Two months before our wedding, my then fiance Robert planned a wonderful surprise weekend getaway to the Grand Canyon. We stayed at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel located in Williams, AZ. Before we arrived at the hotel we stopped to have dinner at Storytellers in the Cliff Castle Casino. I'm not one for gambling but the restaurant was really nice, dark and romantic.
After dinner we drove on to the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel. It was much larger than I thought it would be. There was a lot of snow on the ground and on the freeway. By the time we arrived snow was covering the ground and was falling heavily. It was so cold! I was glad to run inside to the warmth. We watched the snow fall from our window and then drifted off to sleep.
We woke early to be ready to head to the train for our 9:30 a.m. departure. It had snowed all night long and the ground was covered with a fresh, thick blanket. We looked for our train car named Coconino and got in line to board as the snow started falling again. Our seats were roomy and pretty comfortable too. We snacked on the complimentary muffins and coffee on the ride up to the Grand Canyon.
We were fortunate that our train had a steam engine because they don't often use it. There were a couple of times that the steam engine had a little trouble gaining enough power to make it over some of the steep angles. The train would stop and roll back far enough to get more power and then we made it over the incline. I wondered if that was how they did it back when steam engines were common.
The scenery outside was gorgeous with the snow falling. Along the route to the Grand Canyon there were people parked near the tracks that waved hello to everyone on board. I had no idea that it was a kind of tradition for people that live close to the tracks and train lovers to greet passengers on the train by waving as they passed by. During the ride there were strolling cowboys on the train that would come by and sing songs and tell stories. They also staged a fake train robbery to entertain the kids on board.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmozw8va700&t=15s
After about 2 1/2 hours the train arrived at the Grand Canyon village and we headed out to start exploring. I've been to the Grand Canyon many times before but never in the winter when it was snowing. I was so happy that there weren't a lot of people walking around. It almost felt as if we had it to ourselves. Usually the Grand Canyon is always crowded and its hard to get a good view. This time we walked every place we wanted to go to look down and out at the beautiful colors of the canyon.
We decided to have lunch at the El Tovar Dining Room. It was nice to get out of the cold and have some hot tea. We were seated just as they were closing the dining room from the lunch hour. I decided to try the Navajo taco and Robert had the french onion soup and turkey club sandwich. After lunch we headed back outside to take some photos of the canyon.
Soon after it was time to head back to the train. It was warm and cozy inside of the train. On our way back down to Williams we watched the sun going down behind the clouds and pine tree covered landscape castings warm light across the sky. It was so beautiful and relaxing. The train pulled into the station at dusk. We got off and hurried back into the hotel to get ready for dinner. This was such a great experience that I look forward to going back again one day.
