Today was an incredibly fun sight-seeing day. We pulled out of the campground by 9:00am this morning and headed for Williams Visitor Center for our next stamp. Before we left, however, Papa called the Trailhead Campground in the Grand Canyon to see if they had a place for us. It was surprising when they said, “We have one site left.” Papa said, “We will take it.” What a gift to us. Thank You for that, Lord.
We made the 40 minute drive to Williams (which was nice after a few long days of travel). The town is full of historic stops along Route 66; there’s diner’s and little shops, and the Visitor Center is in the Old Train Station. It even has the original scale on the floor that was used to weigh freight. We enjoyed walking around a few blocks, hopped back in the RV for gas, and then began our trek to the Grand Canyon.
From Williams, the drive was just over an hour and our arrival was before the noon check-in time. We took this opportunity to check out the Market Place. Mimi wanted to get some mayonnaise as she was wishing she’d remembered to bring some from home. Then she wished she’d remembered to have Papa get some when he’d gone to Walmart in Oklahoma. Mimi is still wishing she had some mayonnaise because a bottle of Hellman’s was almost $10.00 in the store here! 😳
After finding our pad on lane H and doing the required setup (Papa is getting really good at all of that!), we had lunch and were ready to go and see the Grand Canyon for ourselves. We were caught off-guard when Mimi stepped out of the RV door and found an Elk within 50 feet from us! She was just sauntering from camper to camper not paying anyone any attention. She wasn’t the only Elk we saw during the day, either. Papa says the animals here have been “frienditized.” 😂
There are shuttle busses that drive all over the Canyon to take you where you’d like to go. There are also many different types of trails to walk. Some go right down in to the Canyon. We asked the man at the gate what he thought we should do—walk or ride the bus? He said, “I can’t tell you if you should walk. I told a group of people once that the walk was easy and a man ended up having a heart attack. My boss told me I could never do that again.” Then, his boss came to the gate and after telling her we’d like to walk, she suggested we take the path down the Mather Lookout and start there. So, that’s what we did.
As we were walking to the trail, the man at the gate was driving by and stopped. He said, “My boss scared you. I think you could’ve done the other trail. I always say, ‘this trail is for wimps and tourists.’” I said, “Well, I am a wimp and a tourist. It’s perfect!” We enjoyed the walk to the South Rim of the Canyon and stood in silence as we gazed at the breathtakingly glorious expanse before us. We both expressed our awe that just walking a few feet gave you a completely different magnificent view. Even Papa had his phone out for pictures! We spent hours walking north then walked south until it was time to take a shuttle back to start dinner.
Mimi’s phone battery was dead, Papa’s was low, and we both needed a recharge. It was our plan to eat dinner and then head back out to see the sun set at the Canyon, but the rains have begun. We are so grateful that even though the clouds threatened to send rain we did not have the heavy rains that were predicted. They are supposed to come overnight and into tomorrow. We aren’t sure yet, if we will try to stay here another night or continue west. We don’t want to travel in heavy rains here as there have been several warnings about the flash flooding that can occur.
We got a chuckle from the morning news weatherwoman when she said that it felt like fall in Arizona with the high only to be in the 80’s. It’s hard for us to imagine 80 feeling like fall, isn’t it? It felt very much like summer to us. In fact, it was a very comfortable and pleasant day at the Grand Canyon for Papa and Mimi. We didn’t melt away from all the walking we did.
Because of the rain, Papa and Mimi are lounging in the RV—sore legs and all—playing games and resting up for whatever tomorrow may bring.
We love and miss you,
Papa & Mimi ❤️
We made the 40 minute drive to Williams (which was nice after a few long days of travel). The town is full of historic stops along Route 66; there’s diner’s and little shops, and the Visitor Center is in the Old Train Station. It even has the original scale on the floor that was used to weigh freight. We enjoyed walking around a few blocks, hopped back in the RV for gas, and then began our trek to the Grand Canyon.
From Williams, the drive was just over an hour and our arrival was before the noon check-in time. We took this opportunity to check out the Market Place. Mimi wanted to get some mayonnaise as she was wishing she’d remembered to bring some from home. Then she wished she’d remembered to have Papa get some when he’d gone to Walmart in Oklahoma. Mimi is still wishing she had some mayonnaise because a bottle of Hellman’s was almost $10.00 in the store here! 😳
After finding our pad on lane H and doing the required setup (Papa is getting really good at all of that!), we had lunch and were ready to go and see the Grand Canyon for ourselves. We were caught off-guard when Mimi stepped out of the RV door and found an Elk within 50 feet from us! She was just sauntering from camper to camper not paying anyone any attention. She wasn’t the only Elk we saw during the day, either. Papa says the animals here have been “frienditized.” 😂
There are shuttle busses that drive all over the Canyon to take you where you’d like to go. There are also many different types of trails to walk. Some go right down in to the Canyon. We asked the man at the gate what he thought we should do—walk or ride the bus? He said, “I can’t tell you if you should walk. I told a group of people once that the walk was easy and a man ended up having a heart attack. My boss told me I could never do that again.” Then, his boss came to the gate and after telling her we’d like to walk, she suggested we take the path down the Mather Lookout and start there. So, that’s what we did.
As we were walking to the trail, the man at the gate was driving by and stopped. He said, “My boss scared you. I think you could’ve done the other trail. I always say, ‘this trail is for wimps and tourists.’” I said, “Well, I am a wimp and a tourist. It’s perfect!” We enjoyed the walk to the South Rim of the Canyon and stood in silence as we gazed at the breathtakingly glorious expanse before us. We both expressed our awe that just walking a few feet gave you a completely different magnificent view. Even Papa had his phone out for pictures! We spent hours walking north then walked south until it was time to take a shuttle back to start dinner.
Mimi’s phone battery was dead, Papa’s was low, and we both needed a recharge. It was our plan to eat dinner and then head back out to see the sun set at the Canyon, but the rains have begun. We are so grateful that even though the clouds threatened to send rain we did not have the heavy rains that were predicted. They are supposed to come overnight and into tomorrow. We aren’t sure yet, if we will try to stay here another night or continue west. We don’t want to travel in heavy rains here as there have been several warnings about the flash flooding that can occur.
We got a chuckle from the morning news weatherwoman when she said that it felt like fall in Arizona with the high only to be in the 80’s. It’s hard for us to imagine 80 feeling like fall, isn’t it? It felt very much like summer to us. In fact, it was a very comfortable and pleasant day at the Grand Canyon for Papa and Mimi. We didn’t melt away from all the walking we did.
Because of the rain, Papa and Mimi are lounging in the RV—sore legs and all—playing games and resting up for whatever tomorrow may bring.
We love and miss you,
Papa & Mimi ❤️
   The freight scale that they used back in the day at the Train Depot in Williams. |   This was on a corner in WIlliams, AZ.  Just strolling through looking for scraps.   |  We’ve got the corner lot in Trailer Village! The campground is very quiet.  Mimi only tripped and fell over one rock. Thankfully, she fell to the left of the drop off. ☺️  I have a gazillion pictures of the Grand Canyon. Every where you look it gives you a different perspective. |
RSS Feed