Over the weekend we decided to try one of the day excursions via helicopter from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon. I did some searching online and found a "special" (might be their price all the time) for $299 a person which included a trip out, a champagne picnic lunch, and a trip back (that should go without saying, no?). There was also a $40 per person fuel surcharge.

The company we chose was Sundance, not for any particular reason other than the price was in line with what I was looking to spend and it sounded like enough tour for us.

The tour includes being picked up in a limo at your Strip hotel. They won't pick up far from the Strip. We could have driven straight to the Sundance office, but chose to park at the Palazzo to take the limo.

I had thought that it would be a private limo for the two of us along with some champagne. It wasn't. There wasn't even a bottle of water inside and we had to share the limo with 5 other people. Next time, I think I'll just drive to the departure area. If you're a tourist staying in a hotel, this would be convenient but don't expect it to be romantic or glamorous.

When we arrived at the departure area, they weighed us and gave us some safety instructions. Don't you love the "in case of a water landing" speech on an airplane? Imagine getting that speech when going on a helicopter. Yippee.

One of the first views I had from the office was this:

I leaned against the glass and just looked at the helicopters for a bit. I was clearly fascinated and a fit and energetic older man in his uniform said to me, "Ain't they beautiful? I could just look at them all day." He was one of the helicopter pilots and said, "Anything a bird can do, I can do in one of those babies." He exuded confidence which was helpful to ease my tension. In fact, he told us that he'd been flying them for 42 years. This also was reassuring. We'd hoped that he'd be our pilot.

He wasn't our pilot, but we got a great one named Nate. Here's Nate as we're preparing for departure.

Nate was very professional while at the same time being comfortably informal and humorous. When we first got in the heli, he said, "Ok. Let me see if I can figure out what all these buttons and switches do." Thanks a lot Nate. ... although it was pretty funny.

After the doors were latched shut, we were buckled in, and then we left the ground I did immediately think to myself, "Get me off of this thing!" The first 10 minutes I had to calm my nerves a lot. You can say to yourself, "Well there's nothing I can do about it now" or whatever it takes to calm down but it can still be a bit nerve-racking if you're like me and don't like flying, don't like heights, or don't like closed in spaces.

Here's me settled into the cockpit:

After the first 10 minutes or so I relaxed a lot and found it really enjoyable. As we lifted off the ground, I took some pictures of the airport and some planes on the ground:

As we began to fly East, it was really interesting seeing the city from 1,000 feet. Sure, I'd seen it from an airplane before, but a helicopter gives you a much larger field of vision. Seeing the city from that height, with a golf course in one area, and a school in another, and neighborhood after neighborhood, I was reminded of one of those computer games where you build a city.

In the video games you grab a school with your mouse for example, and then move it to an open area on the computer grid map. You then have to provide facilities utilities, police, fire departments and such and then the game plays out your city for you. The city looked like an amalgamation of many different small grids of various purposes. It almost felt like it wasn't real and that you were observing the city below the same as a child would observe the ants inside an ant farm.

As we flew past Lake Mead I realized that Lake Mead is one of big freaking lake. It's a man made lake, I guess the biggest in the world, and it's absolutely enormous. The lake actually has two major sections that are connected by the Narrows. Here's the Narrows as well as a shot from inside the heli.

One of the first major areas that we passed on our way out of town was Lake Las Vegas. Lake Las Vegas is also a man made lake but it looks like a pond compared to Lake Mead. You could also see the casinos and residential areas around Lake Las Vegas. I didn't get any good photos though.

The next major feature on our trip was the Hoover Dam. As we approached we were traveling parallel to the Dam, and then the pilot did a quick hard left and we zoomed right toward it. It was a remarkable sight and a queasy moment for me.

I took several pictures of the Dam but this one is probably the best. One thing you can see is the bridge that they're building for traffic to bypass having to drive over the Dam. That should make road travel between Arizona and Las Vegas a whole lot easier. How they're going to have support in between the sides I don't know.

Here's another shot of Lake Mead. This is the far opposite end from where most Las Vegas residents would go to recreate. The pilot told us the name of this area, but I can't remember. Feel free to post a comment if you know the answer. I just thought it was a really pretty sight. The water was a greenish blue and the land had many colors.

When we flew over one ridge and first saw the Canyon it was jaw-dropping. What a sight. Enormous expanses of depth that had been carved away over hundreds of millions of years by the water of the Colorado River. Every group of rock was a different color and it all looked so darned big.

Here's a couple shots:

When we landed inside the Canyon, we were in a section called the West End. This land is actually Hualapai Indian land which is why we could visit. The tour company pays the Hualapais a fee to have this landing area available. Other sections of the Canyon are owned by the Federal government which does not allow flying in most areas and landing in any area.

Here are couple pics taken from the ground inside the canyon:

While we looked around at the exotic vegetation, and tried not to find any scorpions, rattlesnakes, or tarantulas (we were told they're around sometimes), the pilot set out a picnic lunch for us. It was really basic. It included a ham and cheese wrap, some apple slices, sodas, bottled water, and champagne.

We then sat down to eat. Here's a picture of our picnic in the Canyon.

We were on the ground for about 30 minutes and then back on our way. If you're ever planning on taking this trip, note that there aren't any bathroom facilities here. Fortunately, I didn't need any but I'm not sure what you could do if you really needed one. Make sure to plan ahead.

When we departed we took a slightly different route going home. Also, in the final leg of the trip we fly to downtown Las Vegas briefly before coming back along the Strip on the West side back to the executive airport.

One sight I enjoyed was seeing the large groupings of Joshua trees. These aren't really trees; they're cacti. They look a lot more like trees than your average every day cactus though. I didn't get any great pictures. This one was probably the easiest to see.

I would really enjoy being on the ground to see some of these. There were some areas that had hundreds of them. I don't know if it's possible to hike out there but these would be great to see up close.

We also flew by where the Colorado River dumps into Lake Mead. You can see the change in color from the muddy river to the blue lake.

The river is still carrying sediment from the Canyon. In fact, it's still carving the Canyon deeper.

The last few shots are just a few aerial shots of Downtown and the Strip that I took as we neared the end of our trip.

Downtown Las Vegas and the Fremont Street Canopy

The Strip Looking North to South from Behind the Stratosphere

Trump and Other Vegas Buildings

The Mirage

Project CityCenter

Monte Carlo and New York New York

MGM Grand

The Strip From Just Above the Helicopter Landing Pad

This was a wonderful trip and we both had a great time. The pilot also does a film of inside the cockpit and outside while we're traveling which also includes his narration. It's $65 which I think is a bit high but I'll likely buy it anyway.

We're both big fans of the helicopter trips now and hope to do some more in the future. If you're looking for a way to add to your Vegas vacation, this is an excellent choice.

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