Stop 11 Day Two - The Grand Canyon

Well.......what an amazing day. We travelled on the Grand Canyon express from Williams. I would have to say that the experience was a little "touristy" but that didn't detract at all from the absolute wonder of seeing and standing at one of the 7 natural Wonders of the World. And it holds such an honour for good reason. It was a sight to behold. So powerful was it that it made one question the trivial concerns that we all labour under from day to day. This place teaches you so much about life, evolution, ecology, development, extinction etc etc that it can leave your head reeling. And our place within it all is just so small that you have to wonder why we allow ourselves to see ourselves as anything other than exactly that. What we do (as opposed to who we are) becomes even less significant than that! So, "humbling" is the word I'd use for today. I know that feeling will pass and we'll soon be back to our parochial and insular selves but for now we'll move about in relative servility - not TO fellow man but AS fellow man.

That said I'll describe the day. We started at Williams train depot where they laid on a Wild West show for us before the train arrived. As I say above it was "touristy" but it was very well done, was very humorous and well executed and I would have to say that we laughed a lot with it.

This was only 20 mins or so and it was then time to jump on the train. We had allowed ourselves the booking of first class and it proved well worth it. The carriages were well appointed, we were served with snacks and drinks en route and provided with entertainment as we travelled.

The journey up the Canyon took us 2 hours and was good. There is not much else to say about that bit. Food was fine, drinks were fine and the entertainment passable. The highlight was when Pand got up and did "The Birdy Song" which is known in Arizona as "The Chicken Dance" with our hostess, Sherry. Fair play to her - she deserved the round of applause she got from the rest of the carriage!

The view from the carriage was mile after mile after mile of Arizona desert. Hauntingly beautiful even if monotonous.

And then we arrived. At the Grand Canyon. We climbed the steps from the station up to the visitor centre and stepped forward for our first glimpse of it. We were all pretty excited and even tried delaying the moment so that we could savour it just a little longer before subjecting ourselves to the "hit" that we hoped the first viewing would provide. And it did. It is really impossible for me to convey the image from a phone pic. I think I'd need to be a professional photographer / artist / poet to get even close. But for what it's worth this was my first view of the Grand Canyon:

From here we decided to walk the 2½ mile trail East and as you might expect we took dozens of pics. I also took one video which offered a better panorama as I was desperate to try in some way to capture digitally what our eyes were seeing and our emotions feeling. The boys had already touched an actual piece of the Meteor that struck when we visited Meteor City. Today they touched an actual rock that was 1,870 million years old. That time scale is phenomenal and even then represents only 2/5ths of the time that we know Earth has existed. It really does make one question so much. Science is teaching us so much and at the same time dismissing so much belief that pertained before science told us otherwise.

And to give an idea of scale in all this, the Colorado river continues to erode the canyon - at the rate of the width of a piece of paper per year!! Just imagine the time taken to create what is a hole so big it can't be described! This place has to be seen to be believed.  I'll try and let the pictures paint the words but I know they won't be enough.

We left the Grand Canyon after a stay that was all too short and caught our arranged train back to Williams. That journey was as well presented as the first equipped with drinks, snacks and entertainment. This time it was a country and western singer. We bought his CD because he was good and we felt at peace with the world for now!

 Just before we arrived back in the station we were "held up" at gun-point by a wondefully staged robbery by the guys that had entertained us earlier. They appeared on horse-back alongside the train, boarded the train, then moved through the carriages entertaining. It was back to theratrical world from ethereal world but it was all good fun and we enjoyed the finale.

After we returned to the hotel we went out to the launderette to complete our second wash and dry session. That should be it now as we only have 5 days left. We had a bit of a laugh and the day ended with a KFC followed by a dip in the pool at 10pm. All in all we all feel we'll sleep well tonight. Today had been a good day and of all the towns we have visited Williams is the best one. It was the last town on the original 66 to be by-passed as a matter of interest. Tomorrow its back on the road. We'll drive as far as Kingman via Peach Springs and then take our final detour to Las Vegas. After Vegas we'll return to Kingman to complete the journey. Next post from Las Vegas tomorrow night.