My day-long Grand Canyon adventure began when I climbed aboard the Grand Canyon Railway
in Williams, Arizona, for a 65 mile, 2 hour 15 minute ride to Grand Canyon
Village. Entertainment was provided by a singing cowboy who strolled through the
train, and each car of the train had a guide who shared information and answered
questions about the area. He was also on the lookout for interesting sights to point out
along the way. There weren't many interesting sights that day!
Most of the landscape looked a lot like this, minus the livestock. Arizona is a free range state. That means fences are not required and cattle are allowed to roam freely, including parking themselves on train tracks, I suppose. The few cattle I saw didn't appear interested in the train tracks and not even very interested in the train going by.
Near the end of the trip, the land became less flat and more rocky, and there were more trees.
Destination reached! El Tovar Hotel (with the wood turret on top) was built as Santa Fe Railway's luxury hotel at the Grand Canyon. Situated just 20 feet from the edge of the canyon's South Rim, the hotel opened for business in January, 1905.
Buses were waiting at Grand Canyon depot when the train arrived there. We boarded the buses and off we went to see.... what was for lunch! After lunch, we got back on the buses and THEN off we went to see what we had come to see.
