Hawaii 50 - Hoover Dam, Route 66, and the Grand Canyon

It's always sad when any holiday comes to an end but luckily for us, at the end of this holiday, we decided to add on a mini-holiday! 

After an evening celebrating New Years Eve, we picked up a hire car from the airport and hit the road for a mini road trip. 

This is a trip we had done a couple of times in the past but in summer. We knew it was going to be colder and with less tourists but we were not expecting heavy snow fall. 

We started the trip off with a stop at the Hoover Dam. It was busy but nothing compared to the carnage of tourists in the summer months. We easily parked up, walked around, and without a queue, took one of the tours. 

We headed back on the road, picking up Route 66 to Kingman. In the summer, this route is busy with tourists especially bikers on Harleys, but this time I don't remember seeing any cars at all. 

Once in Kingman, we checked out downtown, stopping for a beer in Block Bridge Brewery, before checking into our room for the night at El Trovatore Motel. We booked this motel for a truly authentic Route 66 experience and we weren't disappointed! There was a big neon sign outside, the largest map of Route 66 covering all the walls of the hotel, memorabilia everywhere, and a very passionate owner who clearly loved the heritage of Route 66 and the history of his motel. After a very long history lesson check-in, we were given the key to our room, themed after one of the motel's famous guests.... Marilyn Monroe. It was a great experience to stay in such an iconic building and to experience the history, Lee particularly liked sleeping under so many pictures of Marilyn. I would have maybe preferred the James Dean room!

That evening, we walked the short distance to the Dambar & Steak House for some meat in their Wild West themed restaurant, followed by drinks in the bar. 

The next day, we filled up on breakfast at another iconic Route 66 establishment, Mr D's Route 66 Diner. This place was filled with memorabilia and pictures of celebrities who had visited, included Oprah! I can imagine that during the summer, this place is packed with people queuing into the car park. Visiting in the winter had its advantages as apart from a couple of locals, we were the only people in the Diner. 

We jumped in the car and continued along Route 66, stopping at the Hackberry General store to pick up a lot of US number plates to decorate our bar at home. Then at Seligman, which was allegedly the town featured in the movie 'Cars'. Here we stretched our legs and grabbed a drink in the local store. A lot of the stores in Seligman were closed, and that might have been because of the weather warnings for a snow storm rather than it just being the off season. 

Finally we reached Williams, the gateway to the Grand Canyon and the end of our Route 66 journey. We turned off onto the road that leads to the Grand Canyon. It was at this point that we realised just how bad the weather was going to be. The snow was thick and the roads were not cleared but we pushed on, albeit at a rather slow speed. 

The road to the Grand Canyon was incredibly quiet but with snow and challenging driving conditions, it was difficult to really enjoy it. We have in the summer months been stuck in traffic jams along this road with thousands of tourists all trying to get into the park. There was no traffic today and we would soon learn why. 

After entering the Park, we headed to our hotel in the Grand Canyon Village El Tovar. In the summer, its almost impossible to book this iconic lodge. It is the oldest hotel still operating in the Grand Canyon and is located right on the rim with amazing views in a traditional wooden lodge, complete with bear and stag heads. We had no issues getting a room in the winter. 

Once we'd checked in and put on some warner clothes, we went for a walk around the rim. It was a very different experience to the summer! In the summer, its hard to walk with the all the tourists, you can't even get a picture without getting someone's head, arm or ear in the shot. But in winter, we were the only ones here, we could have as much space as we needed. The views of the canyon were not as a good, you couldn't clearly see the bottom or the other side but you could still get a feel of the scale and size. 

For dinner, we ate in the hotel's fine dining restaurant, asking everyone for details of the weather as we were worried about being snowed in and missing our flight. 

We woke early the next day and after checking with the Rangers the state of the roads, we decided to head out before any more snow came down. Before leaving, I headed to the rim for one last picture and it was a complete white out. I later found out from one of the park rangers just how unique our experience of the Grand Canyon was. The last time it snowed this heavily in the Grand Canyon South Rim was 7 years ago. Its very unique to have pictures from the South Rim with so much snow cover. 

The road back to Williams was tough and Lee did a super job getting us back safely. We stopped for breakfast, before continuing our journey back to Las Vegas airport. We had a bit of time to kill due to leaving the Grand Canyon so early so we stopped en route in Boulder City. This is where the workers building the Hoover Dam were housed and it was interesting to see the references to the workers throughout the town, along with some other interesting and sometimes odd art. After a walk around, we stopped for a drink in one of the breweries and then continued on to our next stop, Red Rock Canyon.

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is a must do if you want to get away from the commercialism of Vegas and back to nature. We completed the one-way 13 mile scenic drive, stopping at a couple of turn outs and car parks to stretch our legs and take pictures. In the summer, you would need to make a reservation to enter the park but in the winter, you can just pull up. 

We then headed to the airport for our flight back home.