Grand Canyon - South Rim

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Today we ride the train from Williams to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  We are excited.

Here's the train at the depot.  There are 2 engines and 10 passenger cars.

We are in the 3rd car behind the 2nd engine.  We are in coach class.  The bench seats are comfortable and there is very little sway as we travel.

We were entertained on the train.  This is Clyde and he was very talented!

This is the train depot at the Grand Canyon South Rim.

This is an old steam engine on display at the South Rim.  I must warn everyone now that it was hard to pick out which pictures to post.  We took 80 pictures, but I will only post 20 of the 80 pictures.   :-0

Isn't this beyond words!  Tic is a great photographer.

This was taken from the center area at the Grand Canyon Village.

This is closeup of part of the picture above.  You can see the path of the Colorado River better.

Here is another plaque that says a lot

We are quite a sight, but we are having fun!

The trail down the canyon actually goes through the larger hole of this interesting formation.

Here is more of the trail headed down.  It looks steep.

We rode the red line shuttle out to Hopi Point.  The awesomeness (is that a real word) is everywhere you look!

Here is a panoramic from Hopi Point.  Then we walked to Powell Point.

This is along the path toward Powell Point.

We are still on our way to Powell Point.  It is all so glorious!

This panoramic is from Powell Point.  We stayed in awe all day!

I really like this picture of the canyon.

Look at how this cedar tree grew.  Not sure what caused it to fold over like it did. 

This is the point where we plan to catch the shuttle back to the train depot in the village area.

This is the Hopi House Museum and Gift Shop.  It was also designed by Mary Colter.

Along the ride home we were boarded by bank robbers and they tried to rob each of us. I handed over all the change I had which was $0.04.  They didn't get much from me. Hee Hee

This glorious day ended with a glorious sunset.  We are totally blessed.
 

Grand Canyon East Entrance - Desert View Watchtower

Monday, April 27, 2015

We decided to go to the East entrance of the Grand Canyon today since we are taking the train to the South Rim tomorrow.

As we walked into the east entrance this elk was grazing.  She was totally unaffected by the people around.

Desert View Watchtower, also known as the Indian Watchtower at Desert View, is a 70-foot high stone building located at Desert View, more than 20 miles (32 km) to the east of the main developed area at Grand Canyon Village. The four-story structure, completed in 1932, was designed by American architect Mary Colter, an employee of the Fred Harvey Company who also created and designed many other buildings in the Grand Canyon. Wikipedia

 

The tower was designed to resemble an Ancient Pueblo Peoples watchtower

This is a view from the top of the tower.  The Colorado River and the canyons are so majestic!!

The view is awe inspiring and humbling.

Tic zoomed in on the river.  Awesome!!

This is the outdoor viewing area just outside the tower.  Tic took this picture from the top of the tower.

Here we are on the second floor looking up two stories.  

This plaque was posted on the outside of the tower.

Here is a panoramic Tic took from the top of the tower.  Camera pictures don't capture the grandeur of this place.

It is about 3:30 pm now and we wanted to be back to Williams no later than 6pm so we could pick up out train tickets for tomorrow.  It was strongly suggested that you pick them up the day before because the line would be so long on the day of the ride.  We are about 1.5 hrs from Williams, home, so we headed that way.  We passed the train along the way and actually beat it back to Williams.

WOW another full and wonderfully blessed day!

Sunset Crater Volcano Nat'l Monument and Wukoki & Wapatki Pueblo Ruins

Monday, April 27,2015

It was a beautiful morning.

Aren't the clouds beautiful!?!

This is Sunset Crater as we turned into park headed for the visitor center.  It erupted fairly recently, about 900 years ago.  The eruption of this volcano reshaped the surrounding landscape, forever changing the lives of people, plants and animals.

On the way to the visitor center there were lots prairie dogs.  Tic got a good picture of this one.

Look how rugged this lava looks.  Also notice the brown area on the hill in the background.

Tic zoomed in on that brown area and this is what we saw.  Looks like a sink hole, don't you think?
Interesting!  Another person with some binoculars agreed that it looked like a sink hole.

We read that most trees growing out of the lava grew twisted.  This tree certainly looks that way.

This panoramic shows how rugged the lava is.  Also notice how little vegetation there is.

This is a unique dead tree along the path through the lava flow area around the visitor center.

Look at this tree.  The left side looks like it got hit by lightening so it took this strange curve.  The right side looks like a strong tree.

It is  amazing how the pine trees are almost the only thing growing out of the lava.

This formation of lava was called a Squeeze-Up.  That is when hot lava flows up through a crack in already solidified lava.

The lava changed in areas from rugged to almost like crushed cinders.

We are leaving this area and headed to the pueblo ruins.

This is a view point where we are looking at the edge of the Painted Desert off in the distance.

Here we are at the Wukoki Pueblo Ruins.

This is a close-up of how the structure was built.  Fascinating how uniform many of the "bricks" are.

Tic is standing behind one of the walls to give a perspective on the height of this 2 story building.

Look how short this doorway is.  These people must have been really small!

We are now at the Wupatki Pueblo Ruins. This is one of the largest pueblo ruins we have seen. 

Look at the size when the structure was complete and active.

There are at least 2 of these ceremonial rings.

Tic took this panoramic showing the whole area this pueblo covered.  You have to look hard in the middle right side of the picture to see the second ring.  It is smaller than the closer ring.

We are next headed to the East entrance to the Grand Canyon.  See the next post.