Well it took us about 2 days to get over the shock of America after all our travels; we got a rude welcome from the US imigration police and Los Angeles went further down hill from their, so we booked a hire car as soon as we could and got out of that stinking city as quickly as we could. All my desires to see rodeo drive and sunset blvd disappeared in an instant, I wouldn't recomend the place to anyone.

But out on the open road was fantastic, we had to sleep in the car the first night due to leaving LA in such a hurry and not picking up a tent on our way out - doh! we then drove on straight to Vegas, crashed in a seady motel and slept for 13 hours due to the previous horrendous 48 hours! we didn't see a single light or casino chip as we wanted to save that for the way back.

Managed to drive straight through to the Canyon and get there just in time for sunset, the place was far more stunning than we were expecting and it made all the effort of getting their worth while. Its very hard to get an idea of how big America is but just the view of endless canyons starts to give you an inkling. (and the 3 hours of driving on the same straight road with barely a turn in it gives you another).

We camped in the national forest, which was also beautiful and nicely shaded as out here it hits 40 degrees by 10 in the morning (110 to those that think the wrong way round) and feels like someone is blowing a hot hairdryer in your face all day!

We spent the next day walking some of the trails but to be honest you could spend a whole week here and to get down to the Colorado river you would need to, as the heat and steepness make it hard work. The views were stunning, in every direction its different and you just can't comprehend the size as there is so little to give you a scale but roughly the other rim is between 8-10 miles away! and the river is a mile vertically down from you!

We headed back towards Vegas that evening and camped near the Hoover dam, so we got to drive along some of the old route 66 and stop in one very cheesy dinner for diner, tacky but brilliant.

The dam is very impressive but more impressive is all the old footage of it being built back in the 1930s how they camped out in this desert for 3 years odd I will never know, as I could barely last 10 mins in the direct sun.

Next stop Vegas!!!!!!!!!!!!