Our Travel Blog

For the first time since we have been here the temperature was above 0°C when we woke up. Another bright sunny day with a forecast high around 14°C.

After breakfast we headed out of Williams on Route 66, then turned North to drive up to the Grand Canyon. On the way up there was a small airport with a museum and a number of old aircraft parked outside.

Lockheed Constellation

The above aircraft was built in 1949, and during its life served as the personal VIP transport for Gen. MacArthur. This type of aircraft was one of the first to fly the North Atlantic in a civil role.

Martin 4-0-4

This aircraft was from the same era but used on domestic routes.

We continued north to the Grand Canyon National Park, the entrance fee was $25 for a seven day pass. We were able to use yesterdays train tickets to reduce the cost by $16…. Nice!

The animals above are Mule Deer, check out the ears!

I wasn’t going to put so many pictures in today, after yesterdays contribution but I finished up putting them in anyway.

Today we took another of the shuttle buses to see some more of the views:

After the shuttle bus, we drove about 25 miles east to Desert View where there is a Watchtower designed by Mary Colter. (Hopi House designer from yesterday)

Watchtower at Desert View

Diamond Shaped Rocks in the Watchtower

Watchtower ArtCeiling of the Watchtower

Looking Down From the Watchtower

Desert View is named for ……. its view of the desert! Looking southeast from the tower the scenery changes from canyon to desert. This desert is known as the painted desert due to all the colours that show in it. Unfortunately today was a little hazy and the colours really don’t show.

The Painted Desert

The Painted Desert

The Painted DesertThe Painted Desert

We returned along the same route, but stopped at a number of viewpoints along the way.

The Colorado River

We finally had to leave the Grand Canyon. A week ago, when we saw the forecast, we wondered whether we had done the right thing by coming here early in the season. Without a doubt we did the right thing. The snow added to the experience, and the lack of tourists was really a bonus. I can’t imagine how crowded it would be in the summer months.

I still can’t properly describe the canyon (hence all the pictures), you really do have to see it to believe it. I think the one thing that really got to me was the sheer size of the canyon. Where we were, the canyon was 8 miles wide and 1 mile deep.

Tomorrow we head out, and down, towards Las Vegas. Having spent the last 5 weeks above 5000′ it will be good to get back to more normal levels! It’s only just over a three hour drive tomorrow, so we won’t need to rush in the morning.

Up a little earlier today to catch the train up to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Overnight my cunning new plan with respect to the water situation worked; I switched on the heated cable on the hosepipe and did nothing else. I must learn not to over think theses things and just apply the K.I.S.S. principle.

The theme for the whole day, at least while were traveling on the train was light hearted humour. This started just outside the station where there was a mock Western town setup to host a “gunfight”.

Build Up to the Gunfight!

After the excitement of the gunfight we walked onto the platform and found our carriage. We were traveling Northbound in a Pullman Car, and would return in a Coach Car. There were also some First Class carriages with armchairs and observation windows, but the cost was a little extreme! I always thought that Pullman cars were a step up from Coach, but it seems the opposite is true, at least cost wise.

Car Attendant(a Biology PhD)

Restored 1923 Pullman Car

Entertainment

The trip up took us through ponderosa forests, high desert and pine forests. Before we reach the canyon, here is some trivia:

• Length in air miles: 190
• Length in river miles: 277
• Minimum width: 600 feet at Marble Canyon
• Maximum width: 18 miles
• Average width: 10 miles
• Average depth of Canyon: 1 mile / 5280 feet
• Minimum width of Colorado River: 76 feet
• Average width of Colorado River: 300 feet
• Maximum depth of river: 85 feet
• Average depth of river: 40 feet
• Number of rapids: 160
• River average gradient: 8 feet per mile

I had some idea of what we would see when we reached the canyon, but what we actually saw was way more than I expected. It is almost impossible (for me) to describe, the sheer size was amazing.

As before the pictures will do most of the talking.

The Colorado River

In the picture above the river is about 300 feet wide and a mile below us, yet you can still see the rapids… must be pretty ferocious.

A Rare Sighting!

Hopi House

Hopi House, and a number of other buildings in or above the canyon were designed by a female architect, Mary Jane Colter between 1910 and 1935. This particular building was designed for the Hopi Indians as a place to sell their wares to early tourists.

We toured around the Southern Rim of the canyon on a free shuttle bus that runs as a Hop-on-Hop-off service. This service runs from March through October, and during those months no other vehicles are allowed access to the roads. The shuttles run every 10 minutes, and stop at a number of viewpoints and trail heads.

The return trip was (obviously) similar to the out bound, except this time we were in coach, which had slightly more comfortable seats than the Pullman.

Hotel at Grand Canyon VillageEarly 1900’s Steam Engine

The Grand Canyon Railway has one operational steam engine that operates once a month in the summer. Although it has been converted to run on recycled vegetable oil, it is still deemed a source of pollution, hence it’s limited operation.

First / Observation Cars

Carriages for the Financially Challenged.

The Power Horses

On the way home the train was stopped / boarded and “robbed” by a gang of thieves who arrived on horseback!

Overall, a fantastic experience, and as the title suggests you have to be their to believe it. Tomorrow we are heading back up there by car to see the bits we missed today. Hopefully I won’t inundate you with as many photos.

Another sunny morning, with night time temperatures down to -11°C.

We had a bit of an “issue” overnight with the water. In a nutshell, Lyn woke up around 4AM and heard water dripping. I had turned the water on to a trickle just to keep it moving. Unfortunately the trickle was a little too fast and the holding tank filled up. Luckily Lyn discovered the problem with about an inch of room left in the sink. I think I finally have it sorted for tonight.

It was laundry time this morning, followed by the weekly shopping.

After lunch we headed out for a walk into the town of Williams, which is located on Route 66. On the way we stopped off at the train station to pick up our tickets for tomorrows trip to the Grand Canyon.

Again, more pictures, less writing.

A Brief History of Route 66

Complete with Map

Wood Carvings Holding Up the Roof

A Couple of Wall Murals

A New Method of Snow Clearing.

Here they clear the snow into the centre of the street, that means no driveways get blocked. The advantage of wide streets.

The Old West

Wonder What the Red Garter Used To Be?

Route 66Route 66 Gas Station

Last night the temperature dropped down to -10°C, as expected. I really wasn’t too sure what to do with respect to the water system in the trailer. The site requires that you disconnect the water hose to the trailer if it is not a heated hose. Ours is not heated, so I disconnected and drained it. I also decided to take no chances, so I emptied the three drainage tanks and drained both the hot and cold water systems in the trailer. Now we had no water until morning!

This morning when we got up it was a matter of reversing the process before we could do breakfast. The good news is, all was well when I got the water flowing.

After breakfast we headed out for a sightseeing trip that would take us north of Flagstaff, then South to Sedona, and continue a long loop around to the west, north and east back to the trailer. Direct routes don’t exist around here due to inconsiderate placement of mountains.

In this blog I’ll let the pictures do much of the talking.

Snow Covered Mountain as we Head East to Flagstaff

The three pictures above show a lava field at a volcano at Sunset Crater about 12 miles north of Flagstaff. This volcano first erupted in 1063, and the eruption lasted about 200 years. Heading towards Sedona we traveled on the famous Route 66 through Flagstaff, this road was one of the early “long distance” roads that ran from Chicago to Los Angeles, before the Interstate system was built.

Once clear of Flagstaff we headed towards the Oak Creek Canyon.

To get there we had to descend about 1200 ft into the canyon. This was accomplished in a fairly short distance via a series of steep, tight switchbacks. Once on the canyon floor, the temperature started to rise from below 0 to 16°C.

We stopped at the Slide Rock State park

Slide Rock Guest Cabin

To show the different views we were treated to in the canyon, the four pictures above were taken from the same spot just by the cabin looking North, East, South and West

Above are some shots of the water flowing trough Slide Rock.

We also saw a number of male western bluebirds throughout the park.

The above four pictures are general views from along the canyon floor. Plenty of red rocks allover the place.

The canyon just opened out into the town of Sedona, the picture above is for Catriona, anything pink seems to make her happy!

Climbing out of Sedona, the scenery changed from snowy, rocky or mountainous to more foresty (new word). Driving in the area of Jerome reminded me of the mountains in Portugal, particularly with the narrower roads.

Looking Down Along a Small Canyon

Unidentified Truck (answers please)

We had a fantastic day touring around, if the Grand Canyon is as good or better than this, then we are in for a treat. At first we thought the cold weather and snow would detract from our activities here, but I think the converse is true. The snow adds to the scenery, and the snow melt had many of the rivers running fast.

While in Flagstaff I bough a heated cable to attach to our water hose. When we got back I set this up, which took a while as it has to taped to the hose every 3-4 inches, and the hose is 30 ft long! Hopefully it works.

Coolish morning and foggy. Yesterdays rain meant that we got nothing packed away last night, so as far as I can recall this is the first time we have done all the packing up on the morning of departure. Before beginning this arduous task we headed over to the club house for sustenance in the form of waffles and O.J.

With food in our bellies we got the place packed away and hooked up in less than 90 minutes. That is also probably a first. As we headed north up I-10 the fog quickly dissipated. In Phoenix we joined the I-17 to Flagstaff. Once we got north of Phoenix the scenery changed from desert to mountain, and we started a steady climb. As we climbed and got further north the temperature dropped, and the there were a lot of pine trees rather than the cacti and tumbleweed of further south. We started out at 1200ft ASL; as we passed through 5000ft (a first) we began to see snow off to the side of the road. We then headed west on the I-40 and as we climbed through 6000ft (a first) ice pellets changed into snow and the temperature dropped to -2. By 7000ft (a first) the flurries became quite heavy at times, but no snow settled on the road. We topped out at 7364ft, before making a gentle descent into Williams at around 6500ft.

We checked into the campground and saw a snowplow clearing the sites (a first)! Just after we got parked on our site we heard a train horn close by, the tracks run about 50ft from the site; those horns a pretty loud close up, one on the truck could be fun.

Another first, setting up in the snow! Luckily everything worked out fine (I even backed into the site with no trouble) and even the satellite was set up in under 5 minutes. Now to prepare for a -10°C night, another first.

Happy Birthday Barbara!