While visiting the Grand Canyon we stayed in Williams, Arizona. Its a cool little town to visit and its right on old Route 66.Lots of references to Route 66 and the bygone days of hot rods and laid back cities!Some pretty cool murals around town too.Nice sunsets at our campground!They had these cool arches at the entrances to town on Route 66.It was much colder than normal for the end of May! We even got this surprise rain/hail/snow storm!Surprise storm; then it all melted away by the next day!While staying in Williams, we took the Grand Canyon Train Tour which starts in downtown Williams. Its a 63 mile, 4 hour ride from Williams to the Grand Canyon.This was our car. We opted for first class, which gave us more comfortable seats in an enclosed car.While we waited to depart they put on this old west show for us. Hokey but pretty entertaining!Complete with gunfights of course!Three of the cast with their “victim” (in the baseball hat) from the audience.Then off we went for our train ride!Lots of cool scenery along the way, including some Elk grazing near the tracks!The train dropped us off right at the lodge. This was the beautiful massive fireplace at the lodge.The day of our train excursion there was quite a bit of cold rain and fog around. It obscured our views a bit but also added some to the pictures.On our return trip our train was stopped and we were “robbed” aka tips!A couple of days later we went back and got some of the same pictures when it was a bit clearer.This rock looks like it’ll just slide off anytime!They put these markers along the rim path telling you the age of the spot where you’re standing!It’s a LONG way down!It was kind of cloudy but I thought they just added drama to the scene!I was glad to have my 300 mm zoom lens; I got close ups of the river without the grueling trip down into the canyon!So many layers of different colors and textures!This is a shot of the trail leading down into the canyon. They say its 2 hours down but much longer coming back up! If you look close you can see the people on the path! I overheard a guide say this rock outcropping was supposed to look like a rubber ducky; Jan thought it looked more like an eagle’s head .The expanse of the canyon is mind boggling!In this picture do you see the red circle? That’s the Colorado River and those are river rafts on the shore. They must be taking a rest from their trip down the river!
Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Grand Canyon Adventure……..
