Arizona, Williams - Saturday, October 25, 2014 - Grand Canyon Train

This morning we had to stop at the train ticket booth because we didn’t have our AARP or our National Park Pass with us when we bought our tickets yesterday.  It was worth the trip back because the National Park Pass saved us $16 and the AARP card saved us $24.  We also found out that the lady who printed off our tickets yesterday had also dated them for yesterday, so we had to get new tickets printed before we could get on the train.  This is the train at the Williams depot.

 

 

We chose to go on one of the coach cars, this one is for adults only.  There is a Pullman car that is cheaper than this one, but we passed by it and it was packed and had lots of kids on it.  Love kids, just not on a 2 ½ hour train ride each way.

This is the inside of our coach as people were loading, there was plenty of room to move around if you wanted to.  There was a restroom and water available in the car.  The café car was a couple of cars back.  We didn’t visit it, we brought our own snacks.  This car is also air conditioned, the Pullman isn’t, but you can put down the windows in the Pullman.

Lots of juniper trees or bushes in the area around Williams.  In case you don’t know, juniper berries are used to make gin.  Our guide said the Indians used them a lot for “medicinal” purposes.

There are lots of very short poles alongside the railroad.  They are the poles that used to carry the telegraph lines.  They are short because that is the height of a cowboy standing on his horse to be able to fix the lines.

Wild horses were a pretty surprise.

 

 

“Buckshot” provided some lively entertainment on the way to the canyon.

We brought a picnic lunch and decided this looked like a good spot.

It was just a little breezy so we had to keep things from blowing away.  We debated on whether or not to leave our sweatshirts on the train, good thing we didn’t they felt pretty good most of the day.

This is the train at the Grand Canyon Depot.

This is the train depot at the Grand Canyon.

 

 

El Tovar hotel is the center of the Grand Canyon Village on the south rim of the canyon.  It was completed on January 14, 1905.  The hotel cost $250,000 to build and featured steam heat, hot and cold running water, indoor plumbing, electric lights, a fire-suppression system, a large dining room, lounge, barbershop, solarium, and art galleries.  The hotel even had its own dairy herd to provide fresh milk and a greenhouse for fresh fruits and vegetables.  Many visitors at the time considered El Tovar the most luxurious hotel west of the Mississippi River.  I think it still looks pretty impressive today.

 

 

 

 

The Hopi House, a gift shop and cultural center, is right next door to the El Tovar.  This building was also completed in 1905.

View of the sidewalk that runs along the rim in the Grand Canyon Village.

Lots of views of the canyon.  Once again the colors in the distance don’t show up nearly as vivid as they were in person.  There were lots of big puffy clouds in the sky causing a lot of shadows.  Although the pictures don’t do justice to the beauty we saw today, they are still good enough to remind us of the wonderful memories we made today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you see how small the people look on the trail down there?

 

 

 

Something happened on the rim not far from where we were today, but we never did hear exactly what happened.  I know there were a lot of sirens as the park patrol headed over there.

 

 

This was just a lucky shot, I think it is beautiful.

This chair is sitting in front of one of the lodges that can be rented.  I bet they see some beautiful sites from it.

This cabin belonged to Buckey O’Neill.  It is the oldest standing structure on the south rim. William “Buckey” O’Neill built the cabin for himself in the 1890’s.  He moved to Arizona at the age of 19 in search of a career and worked as a miner, politician and judge.  He had several copper mining claims and needed a way to get the copper out of the canyon.  His persistence resulted in the creation of the Grand Canyon rail line.  He was also one of Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders, he died in sniper fire the day before the final assault on San Juan Hill.

On the way back we saw the remains of one of the old stage coach stops.  The stage coach used to make an 8 hour trip to the canyon from Williams before the rail line was built.

In September, 1901 the first steam train left Williams for the Grand Canyon.  In June, 1968 the last passenger train traveled out of the Grand Canyon and the tracks grew quiet and stayed that way for nearly 20 years.  In September, 1989 a determined crop duster and his wife, Max and Thelma Biegert brought the train back to the Grand Canyon National Park.  They initially invested $15 million dollars to restore the dilapidated depots and 65 miles of track, the passenger cars and engines.

These cows were running across the tracks in front of the train.  Our guide said that if an engineer hits a cow he is responsible for paying for it.  The cows have the right of way.

 

We had a little trouble on the way back.

The train robbers didn’t seem too intimidating though.  I don’t think they got away with anything other than some laughs.

We were so tired after our day we decided to stop at the café here in the resort for dinner.  We weren’t aware that it was just a buffet, but that was ok.  The food was very good.  I’d taken too many pictures today, so no pictures of dinner.  The crowd did pick up considerably, we were just early.  Tonight there was a singer for entertainment.

We were really glad a park worker on a golf cart came buy as we were walking home and offered us a ride J.