On May 9, 2016, Pam and I drove up to Las Vegas to meet up with our dearest friends (we consider them family) - Mary and Bill. After spending the night in their gorgeous estate home, we departed in our Denali on Tuesday morning - May 10th - for Williams, Arizona to begin our Grand Canyon Adventure.  Mary is an expert in planning vacations!   She lived up to her reputation in setting up the itinerary for this unforgettable trip to this National Park.

We arrived in Williams, Arizona and checked into the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel.  Wow - cool place!!  Rooms were great, the food in the dining hall was outstanding, and it was close to the Grand Canyon Railway - the train that takes you from Williams to the south rim of the canyon (about a 2 hour train ride).

On Wednesday morning, we got up early, had a great breakfast, watched a wild-west cowboy skit, and then boarded the train.  Mary got us booked in the Fred Harvey observation car.  It was a double-deck train car - the upper part was all glass providing us with unobstructed views on both sides of the train.  Wow - that is the only way to make this trip to the south rim!!!

After arriving at the Grand Canyon Village about 11:30, we were picked up by our tour coach and whisked off to a buffet lunch at the Maswik Lodge.  Food (as always on this trip) was great.  After finishing our lunch, we boarded the Southland Motor Tour for a trip to parts of the south rim.  That was a couple of hours - saw some great views of the canyon - and we also had the rare privilege of seeing two condors!  They were huge (over 9' wingspan).

On the following day (Thursday), we took the Desert View Tour (lasted about 3 1/2 hours)  just after lunch.  It was a great opportunity to see multiple views of the Grand Canyon.  We have lots of pictures to share on that page of this website.

On Friday, we boarded the southbound Grand Canyon Railway train at 3:30 PM to head back to Williams.  Again - Mary had us in the Fred Harvey Observation car.  We had all sorts of goodies to nibble on as well as champagne.  It was a memorable 2-hour ride.

Saturday was really one of the highlights of our trip.  We went on the Inner Canyon Tour.  We left at about 9 AM and returned to the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel about 5:30 PM.  It was a full day of excitement.  There were four couples who rode in the 4X4 coach from Williams to Seligman, then onto to indian reservation and took a road that went all the way down to the Colorado River.  We had lunch on the shore of the river.  What a beautiful place.  Fortunately, it was overcast and that kept the temperature reasonable.  After staying at the river for about an hour, we went back up the canyon and then hit I-40 and arrived back at Williams about 5:30. 

Our last day in this area was Sunday, May 15th.  After checking out of the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel, we headed off (for about 3 miles) to Berizona.  This is a relatively new (2010) wildlife park.  It was really unique - you drive through the different areas of this park that have wild animals wandering around.  I said wandering - no fences!   We had a black bear so close to the car that I could have touched him with a stick!   Spooky!   Fortunately, that bear was sleeping and could not have cared less about me!   But we had to wait for some buffalo to cross the road in front of us.  That is something you will never see in Burbank!!!  Wait till you see the pictures on that page.

After leaving Berizona following about 3+ hours in the park, we started on our trek back to Las Vegas.  That turned out to be a real adventure - adding about 5-6 hours of detour to our trip due to some crazy guy in a big rig who lead the authorities on a 100-mile chase that ended just outside of Williams on I-40 - resulting in that major highway being closed for upwards of 9 hours!!   We ended up going down to Flagstaff, had a great lunch at the Cracker Barrel, and then headed south on highway 89A toward Prescott, and then got on highway 89 north that took us back to the I40 just west of the point of closure.  We ended up getting back to Las Vegas around 11 PM.  Wow - that was a long day and lots of driving for me.  But seeing Berizona made it all so worthwhile!!

With this as an introduction, grab your iced tea or other favorite drink, settle into a comfortable chair and enjoy sharing our experience in this beautiful Grand Canyon National Park.

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