This was my second ever helicopter ride, I have very faint memories of a brief trip about 30 years ago when I was seven years old...
This was our bird (you can just make out the company name, Sundance ,on the side):
Since then I have developed vertigo and Helen claustrophobia, so we were suitably nervous before take-off :) The initial take-off was aborted as the pilot couldn't get his radio working so we quickly returned to the ground. After some re-setting of switches we took off again and headed up and over Las Vegas and off towards the Grand Canyon, via the Hoover Dam. This is the best snap I could get of the dam, due to being on the right hand front-window side and us approaching from the left:
The white line at the base of the rock shows the ongoing reduction in water levels due to both the drought and the burgeoning city population of Las Vegas; which now uses far too much water for the supply to be sustainable. After a forty-minute flight we touched down on Native American soil for a brief lunch and mooch around. I took some snaps of the rock walls, the river and some of the local flora:
Our hearts had calmed down sufficiently in the 30 minute break to allow us to appear semi-composed when we re-boarded the helicopter. It felt worse second time around, though we did pass by the Valley of Fire, seen here:
We'd visited the Valley on foot on our previous visit to the area in 2004. Finally we headed back into Vegas, with the sunlight bouncing off the Luxor and beaming at us, to touchdown and a quick trip back to the hotel. After that we packed and got ready for the flight home ;-(
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