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The
Sun Herald
Travel
Section
August
31, 2003 |
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How the West was fun...
by Debbie Neilson -
AUSTRALIA
Thanks to a Grand Canyon cowboy adventure, Debbie Neilson
delighted at leaving Las Vegas.
As gently as a breath of wind lifts a duck feather off a pillow our
helicopter began its ascent.
Earlier we’d gazed up in awe at the black glass pyramid of Las
Vegas’s Luxor hotel, a replica Eiffel Tower of Paris and
roller-coaster riders winding in and out of a Manhattan skyline in a
scaled-down New York. Now we looked down briefly on this insomniacs’
Disneyland.
Soon, the casino strip was replaced by rows and rows of mansions,
with backyard swimming pools twinkling in the sunshine.
Dotted between suburbia and Nevada’s barren Mojave Desert, small
oases of green - the fairways of Las Vegas’s championship golf
courses - added a splash more colour to this sandy landscape.
About 50 kilometres out of town, emerald green turned into the
incredible Mediterranean-blue waters of Lake Mead, created when the
Hoover Dam was built across a natural canyon of the Colorado River
between 1931 and 1935 (the same time gambling was legalised in
Nevada).
While the dam supplies important water and electricity to Nevada and
neighbour states Arizona and California, the lake has become a
favourite recreational centre with locals for fishing, sailing and a
range of water sports.
Mariners and campers dotted its shores and beetle-sized watercraft
created swirls of white on its glassy surface.
Far in the distance we picked out lonely Boulder City-which our
pilot, Mike, informed us was created to house the dam’s construction
workers and has remained, by choice, casino-free.
From the cloudless sky we could see for 160 kilometres in any
direction and throughout the 45-minute tour Mike kept our cameras
poised as he pointed out more interesting rock formations, including
Mount Wilson, a dormant volcano, which only diehard fans of the
original Planet Of The Apes films would recognise.
Accompanying Mike’s commentary was a selection of mood music from
movie soundtracks including E.T. and Star Wars.
As we peered down we could have been on another planet - patches of
rocky red earth resembling images of Mars.
Only a few long, straight roads divided the sagebrush from the
forests of crooked Joshua trees and cacti.
My heart skipped a beat as the parched ground suddenly fell further
away and we soared over the western rim of the Grand Canyon. Right
on cue the dramatic 2001: A Space Odyssey theme Thus Spake
Zarathustra perfectly underscored the beauty and immense scale of
this ancient, natural wonder
Below us, the Colorado River snaked between fertile green banks
rising to the giant multicoloured stepped cliffs of limestone,
sandstone and shale, which have been
carved by wind and water over 2 billion years. We dived deeper into
the giant chasm for a closer look, and spotted kayakers, looking
minute.
After several minutes of jaw-dropping views, we rose back above the
rim and headed for the Grand Canyon West Ranch. After a 7am start,
the promise of a hot American-style breakfast sounded appealing.
The ranch was just five minutes away. Back on earth the clock
rewound 100 years as a horse-drawn wagon carried us the short
distance to the main homestead.
Manchester-born Nigel Turner; the first to operate the scenic
executive Helicopter Tours into the Grand Canyon with his company
Heli USA, bought the ranch a year ago to give tourists a taste of
the cowboy life. Despite a few additions, this place is the real
McCoy.
Sharing the desert with mountain lions, coyotes and rattlesnakes,
Native Americans and, later; Mormon pioneers drew sustenance from
the nearby Diamond Bar springs. Cooking pits of the Cohina Indians
discovered in the area date back to 1600BC.
And what’s the Wild West without a gun toting baddie? Over bacon and
eggs our host entertained us with tales of Tap Duncan, a gunslinger
in spurs turned "reformed" cattleman, who once rode with America’s
most infamous outlaw, Billy the Kid.
Ironically Tap was killed by a motor car; but his rudimentary
bare-earth home still stands beside the ranch kitchen - a few bricks
deliberately missing so Tap could shoot trespassers.
Overnight visitors today stay in traditional yet comfortable rustic
pine cabins (with log fires) built in the lee of Spirit Mountain.
Five are built and about 30 more are planned. Guest activities
include singalongs around the camp fire or the chance to rustle up
the 148 head of Spanish Corriente cattle - originally bred for
bullfighting but today used for rodeos and steer roping.
We were on a half-day tour so our group of city slickers had only
time to enjoy a short horse ride across a small part of the
42,896-hectare property. But it seemed
long enough, the sun’s heat becoming more intense as the morning
slipped away
After an hour playing cowboys at the ranch we left the dust of the
desert and returned to the glitz and spectacle that has made Las
Vegas, the desert’s newest
modern wonder.
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Lihue, Kauai, HI
Kauai Deluxe Kamaaina
Helicopter Tour
Honolulu, Oahu, HI
Honolulu City Lights
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and Sunset Dinner Cruise
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Oahu Deluxe Island
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