America's 8th Wonder of the World

It has been said "No matter how many times you see the Grand Canyon, you are still emotionally moved to tears."

The train is an old steam engine.

The day we visited there was a Native American dance festival.

Lunch at El Tovar included Pan Seared Idaho Rainbow Trout with Avocado Squash Salsa.

The ride back to Williams includes a train robbery and a friendly sheriff.

The hotel is western charm personified.

On your return to Phoenix exit I-89 at Flagstaff and take Route 17 through some of the most beautiful scenery in America.

Add to that the fact that it belongs to YOU, and it is but a few hours by air from any point in New England.

And there is really only one way to visit this 8th wonder of the world - by train.

We took the Grand Canyon Railroad on their beautifully restored cars in Williams AZ about 70 miles and a two hours train ride south of the canyon. It seemed like a great way to avoid the crowds of Cape Cod's Memorial Day weekend.

This locally-owned company also operates a modern hotel in Williams which offers 1, 2 and 3 night excursions at very reasonable rates, and economical Southwest Airlines will fly you to Phoenix where you should rent a car to enjoy the spectacular scenery on the way to Williams and the canyon.

Williams itself it well worth the visit. This arch typical western town is on Route 66 and boasts all the accouterments you imagine a "real" cow town should possess.

At the South Rim

When we arrived at the canyon we took a first glimpse, then headed for the classic western hotel El Tovar where the food was a pleasent surprise - it was wonderful.

My wife had the Pan Seared Idaho Rainbow Trout with Avocado Squash Salsa.

New England's great transcendentalist, Henry David Thoreau, said, “The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.”

And our first and greatest environmentalist President, Theodore Roosevelt, echoed these sentiments saying, “In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which, so far as I know, is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world.... Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children's children, and for all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American....should see.”

What the first visitors saw

We spent three nights at the canyon over the Memorial Day weekend, and walked for miles along the rim of the canyon for two days.

Words can not describe its beauty, and we had visited the canyon twice before.

One of the canyon's earliest explorers, Major John Wesley Power, said after his terrifying ride on the Colorado River. “We are three quarters of a mile in the depths of the earth, and the great river shrinks into insignificance, as it dashes its angry waves against the walls and cliffs, that rise to the world above; they are but puny ripples, and we but pygmies, running up and down the sands, or lost among the boulders. We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river yet to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls rise over the river, we know not.”

Please believe me, no sight on earth is more amazing, awe-inspiring and beautiful than your first glimpse over the edge of the south wall of Arizona's Grand Canyon.

Sources and travel tips;
Grand Canyon Railroad.
Grand Canyon National Park.
Southwest Airlines.
Sedona.