Well, almost. The reason I titled the last blog “Déjà vu” is because I was once again doing some plumbing just before leaving on a train trip. After my first trip to D.C. with my oldest son, I got hooked on Amtrak travel and wanted to infect my beloved wife with the disease so that we would have something to do in our “golden years”. I figured the easiest way to do this was to get her on the train for a short trip. Casting around in Amtrak literature, I hooked the Grand Canyon. I’ve never been there. She’s never been there. We celebrated our 25th Anniversary just a few weeks ago. A plan was hatched, reservations made, and tickets paid for.
The plan was to arrive in Williams, AZ, spend the night there, and then ride the Grand Canyon Railway to the canyon itself. From Williams on was part of a package offered by the GC Rail (www.thetrain.com). It was going to be a little more expensive than staying in Flagstaff, getting a rental car, and driving up ourselves, but for the reduced hassle factor, I figured it would be worth it.
Since we’d be leaving Raton at 11 am and arriving in Williams at 10 pm, I booked us in Coach instead of getting a sleeper car. That was part of my plan to experience more of what Amtrak offers. Monday found us boarding Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, heading west this time.
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| Leaving Raton in the broad daylight |
The ride was good and we got to see a lot of NM from a different perspective. Even though we’ve been up and down I-25 a hundred times, we saw new parts of the area. We ate lunch on the train and Georgia was pleased with the meal. Had supper and she liked that even better since she got the steak. I had salmon and rice and it was good.
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| Some fat old guy on the train |
NOAA had called for 2-4” of snow Monday night and right outside Flagstaff we hit it. That’s when I was really glad we were going Amtrak instead of driving! On the train, we just cruised right along, arriving in Williams Junction at around 10 pm. Awaiting us was our shuttle bus and again, I was glad to have them dealing with the 4” of snow and not me. The junction is sitting out the woods about 5 mi from town and it was kind of interesting driving along in the dark down a snowy AZ woods road.
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| Williams Junction, 10 pm. |
The hotel was nice and after a good night’s sleep, we were up for breakfast. Then it was on the Grand Canyon Railroad and off to the Canyon. I’ll talk more about that later on, as well as the coach Amtrak experience. A little over 2 hrs later, having seen some nice AZ country, as well as elk, pronghorns, and numerous raptors, we arrived at the Canyon. There are free shuttle buses that’ll take you around and we headed for one of those. That’s where we got our first taste of “survival at the Grand Canyon” as the line for the buses was LONG. We quickly figured that we’d be in line for 30-45 minutes and that would eat into out time too much, so we decided to walk. That was a good decision and I’ll talk about that more later, too.
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| The Grand Canyon Railway Train |
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| On the way to the Canyon |
Let’s talk about the canyon! First, it’s a cliché’ but pictures and video do NOT do it justice. This thing is, literally, and in the true meaning of the word, awesome. The depth, the colors, the levels, the sheer size of some of the cliffs… awesome. It’s one of those things that you really do have to see for yourself. I have a lot to say about getting there, staying at the motel, eating food, etc, but when it comes to the Grand Canyon, there’s just not much more to say than “awesome”. The fresh snow added, if possible, because it really showed the depth of the canyon. We had snow on top and down below it was getting quite green.
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| Tourists at Canyon (click for full size) |
We eventually made it to the bus by walking around the rim trail to the next stop. Then we rode the rest of the route, saw mule deer and elk, more incredible vistas, and made our way back to the depot, getting in some more walking and bird watching on the way. Another train ride back, another good meal, and then it was pretty much off to bed, being that we were going to have to get up at 2:30 am to be in the lobby by 3:15 to catch our train in the woods at 3:50 am. At 2:30 we called Amtrak and they were running about 45 min late. Of course by then I was awake so we just went down to the lobby and hung out.
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| 3 am |
The trip back was a little longer due to some more delays and just to the fact that I was tired and you can’t sleep very well in coach. But, we did get some rest and by the time we hit Raton at 6:15 pm (an hour and half late), we were feeling good. After Weds night Bible study, it was home. I slept good. On the whole, it was a fun trip. I learned a few more things about Amtrak, saw an awesome canyon, ate some good food, and spent some quality time with my dear wife. What more can you ask for?
Next Adventure: in search of the wild peregrine falcon.
(*) Ralph Stanley
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