Two years ago we had plans to visit the Grand Canyon for April school vacation. However, the world had different plans. While this was postponed for a bit, we ultimately returned to this trip for April school vacation... take 2!
Rather than drive into Grand Canyon National Park, we rode the Grand Canyon Railway and enjoyed avoiding the bother of finding parking inside the park. The railway starts out in Williams AZ; a town along route 66 with a population of slightly over 3,000 people. Despite it's size, it clearly was ready to greet visitors as demonstrated by the number of hotels, restaurants, and shops. For anyone who loved the movie Cars (hint, hint...Micah), this was a scene right out of the movie with all the lights.
We stopped for dinner before jumping on the railroad the following morning at El Corral. That was some of the best salsa I have eaten in a long time!
Prior to boarding the train, we enjoyed a playful shootout.
Seats on the way into the national park were in the dome car. This allowed for minimal obstruction to our view as the terrain changed over the 2 hour ride. We were treated with drinks/snacks and Banjo Billy who was quite entertaining and a good singer overall.
The Grand Canyon still remains impressive even after all these years since I saw it as a child. I am grateful that I was able to give my children that same experience.
Nearly a year before this trip came to fruition, I was booking a room at El Tovar. This historic hotel sits on the edge of the canyon and is considered the crown jewel of the national parks lodges.
Right beside El Tovar sits the Hopi House. In 2nd grade, Micah and Victoria learned about this Native American tribe which was one of the reasons why we planned on visiting in 2020. Throughout the park, there are numerous ways of paying homage to the predominate southwest tribes including the Hopi. Inside you can purchase any number of Native American crafts and art. We went home with a hand carved chicken (Micah's favorite animal) and a talking stick which will come in handy for family meetings.
We were lucky to nab a table at the restaurant inside El Tavor without reservations thanks to a worker who gave us a tip on how to do so. We very much enjoyed our time and were probably not your traditional family eating there. Our waiter fit us perfectly and joined our humorous evening including trying out our talking stick which Victoria tended to hoard. His recommendations for food were great including a prickly pear margarita.
The following morning we were to have a 2 hour donkey ride along the edge of the canyon. After checking in, we were informed that Micah & Victoria were 1-2 inches too short and, thus, we had to cancel. I was pretty miffed as height was not discussed at the time I booked the ride. I think God was watching out over us though as the ride would have been a nightmare for Micah. He was clearly scared by getting too close to the edge. As I learned riding horses at Bryce Canyon, the animals walk right along the edge with one of your legs dangling without ground beneath it. Instead we hiked the Time Trail that morning.
Scattered along the Time Trail are medallions helping you understand how many years we were walking with each step. It is designed to be a geologic timeline. Each meter walked on the timeline trail signifies one million years of the Grand Canyon's geologic history.
In the afternoon, we walked a part of the Bright Angel Trailhead. We never would have been able to walk the entire trail as it would be 9 hours with the requirement of staying overnight in the bottom.
That evening we jumped back onto the Grand Canyon Railway to head back to Williams AZ. A train ride in the west would not be complete without it getting robbed. We watched as the train was raced down by the robbers on horseback.
While waiting for the robbers to arrive at our car, we prepared our money that would be taken from us. And true to my kids, they decided to hide it scattered around. When the robber came, they told him it was like an Easter egg hunt if he wanted the money. And, of course, he obliged and searched for every single coin they hid.
Before reaching the station, the sheriff was able to apprehend those pesky robbers though none of our money was recovered.
