merely a copy, is that here the channels are very clear and blue ...
Do you think this is only the 2nd floor of; via escalators can be reached because the huge casino on the 1st floor, imagine you make a bet on the roulette and the ball runs while waiting for the search of the lucky number, to look at the top thinking that over and above the ceiling, who knows how many flow cubic meters of water (hopefully keep the ceiling !!!).
Built in 1999 the hotel has 3036 rooms in 36 floors, the largest and most luxurious in Las Vegas. The Venetian Resort is one of four major hotels have opened in Las Vegas in recent years, adding 13,000 new hotel rooms and a touch of sophistication to the cathedral of gambling in the desert, the modest cost of 5-6 billion dollars. To reproduce the characteristics of the city, the hotel has been entrusted to a company specializing in vintage architectural details. Manufacturers have gone to Venice and spent three weeks, taking three thousand photographs of what it was interested in replicating. But obviously have not been able to make reproductions in marble and stone: the Venetians have had 600 years to do so, and their only two. "I therefore appeal to prefabricated materials and light. The sculpture of the Archangel Gabriel, for example, is made of foam and polyurethane, and coated with gold at 22 carats.
For many this is the classic "American", but view it is certainly impressive.

Dinner at the Mirage, and with about $ 12 a head, it can be eating in the classic "all you can eat", you can practically eat really all indefinitely and without limit of time, from pasta, fish, desserts.
TRULY ONE CITY 'SINGLE IN THE WORLD!

National Parks

Zion Park - Day 5

Let Las Vegas, a little 'busy in the early morning, destination parks West. Just outside town we are in the desert, wide streets, half empty, driving is a real pleasure, and the stress of traffic in Milan is a distant memory. After about an hour the landscape changes, it becomes mountainous, tending to red, and recalls the famous American western films. Now we get the first goal, the Zion National Park.
The location is wonderful, the visitor center is located in the middle of a valley surrounded by red rock mountains, almost to form dolomite. Take the road that runs through the valley, stopping occasionally to admire the scenery and take photographs, unfortunately the sun is disappearing behind the clouds and colors lose some '.
The tops are beautiful and well above the 2,000 meters, with such fanciful names of Patriarchs Courth (a short path leads to a vantage point), Altar of Sacrifice, The Great White Throne. Along the valley runs a river, the Virgin. So we do a walk of about 1 hours between return, a beautiful trail (Emerald Pools Trail) that crosses the river first, then reaches a small lake where it should be a cascade, but the period will be dry and not left to a wire d ' water, then the path climbs between giant rocks, until you reach a plateau where you can enjoy a beautiful view over the valley and all the peaks. An immense sense of peace.
The day is almost over, we arrive at our motel at the entrance to the park and take a dip in the pool, surrounded by the supreme scenery. Then dinner at a restaurant outside, meat grilled ($ 40 in two) and admiring a beautiful sunset, the mountains are colored in red. The atmosphere is pure Far West.

Bryce Canyon - Day 6

The road that leaves the direction Zion Bryce Canyon is spectacular, and it is a road with red asphalt that climbs up a step, almost grazing the tops. Here you can admire the Mesa, a high cone-shaped polished by the wind.
Along the road through the Red Canyon, only a foretaste of what will then Bryce. Another half hour and we arrived in what will be the park of our most memorable trip: BC is a natural amphitheater that ranges from 2400 meters to 2800 meters, surrounded entirely by a panoramic road in the middle of the forest, and you can not imagine the wonderful panorama that awaits you to those of the pines. Indeed, as we approach the edge of the canyon, we see rising from the ground enormous amphitheaters pinnacles of intricately carved into the rock. In a moment, the bright colors of the park will appear in all their splendor.
There are many paths from the various vantage points lead in the canyon, but missed the Navajo Loop Trail, a circular route of about one and a half beginning at Sunset Point and allows you to enter the furnace of red peaks, incredible contrast between the color of the rocks and the blue of the sky gives the impression of being in another planet.
If the descent is easy, more difficult is the ascent, but the effort is amply rewarded. We pan across the road about 50 km, stopping at all points of vantage: Sunrise and Sunset, Inspiration and Bryce Point, before you sit at the beautiful Bryce Canyon Lodge, the only possibility to stay overnight inside the park.
For dinner we decide instead to leave the park to go to the buffet of Ruby's Inn, a reasonable selection at reasonable prices.

Lake Powell, Page - Day 7

Let the Bryce reluctantly, looking for another beauty: Lake Powell.
Arrived near the lake, try the Wahweap Lodge, from where boats direct to the point of the most spectacular lake, the Rainbow Bridge (bridge dell'Arcobaleno).
This is an Ark of natural rock almost perfect, 100 meters high and equal in diameter. Navigation is fairly long (about 5 hours a / r) and quite expensive ($ 80 U.S. dollars per person), but the scenery is fantastic, it runs alongside the most marginal of Monument Valley, with traditional rock formations that appear here and there on the shores of the lake. Water is an intense blue, and the natural bridge is truly a spectacle that leaves your mouth open, the boat stops an hour, you can go and a short walk that reaches below the bridge. This casts a kind of reflected in the shape of a rainbow in the green water below.
There are two daily tours that leave from Wahweap, one in the morning and one in the early afternoon. The tickets can be made directly in the hotel reception.
Attention to the time zone, because coming from Bryce Canyon must pull back the hand of one hour.
For the night we went to Page, a town full of western style restaurants, we ate at an Italian restaurant, spending little, good pasta and great bruschetta.

Grand Canyon - Day 8

Take the road towards the Grand Canyon, crossing the land still inhabited by the Indians, we enter the South Rim from the East, and we expect a road about 50 km with many vantage points. We are at over 2000 meters, but not it seems, because the road passes through a dense forest, canyons and even from the road it shows. Must park in the first area to stop and walk to the edge to see this unique show, a feeling of infinite space, of grandeur and immensity. The North seems to be so close, yet it takes hours and hours' drive to reach it. On the bottom you see the Colorado, whose momentum has dug over the centuries these mountains.
Difficult to describe the Grand Canyon, is certainly one of the most impressive natural spectacles in the world.
Down the road we stop in the various vantage points (Desert View, Jaki Point, Grand View and Yavapai Point), and as you shall assume Canyon aspects and different colors. We arrive at the Visitor Center and Peace met in visiting Canyon along the scenic road is abruptly interrupted by a large movement of tourists, cars and busses. Fortunately, May is: I imagine that visit these places in July and August with a lot of crowd atmosphere lose some '. My advice is to keep the scenic road towards the east, for this reason.
After dinner in a self-service, we enjoy the sunset on the board, the colors are not beautiful as I had imagined and as soon as the sun set, we invested an incredible cold

Las Vegas - Day 9

Our adventure in the park is finished but unfortunately still with us quite an indelible memory, and we expect a long journey back to Las Vegas, the way we meet the Lake Mead and its huge dam.
Finally we arrive in Las Vegas and this time stay right on Las Vegas Boulevard at the MGM, with 4 large luxury hotels are directly connected with each other with walkways and Sky Train. The MGM is the largest hotel in the world and in fact can be seen immediately, and we put about twenty minutes to reach our room from reception. In the afternoon we visit other hotels, including the Luxor (pyramid-shaped with a sphinx at the entrance, The Escalibur (reconstruction of the castle of a wizard Merlin, with evening entertainment dragons surface) and the New York, a perfect reconstruction of the city with the Statue of Liberty, skyscrapers and ottovolante outside, while inside, along the huge casino, have been faithfully reconstructed the various areas of the city, including Central Park, Wall Street, China Town, etc. .
But now there anything surprising ...