Friday – June 26

Day 22:

In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. – Theodore Roosevelt

Don’t bring your finger to a gun fight.  What do boys love more than a cowboy gun fight!  Prior to our trip up to the Grand Canyon, we were treated to a cowboy show complete with a gun battle.  The boys loved it.  And even the dead cowboys rose to life and took pictures with the kids.  Is it just me, or does the sheriff look like David Letterman?

Sometimes it’s nice for someone else to do the driving.  We’ve been driving a long time.  So the thought of a someone else taking care of the transportation is a nice reprieve.  The Grand Canyon Railway takes you from Williams, AZ to the Southern Rim of the Grand Canyon, complete with Air Conditioning, and another resurrection of the bad guys from the earlier shoot-out.  They must have nine lives because they robbed the train.

I think Weston is enjoying the train.  This kid has always loved trains.  He has pointed them out every time we see them on the road.  He’s played with them all growing up.  Anytime we can do something like this we do our best to make it happen.  Plus, I didn’t know he could play fiddle!

The Grand Canyon is certainly GRAND.  Majestic would be another word to describe it.  As would awesome, stupendous, gigantic, ridiculous, ginormous, unfathomable, etc.  When you walk up on the site from below, your heart starts to beat a little faster.  I think that is because your body knows once it sees the view, it’ll stop temporarily, as will your breathing.  It is truly a site.  I will warn you, that you have to get off the main area.  Get away from the village.  The our guide on the train said to avoid the shuttles.  I say take the shuttles.  Get away from the tourist trap.  There is less people and more view if you move to the red line toward Hermits Rest.  I got to hop on and see Maricopa Point and Hopi Point.  Hopi is where you’ll see your first glimpse of the Colorado River.  One day the boys and I are going to raft the Colorado!  Until then Jr. Ranger will have to suffice.

Itinerary: Grand Canyon Railway to Southern Rim