After lots of searching online for the best Grand Canyon tour we decided to wait until we arrived in Las Vegas to check out what discounts there were on the strip before selecting a tour. Therefore we were taking the risk to get a tour booked for the following day as Saturday was the day the forecast had predicted cloudy weather.

We had selected to visit the Grand Canyon's South Rim National Park. This meant that we had to be ready for departure from our hotel at 6.20am. However, we did not know that the company picked you up to take you to a central office where you then had to check in to board one of three coaches departing that day. This meant that we waited an hour before we were finally on the road.

We headed out of Las Vegas and Boulder City, Nevada, drove over the newly built Hoover Dam bypass bridge, traveled through the Southwest desert and stopped in Kingman, Arizona for a short break.

The drive took us through the desert before we stopped off and enjoyed a buffet style lunch at the Grand Canyon railway station. Mary made sure she got her money's worth and I enjoyed the ice cream for dessert. After lunch we had a 40minute drive to America's most spectacular natural wonder, the Grand Canyon. We had three hours to enjoy National Park as we chose to walk between the South Rim's scenic view points before we met the bus at the pickup point. We got to see the Canyon at its deepest and widest, 277 miles long, 18 miles wide and 1 mile deep at Bright Angel and Mather Points.

The views were breathtaking and I couldn't quite believe I was looking at the Grand Canyon. I took lots of photos all along the rim and even went to the rims edge! We were given a good length of time to walk the distance between the first drop off point and the final pick up. If I had had an extra day I would have liked to stay in the national park and do a couple of the other walks and hikes and venture into the canyon.

We found the bus and set off for the long journey back, we made a brief stop in Kingman, Arizona, for a short break before returning to fabulous Las Vegas. On route, the driver gave us a five minute warning so we could all see the Hoover Dam lit up at night as we drove over the bridge.

We arrived back at the strip at 9.30pm but as we were one of the last hotel stops it wasn't until 10pm that we pulled up at the Hilton. Bobbi decided to head straight back to the room and Mary and I stayed one the bad and headed to check out the vintage neon on Fremont Street.