The 4:05 a.m. alarm jolts our peaceful slumber in our Las Vegas hotel.

What is wrong with us? Why would we subject ourselves to such cruelty, having stayed up late the night before for a Penn & Teller show?

We throw on clothes and arrive at the hotel lobby at 4:25 for a shuttle to a destination that soon will make us forget about our yawns and sleepy dust:

The Grand Canyon.

Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters is the perfect service to help break up a Strip-happy Vegas vacation to see all the breathtaking beauty of the crown jewel of Arizona.

Papillon tours are all inclusive, so the transfer to and from our hotel was included in the price. After two hotel stops, we were whisked to the Boulder City Airport, where a Grand Canyon Airlines plane awaited. Once in the air, we enjoyed a scenic route flying over Hoover Dam, the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, Lake Mead and the Colorado River. The scenery could be fully enjoyed because of the plane’s high wings and large, panoramic windows for optimum viewing and air-conditioned comfort.

During the 70-minute flight, we listened to a multilingual prerecorded narration that relates historical facts and stories about the canyon, which was created by the Colorado River slicing through the immense gorge

After 70 minutes of flying, we landed at the Grand Canyon South Rim terminal. After refreshing, we bordered a van that transported us to the Grand Canyon National Park for a rim view. After a box breakfast/lunch, we had around 45 minutes to roam along the rim at several overlooks to visualize the rich, spectacular scenery. This was enough time to enjoy a sensory delight but also to zoom my camcorder and binoculars, and click my camera a few hundred times.

As much as I hated to leave, I knew the best was yet to come. The van took us to a heliport, where we boarded a helicopter set to take us over the North and East rims of the Grand Canyon.

My wife and I sat in back with another couple, and my soon-to-be 14-year-old son sat ahead of us near the pilot. Despite sharing the back seat, the enormous windows were plentiful enough for all of us to take the photos and videos that we desired. My son had the added benefit of a clear floor, so he could see directly below the helicopter.

Perhaps the most dramatic portion of the helicopter tour is sweeping across tree-cropped landscape before this landscape suddenly ends, revealing the gigantic cliffs as you venture out over the edge of the canyon. The majestic vistas are awe-inspiring as the helicopter enters the central regions of the canyon, where the geography is the most varied and dramatic.

Even though it was April, we saw snow in some parts of the canyon as the helicopter descended further. Alas, our 30 minutes was up, and it was time to return, and the helicopter ascended before retracing its steps to the heliport.

We were driven back to the airport for some shopping and photos before flying back to Boulder City and driven back to Las Vegas.

Ten hours later, we were back at the hotel, ever-thankful that the 4:05 alarm disturbed our sleep that morning.

Hoover Dam tours, too

Besides tours of the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas (and there are varying types of canyon tours that differ from the one we took), Papillon also offers Hoover Dam tours.

For instance, the Platinum Hoover Dam and Bridge Tour enables visitors to see the dam from both sides of the Colorado River, as well as the new bypass bridge (O’Callaghan-Tillman – the largest single-arch concrete bridge in the Western Hemisphere). Walking around the exterior and seeing this massive structure and how the four-year project tamed the river’s rampaging floodwaters is amazing. And, you can do it from two states, as you literally cross the walkway Nevada to Arizona and back.

The tour includes guided narration by a professional guide to see an interior view of the dam, including the powerhouse gallery that reveals a set of the massive turbine generators that provide green electricity to those in seven states.

Like the Grand Canyon tours, this tour includes comfortable round-trip ground transportation from the hotel and even a photo opportunity while stopping at the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign.