After waiting 2 billion years, The Grand Canyon welcomes Joan

Arizona’s star of the show – The Grand Canyon – was our destination today. From the time Joan and I first started dating in 1995 we have talked about making a trip to the Grand Canyon.

So after waiting nearly 2 billion years, The Grand Canyon welcomed Joan for her first peek into the big hole in northern Arizona. Actually, the canyon is ONLY about 6 million years old, that being the time it took for the Colorado River to carve a groove through thousands of feet of rock and for the wind and water to wear away the canyon walls to make it the beautiful marvel that it is today.

To add a little spice and history to the day we decided to make this visit to the Grand Canyon via the Grand Canyon Railway. Before we boarded the train we were treated to a “Wild West Show” that included two murders and a lot of comedy. It was a cute way to get everyone to the train depot in plenty of time to catch the 9:30 a.m. train to the canyon.

Amber Rose was our coach car assistant and she was fun and entertaining on the way up to the canyon and then on the way back.

Clarence Clearwater, a Native American guitarist and singer entertained us on the way up. As good as his singing was, his corny jokes created loud groans throughout the 1950s rail car. But the trip up was fun and it was pleasant for me to be able to sightsee and not be driving.

There are four classes of train service to the canyon, coach being the least expensive, all the way up to the parlor car service, which is quite pricey. The scenery is nice, but I’m glad we didn’t spend more than we did on the train. We had a lot of fun with Amber Rose and our large windows and comfortable seats made the trip very enjoyable.

We see deer and antelope, but can’t say we saw them actually playing on the range.

This was my fourth visit to the Grand Canyon, the last time in the early 1970s. Not surprisingly, the canyon has not changed much in the four decades since I last saw it.

It was fun to watch Joan get her first glimpse of the canyon first hand and even when you have seen it before it is a breathtaking view and not just because you are more than a mile high. The majesty of it makes it difficult to understand how people don’t believe in God the Creator.

When you stand at the precipice of something 2 billion years in the making and see the beauty that is there and realize that you are on this earth for only a blink of an eye, it is hard not marvel at the glory of Creation. It also helps to put things in perspective in a major way.

Instead of spending more money on a bus tour we opted for simply exploring the South Rim Time Trail, which turned out to be just perfect for the 3 ½ -hours we had at the canyon rim. The trail is about three miles round trip and the vistas were great and the temperature and weather were ideal. It was about 75 and clear except for some nice photographically pleasant puffy white clouds.

 Each step of the trail represents 10 million years of earth history and the park service has put actual chunks of rock from various periods of the canyon's history dating back 1.8 billion years ago. The thin air required Joan to stop and sit every 200 million years or so.
Once again I shot way, way too many photos and spent nearly three quarters of the Dallas Cowboys/Washington Redskins Monday Night Football game editing them.
Joan got to touch lots of geology on the way and we made a stop and visit to the Yavapai Geology Museum on the South Rim which was at the longest part of our hike. After exhausting the exhibits at the museum we started back to the El Tovar Hotel so we would have a few minutes to enjoy the hotel before heading back to the train.

At the hotel we found a nice outdoor table where we enjoyed a beverage and some chips and salsa while we soaked in the beauty of the canyon and hotel at the same time. We took a quick tour around the gift shop at the hotel and didn’t find anything there screaming our name.

At the appointed time we headed back down the stairs to the old Santa Fe Grand Canyon Railroad Depot and waited for our turn to get on the train.

We pulled out right on time and began the 2 ½ hour trip back to Williams. On the way back we had a cowboy serenade by Alan who entertained us with some country and western favorites (not really Joan’s favorite music genre) but he also did a pretty good rendition of Rhinestone Cowboy and the whole car, which included a tour of about 25 people from England, chimed in and we pretty much sang the song for the next 40 minutes.

About 10 miles outside Williams a group of bandits on horseback stopped the train (how does a man on horseback ever really stop a moving train?) and of course they came through each car robbing us for “tips.”

Between the tips and the photos (which we didn’t buy) I am really glad I got the discount rate to make this a more reasonable journey.
All-in-all it was a really fun and enjoyable day. We arrived back about 6 p.m. and Joan had dinner in the crock pot waiting for us when we arrived back at our rolling home.

Most of the rest of the evening was spent editing photos and writing this account. It is almost time for bed. We are headed back to the canyon tomorrow, this time by car, for some more sightseeing. Good night.