Taking the Train from Williams AZ to the Grand Canyon

Well friends we have been busy! We have been on a roller coaster ride of fun to say the least. I'm calling our last 10 days or so beauty overload, because it has been almost too, too much! What a beautiful country we have. We have been so busy taking it all in that I haven't had time to update the blog, and now we are finally coming back to earth, so to speak.

Al has had a wish to visit a place called Monument Valley on the Utah/Arizona border, and we also wanted to go to the Grand Canyon. Both places seemed out of reach for the time of year we are traveling. Last year, we kept checking the weather, and knowing we needed to be home in April, we would see there was snow and very cold temps in these places. You just do not want to drive an RV in these weather conditions, especially up steep grades. Well, luckily the weather was so much more favorable this year. NO SNOW!! We kept watching the forecast, and it was always sunny and no precipitation predicted. Very high altitude in both places, so it was only in the 50's at Grand Canyon Village, but sunny and nice, as far as we were concerned. The Grand Canyon was right on the way to Monument Valley (that will be my next post).

We decided to take the train to the Grand Canyon. Since we noticed we were passing through the little town of Williams on the way to Monument Valley,  we decided to stay at the RV park there, The Grand Canyon Railway RV Park. They also own a Hotel and the Grand Canyon Railway. We made reservations for our once in a lifetime first class round trip train ride to the Grand Canyon.  It was a wonderful experience. The girl at the RV park told us when we went to pick up our tickets, if we mentioned that we saw their billboard on Interstate 40, they would give us a 20% discount off the ticket price. So, of course I did exactly that, and it worked. I am all for saving money!

                                                             At the train station

 

This is our car 

 

We had entertainment. His name is Clarence Clearwater. He is Navajo and he sang some Navajo songs and told us some corny jokes. We loved his music. We also had another musician who played the bango and sang. He was also very good. 

 

 

 

The following are of the big hole (as some people refer to it). As usual pictures don't do it justice. If you click on a picture you can look at all of them in a larger form. Then hit the escape button and you will be back on the blog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fireplace below was in one of the hotels and was designed and built using the

natural rocks from the geological strata found in the canyon. 

I am so proud of this picture, because my hubby tried to take a picture of this beautiful fireplace and couldn't get it with his much more expensive camera, because of the sun through the window. He told me not to bother. Then was surprised at how well mine turned out. he he!

It was a long day, but a very enjoyable day. We really enjoyed going there on the train. We had lovely refreshments on the train and very comfortable seating. We met some very nice people from New York State. In fact, they took our picture at the top of the blog. The entertainment was super. We have been to several National Parks and the Grand Canyon definitely ranks very high in our book. We loved it! As one lady said to me as she was walking by. "You cannot capture this with a camera. You must capture it in your heart."  She is so right. We have a beautiful country. Al and I are so blessed to be able to see so many beautiful places, all different, and all so very beautiful. I can't wait to show you the pictures from the next couple of places we visited.