Thursday 10th July - Some Don't Like it Hot

Two days of Vegas and we were ready to leave the confines to head out into the desert. We picked up our small car – a Pontiac – with the usual confusion from Hertz as we turned down a luxury SUV for a small additional cost. As we drove out of Vegas towards the Hoover Dam, the car thermometer was reading 96F. At 9am in the morning this was somewhat stifling.

The baron expanse as you leave Vegas was far more beautiful than I had anticipated. From the flight in I had looked down wondering why anyone would ever spend too long in the countryside but from within our air conditioned box, the rocky geology of the hills was fascinating. As we drove into Lake Mead National park you could see a line of salty deposit metres above the present level of water - it was hard to believe that anything could be sustained in such a harsh environment and yet conurbations were not confined merely to Vegas.

Stepping out of the car at the Hoover Dam the heat stood on it's hind legs and thumped you in the face. Even though the temperature had dropped as we left behind the expanse of macadam albedo, it was still beyond reasonable. luckily we spent the next few hours enthralled by the science behind the dam and it's tour. As we emerged from the tunnels we made the few meters walk from Arizona into Nevada and back simply to chalk up 5 states on our trip.

Back in the car after an unsurprisingly disappointing lunch we headed to the other side of Vegas in search of Red Rock Canyon. As the chief navigator, falling asleep didn't yield great results. After 10 minutes of shut eye I realised we had gone too far and were leaving Vegas in the wrong direction. All was not lost, as we realised Vegas really wasn't that big a place.

Driving into the park, the temperature began to drop as we climbed. It is simple to surmise from my previous temperature related rants that when we turned a corner to see a cyclist we almost crashed the car in shock. Admittedly she looked like she could barely will her legs to turn but, nonetheless. The Canyon was beautiful and with storms approaching the grey skies were a welcome change. Although we wouldn’t make it to the Grand Canyon this felt like a good compromise.