Grand Canyon West Rim Helicopter Tour May 12, 2022

Thursday May 12th was the day I schedule the helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon West Rim. Since I was now familiar with the area near the Grand Canyon West visitors center, I would have a better understanding of the terrain during the helicopter tour. This tour was the real reason that I brought my GoPro Hero 9 along on the trip. Although I booked the tour with Canyon Tours, the actual company that did the tour was Maverick Helicopters. They picked me up from my hotel and brought us over to their airfield. I think it was in Henderson but I’m not sure now.

Below is footage from the Colorado River, Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. The lighter colored rocks near the water shows how much the water has dropped over the last few decades. I posted this video to my YouTube channel. Since the title of the video was related to a current news topic the video got 34 thousand views in the first month. As of June 25th it’s up to 40 thousand views.

The Colorado River, Hoover Dam and Lake Mead

Below is the footage from when we crossed Lake Mead on the way to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon. Off to the right we can see Temple Bar Marina.

Lake Mead west end

It was exciting to fly up over the ridge and into the canyon lands.

Entering the west rim of the Grand Canyon

The best footage from the trip was when we left the Grand Canyon West visitors center and flew along the canyon on the way back to the Las Vegas area.

Grand Canyon West from the Visitors Center to Lake Mead

Below is the mouth of the Colorado River where it goes into Lake Mead. This is another video that is getting thousands of views per day due to the fact that the water level of Lake Mead is in the news so often.

Mouth of the Colorado River where it goes into Lake Mead

The video footage below is the west end of Lake Mead, which we crossed on the way back to the Las Vegas area and the airfield

Lake Mead west end

Overall it was a wonderful tour and I would definitely book another trip with them if I am ever back in the Las Vegas area.

Colorado River Kayak Trip May 11, 2022

On Wednesday May 11th I went on a kayak tour on the Colorado River in the section below Hoover Dam. I booked at tour with Blazin Paddles Kayak Tours. They picked me up from my hotel on the strip, so I did not not have to worry about driving. We started at Willow Beach on the Arizona side of the river. It had been windy in the Vegas area at time during the week. Wednesday was no exception. The wind was supposed to pick up during the afternoon and hopefully we would be off of the water by then.

It turns out that Willow Beach has a rich history and had been visited by people for thousands of years.

I brought my GoPro Hero 9 to record some video footage of the trip. It turned out that Emerald Cave was a lot smaller than I imagined. But it was still a great trip. It was a treat to kayak in a totally different landscape than I am used to in New England.

On the way back we stopped at an historical site called the River Gauge House Site. We pulled up on the landing area and some mallard ducks swam over for a visit.

The house site was part of the Willow Beach Gauging Station. The house site was just down river from the Gauging Station, which was used to measure the flow and level of the river below Hoover Dam.

This is the view down river from the house site.

This is the view upriver from the house looking towards Emerald Cave.

When we returned to Willow Beach a Mallard duck followed us in and swam real close to us. They don’t fear humans like the ducks that I usually encounter in New England.

Next we headed over to the Willow Beach Marina to wait for the shuttle bus and visit the store. I was able to take a few photos of the marina.

Inside of the store their were stuffed & mounted stripped bass had had been caught in the Colorado River around Willow Beach in the past.

Since I enjoy fishing I just had to check out the fishing info poster at the marina. The big shock was that marshmallows and cheese are the recommended bait for Rainbow Trout.

The recent news stories about the low water levels in Lake Mead make me nervous. What will be the impact for this part of the Colorado River if the water in Lake Mead gets so low that they reduce the amount of water they let through Hoover Dam.