October 6, 2008
Grand Canyon RV Park
Williams, AZ
Toured the Grand Canyon
Wow!!! What a day. We are staying at the Grand Canyon RV Park, which is just a 5 minute walk from the Train Station. We arrived at the Train Station at 9:30 this morning. They have a wild west show for the passengers with outlaws, horses and complete with a sheriff!! It was a fun send off for a fantastic day.
We left the train station at 10:00 a.m. It took 2 hours and 15 to get to the Canyon Village. They had entertainment on the train too. The one on the way up played a guitar and harmonica and sang to us. The one on the way back played a fiddle and kept us laughing. We didn't see a lot of anything we hadn't seen before on the way up, but it was a nice train ride. We did see a couple of elk on the way up and some mule deer on the way down.
Seeing the Grand Canyon has been a dream of mine for years and years!! The only thing I can say is WOW!!! There are really no words to describe it and the pictures I am posting cannot begin to show it's sheer magnitude. It is beyond words.
As you probably know by now, I am afraid of heights and why in the world I would want to go see something that is so HIGH is beyond me. But, I did want to go and I AM glad I went, but I still could not go near the edge. I went as close as I could make myself go and aimed the camera and hoped for the best. When we were taking the pictures of us standing at the rim, I had to make myself go close to the fence and you can probably tell I'm not too comfortable. BUT, I'm proud of myself, I went pretty close to the edge (the fence was three feet tall, LOL) and didn't pass out or anything.
The colors in the canyon walls are amazing. Earth tones that shimmer in the sun and change depending on where you are standing. I can't believe so many people were walking and riding mules down those steep trails. I zoomed the camera as much as I could without distorting the images and it was still so far down that it was hard to see what was on the canyon floor. We were on the North Rim of the canyon and there was one spot where we could see the Colorado river if we looked closely. I zoomed in as much as I could and got enough of it that you can tell it's water. LOL
It was a really beautiful day today. It frosted heavily this morning and I think Merrell said it was 37 when he got up. He said it was probably close to freezing last night. I know there was a freeze warning last night.
We got back to the RV about 6 p.m. and I decided I should download my pictures tonight because I wasn't sure when I would have time to do them again. Besides, I couldn't wait to share them with you. I know several of you have probably been here before, but I'm still excited about being here the first time.
Williams, Arizona is the last town that was bypassed by the new road that took the place of the famous Route 66. They have a Route 66 restaurant that has the soda fountain and 50's music that we are going to tomorrow before we head to Phoenix. I have always wanted to drive on Route 66, so tomorrow is the day!!!!!
Enjoy the pictures and I'll touch base again when I have more pictures to share. If I hadn't been so tired, I would have put the pictures in order of how they were taken, but it just wasn't worth the trouble, so you'll have to look at them in the order I uploaded them. Teeheehee
Love, US
I took this out of the window in front of my seat in the train when it was going around a curve. I thought it was kind of neat to see the engine that was pulling the train you were riding on!!
This was taken on our train ride to the Canyon
This was also taken on our ride to the canyon
Another picture taken from the train on our way to the canyon.
One of the "stolen" horses in the wild west show!!
Merrell at the Canyon fence. I know they say it is really strong, but it sure doesn't look it!!
There was NO fence here and Merrell was going to go to the very edge, but since he didn't want me to have a heart attack, he didn't do it!!! He loved it at the canyon and said he would like to come back and do the trail to the river and camp overnight. I told him he certainly could do that and I would stay HOME!!! Of course, I could probably be talked into staying in one of the hotels there and wait on him to get back. LOL
Merrell's holding on to me really tight (Yep, his hand is in my beltloops, teeheehee) and I'm not scared at all..................................
See, I'm standing at the rim and I don't look SCARED at all, do I????
If you look really, really close you can see the elk in the trees. The train was going so fast, it was hard to get a good picture.
This is the entertainer we had on the way up to the Canyon. He was good and funny too.
This was taken on the train ride. I just thought it was a neat old fence.
This is the HOPI house in the Village at the canyon rim.
Chuck and Carolee aren't too scared. At least this is a rock wall that has a little substance, even though it could stand to be about 2 feet highter. LOL
jC
Chuck is LEANING on the fence that doesn't look strong enough to hold up a FEATHER!!!
This was the wild west show before we boarded the train. The horse thieves are dead and lying on the ground and the sheriff is standing on the right of the picture.
I'm holding on for dear life, even if you can't see it!!! :>)
Do I look very scared?? There wasn't a fence at this section on the North Rim..................
Another view of the canyon walls
There are lots of rock walls just sticking out of nowhere inside the canyon.
I sure wish you could see how far it is across the canyon!!
Another shot across the canyon
I zoomed in trying to get a shot of the beautiful color on this rock wall
I zoomed in as much as I could to get this picture of the canyon floor. In the green part of the floor, there are some buildings and the brown squiggly things are the trails people use through the canyon.
I zoomed in a little more and you can see the buildings with brown roofs at the edge of the green and the trails show a little better.
I was standing at one overlook a LONG way away from this overlook and I zoomed in and got this picture of other people taking pictures of the canyon
I don't know how far it actually was from one side of the canyon to the other, but it's amazing to me that the colors show from that far.
Look at all the different colors in the rock walls.
You can't tell how far across the far canyon wall is, but trust me, it's FAR!!!
