Final Graduation Season: American West Trip DAY 8 & 9 – Grand Canyon

On the morning of the seventh day, we took a Greyhound to Las Vegas. The journey took eight hours. I was glad I didn't decide to drive myself. I had already driven nearly 1,000 miles in Yellowstone, and my legs would have been crippled if I had driven to Las Vegas by myself.

Vegas has only one main street that's truly bustling and luxurious, a street that separates two distinct lifestyles. Bringing my parents along meant we couldn't do all the typical tourist activities. So, after a short rest, we rented a car and headed to the Grand Canyon the next day.

The Grand Canyon is about a 4-5 hour drive from Las Vegas. The road is easy to drive on, and although the surrounding area is quite desolate, time flies by (because of speeding). We set off around 10 a.m. and arrived at our hotel at 2:30 p.m. We were staying at the Best Western down the mountain, but they wouldn't let us check in until 4 p.m., so we had no choice but to take our luggage up the mountain.

Like Yellowstone, the entrance fee is per vehicle, valid for 7 days. However, we later found this ticket to be completely overpriced, as the Grand Canyon can actually be explored in a day. The Grand Canyon itinerary is very simple: upon entering, go directly to the visitor center to pick up a map. You'll then find three bus lines—blue, red, and yellow. The blue line is like a local bus, circling the "residential area" with basically nothing to see. You can drive yourself on this line, so we drove directly to the starting point of the red line. The advantage of this is that after getting off the red line, we didn't need to wait for the blue line to drive back. There are many ways to explore the red line; you can stop at each attraction or skip between several. Many attractions are similar, and the entire route only takes 1-2 hours.

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The next morning we went on the Yellow Line, which is simpler because it only has three stops... so I won't go into details. Then at noon we returned to Las Vegas to rest and prepare for our California trip.