See the Restaurant Road Trip of America planning and uploaded GPS coordinates of the trip in progress, or follow me on Twitter.

Today’s plan was to drive from Las Vegas to Monticello, UT, and pass by the Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, and Four Corners along the way.

Las Vegas was a lot of fun, and there are a million other things to do that I didn’t have time for, but after being there for two days it was time to leave. It was a quick drive to the Hoover Dam which gave an unexpected great view of a new massive highway bridge under construction that will divert traffic from driving directly over the dam. I decided to go on a tour of the dam, which turned out to be much longer than I had expected. To being with there was security that was basically everything you would expect at the airport except they let you keep your shoes on. The tour itself was ok, and for only $11 it probably worth it, but the Hoover Dam folks should talk to the USS Arizona people to learn how to move people along faster. It seemed to me as though the USS Arizona had a greater barrier to get people to the destination and moved them through much more efficiently.

Before getting to the Grand Canyon I had Foodio54 recommend a restaurant for me in Williams, AZ and the site picked Cruiser’s Cafe 66. The place is a 1950/60’s themed restaurant and because it was along the historic route 66 that played a big part in the theme as well. Overall they really did a good job in creating a good atmosphere and sticking with the theme. I ordered some beef ribs and not only did they give me a massive portion (and I only ordered the small one), but the ribs were absolutely delicious. They practically fell right off the bones and the sauce they were cooked in was fantastic.

I had actually just been to the Grand Canyon six month before when I was visiting Arizona to see Ohio State play in the Fiesta Bowl, but even still the Canyon was still an extremely impressive sight. I first stopped at the first main lookout point, and then drove along the rim to the Watchtower on the other end of the Grand Canyon park.

It was already getting late and so I started off to see my third sight of the day, the Four Corners monument (where Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico converge). I made it to the monument well into the night and to my disappointment there was a giant no trespassing sign up along with a message that the monument was only open from 7am to 8pm. My hotel was in Monticello, UT, which is about an hour and a half from the monument so I decided I would just double back and see it tomorrow, had I known the hours I would have just gone a more direct route to the hotel, but it wasn’t too far out of the way.

Tags: Big Road Trip