Nancy and I are going to Arizona in October to visit the Grand Canyon!
Nancy saw a television special that detailed the two+ hour train trip from Williams, AZ to the Grand Canyon on a diesel locomotive train. We spent some time looking at the pre-packaged options on the main website for this train ride -
http://www.thetrain.com/ - which is known as the Grand Canyon Railway. Their best package only included one night (although two partial days) at the Grand Canyon. The other two nights were at their hotel in Williams, and although tempting, we wanted at least two nights at the Grand Canyon.
Luckily, AAA was able to set us up with a semi-custom itinerary that accomplished just what we wanted. We will spend one night at the Grand Canyon Railroad Hotel and then travel to the park by train. We will then spend two nights at the Maswik Lodge which is inside Grand Canyon National Park. This will give us almost three days to tour the park and perhaps even travel down into the canyon some distance.
The main difficulty is getting to Williams, AZ. The nearest main airport is in Phoenix, although there is a regional airport in Flagstaff. This would mean flying to Phoenix, renting a car, leaving the car in Williams while taking the train to the Grand Canyon and then reversing the process. All-in-all a lot of wasted traveling time and unused resources (ie. renting a car for a week and then parking it for most of that week). There was another 'train' option that would take us from Phoenix to Williams, although the first 3+ hours of the Amtrak train trip was actually by bus, which also did not look particularly attractive. So, the obvious solution? ROAD TRIP! We decided to drive to Arizona, by way of Las Vegas. Vegas is less than a ten hour drive from Pacifica, and this would leave us with a very manageable 3-4 hour trip on the second leg to get to Williams from Las Vegas.
Current travel itinerary:
10/14 - Leave Pacifica early and drive to Las Vegas - Driving time around ten hours.
10/14 - Stay overnight at the South Point Hotel, Casino and Spa (I am embarrassed to tell everyone how little we will have to pay for our one night stay.)
10/15 - Travel to Hoover Dam (it is on the way to Williams). It is a short 45 minute trip from Las Vegas. We were there many moons ago, but it is an amazing edifice to 20th century technology, and we can't wait to see it again.
10/15 - Travel to Williams, AZ. - about a three hour drive.
10/15 - Spend the night at the (historic) Grand Canyon Railroad Hotel. Looking at the picture below you can now, perhaps, understand why we thought that one night in this 'historic' hotel was enough.
10/16 - At 9:00 take the train From Williams to the Grand Canyon, about a two and one half hour trip. We will go coach class for this leg of the trip.
10/16 -10/18 - Staying at the Maswik Lodge, located just a quarter mile from the rim of the canyon.
10/16 - 10/18 - Touring the Grand Canyon - not sure whether we will do a jeep trip to the canyon floor or perhaps the mule caravan. To be determined.
10/18 - Return to Williams on the train in one of the dome cars, so we can get a good view of the Arizona sunset. We should arrive around 6:00 pm if the train is on schedule.
10/18 - Drive to Las Vegas from Williams - about a four hour drive.
10/18 - Spend the night at the Sahara Hotel And Casino (I am REALLY embarrassed to let everyone know how inexpensive this place was to book a room) Do you suppose that they are counting on getting additional revenue from gambling? - probably.
10/19 - Drive back to Pacifica - about a ten hour drive, although we will likely take our time and do a little casual sight-seeing on our way back.
While setting this up we also began planning a trip to go back east in November to visit most of the extended family. More about that trip in our next post.
