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Horsing around in the Grand Canyon
LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Leave the laptop behind and switch off your mobile phone as you enter the land of cowboys and canyons in Arizona. After hours answering e-mail and meeting clients on business trips, a chance to relax in the wide open spaces can alleviate the stress. For Manny Johar, of the world's top semiconductor maker Intel, a trip to the Grand Canyon was "amazing." "Life has become so mechanical ... so to come out on a trip like this refreshes your mind," Johar said as he patted a horse on a cowboy ranch. "I just don't want to think about work right now. It's so cool out here in the desert, not thinking of anything else." The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, one mile deep and 16 miles wide. At Canyon West Ranch an overnight stay costs $399, including a helicopter ride. There is no room service and no electricity. About 31,000 people visit the ranch each year, riding the horses, sleeping in the tee-pees and enjoying the home cooking. "We travel all over North America and it's very stressful, but this trip -- coming on a helicopter and landing on a ranch like this -- is part of the world experience," Johar told CNN. Floyd Dwiggins has been a cowboy for 16 years and feels strongly about the encouraging people to enjoy the cowboy experience. "We've had people from oil tycoons to computer technicians -- some very, very wealthy people. "They got away from the telephone, they got away from the hustle and bustle and the sounds from the city and the street and they can actually sit down and listen to the birds or the grass moving and the wind blowing," Dwiggins told CNN. "They get that sense of freedom, of being able to relax, to forget about everything and just mellow out and just have a good time." Gary Le Blanc, also from Intel, found it easy to take Dwiggins' advice. "I don't have my notebook here with me today -- usually I have that strapped to me, so that can be fairly stressful. "I get lots of e-mail, lots of work, lots of phone calls, so this is really a relaxing time."
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