These are the pictures taken on our fantastic train trip from Williams to the Grand Canyon on March 18, 2006. It was a Christmas gift from Karen and John and nothing could have been finer. I have no idea how many times that day we thanked them for such a thoughtful and wonderful gift. Certainly the Canyon itself is always spectacular and it remains the favorite place on earth for both Kris and Dennis. But the ride itself became the focus as we sat in a comfortable 1922 Pullman car and were entertained and simply allowed to relax in the midst of all our wedding preparations.

email us here: kfdt@kris-dennis.net

 
 

Friday, March 17. Happy St. Patrick's Day, Happy Birthday to Betsy (21 now!), we arrive at Williams to stay at the Railway Hotel. The hotel is great; the rooms are fine, the lobby is wonderful, and the restaurant - Max and Thelma's to honor the founders of the railroad - is rustic and lovely with good food.


North entrance
South Entrance
The lobby
Main staircase
Front desk
 

The area around the hotel is all owned by the railroad and includes the restaurant, the depot, and a small outdoor gunfight theater. It was very cold and it snowed on and off but we enjoyed walking around anyway. One of us actually stood in line at the Starbucks at the depot and got hot chocolate for both of us. Thank you, Kris.


The Williams Depot
Cold? Of course not!
Max and Thelma's Restaurant
Board at the back of depot
 

Depots and hotels are fine, but the real point is the train ride! These people know what they are doing. The coach is a true 1922 Pullman car that is as clean and as comfortable as it can be. The ride takes less than three hours but only covers a bit over 60 miles; and they call it the Williams Flyer. We expected the ride to be pretty placid since the we knew the terrain was rather flat, but we were wrong. They provide professional quality entertainment in the form of the coach hostess (Kim), a cowboy singer, a fabulous fiddle player, and train robbers. The train robbers will keep any money you let them take as we found out. But it's all in good fun.


The engine that pulls
How old are the seats?
Two happy campers!
Out the window - snow
Kim's party car
 

As promised, here are robbers, a marshal, a singer, and a fiddle player.


Bad Guy No.1
Bad Guy No. 2
Marshal Good-enough
Cowboy Singer
Great Fiddle Player
 

On the other hand, nothing can be more truly moving than the Grand Canyon. We have both been to and into it many times but it always presents a different "person" to each of us. Today it was the winter persona. It was cold and windy. But we saw several serious snow squalls surround us and each was punctuated by sunshine! Only in Arizona as they say. In the series just below, we were treated to two storms that were actually in the Canyon and not around us. The first four pictures catch a wide-area snow squall that was just lifting out of the Canyon. The fifth picture shows a small squall that actually moved upriver and turned north as we watched.


From El Tovar
From El Tovar
From El Tovar
From El Tovar
From Kolb Studio

We were offered a bus tour of the South Rim but we figured that we could probably conduct one ourselves so we walked to The El Tovar for lunch; best chili we ever ate!


The El Tovar from Kolb Studio
A turret on the top of El Tovar

 

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