Looking back on this last week, we cannot believe how much we have packed into seven days- last Sunday seems such along time ago! The week saw us saying goodbye to Jackie’s Mum as she departed for Hawaii on her quest to visit all the states of America, us battling to get to the Grand Canyon amidst a monster storm that hit northern Arizona and ending the week with numerous hikes down into the Canyon followed by the inevitable climbs out of the Canyon!
Moving day
The logistics of moving on from Scottsdale was never going to be easy. We had to navigate getting Jackie’s mum to her airport hotel for the night, return her hire car, pick up our hire car and get ourselves north to beat the snow storm that was due to hit the area that night. The first parts of the plan were pretty simple, although simply abandoning a hire car in a parking lot with the keys still in the car was a bit disconcerting!
Picking up our car for the next couple of weeks seemed easy, with no hard sell of the additional insurance, but with a soft sell of an upgrade to an 4x4 as the weather up north is due to be pretty bad. We laughed this off, quite happy with our standard rental car. When we got to the lot, there was clearly an issue as there were no standard cars left…hence the attempted sell of a 4x4 upgrade. All that was left to chose from were Teslas or Ford Mustangs- we went with the Mustang of course. Now call me naive, but little did I know truly how s**t these rear drive muscle cars actually are in the snow!
As we headed north, the weather got progressively worse, and Jackie got quieter and quieter on the snowy interstate. We managed to make it to our hotel in Williams, but it wasn’t looking good for the following morning as the snow continued and got heavier and heavier. Overnight there was a huge dump of snow, bringing Williams to an absolute standstill. There was no way that we were making it to the Grand Canyon by car, Mustang or not, as most roads including the interstate were shut for the day.
Changes of plan & logistics
Jackie came up with the brilliant plan of just hunkering down in Williams for 24 hours as the storm blew over, then taking the train from Williams to the Grand Canyon- leaving the hire car safely in Williams for 3 days.
We booked our train tickets, which included luggage transfer straight to our room (very American), spent a while on the phone rejigging our reservations and also securing another night in our Route 66 roadhouse motel- for the princely sum of $64 for the night (it was a classy joint!). I think that we were the only tourists in town for that night but had a really amazing time.
Sitting out the storm.
Williams is a small historic railroad town that has maintained it’s Wild West charm. It is also a key stop off on Route 66. It was quite refreshing to have nothing to do all day but explore the town, make sure we had enough food and drink and just sit out the storm.
Most places in town were shut, but we toured the shops that were open, got some food from the supermarket (Safeways- remember them?) and generally had fun playing in the snow. Things however got very serious when we realised that the Craft Brewery on Route 66 was closed for the day due to the storm! Every cloud has a silver lining, and we found another brewery on Google Maps that was open on the edge of town that we would never have otherwise found. The Grand Canyon Brewing Company was brilliant, warm and welcoming. We had a lovely evening sampling the beer flights and eating pizza- what better things to do when over a foot of snow is falling outside?
This 24 hours made us realise the importance of the simple things in life- we were in a strange town, in a huge storm and yet we still managed to have a good day. It was lovely to just potter, read, drink and watch some US TV. Sometimes it is just good to slow down and take time to do very little. Despite our frustrations at not being able to travel, we both valued the time out the storm afforded us.
Amazing hikes at the Grand Canyon
Thank goodness that we decided to purchase microspikes before leaving Phoenix. Although we had packed all our winter hiking gear as we knew it was going to be cold at the Canyon, we never even considered that we would need spikes to get onto the trails so left ours at home. The trails around the Canyon rim were just about passable in normal footwear, but anything heading into the Canyon was treacherous. One bus driver described a trail as a luge- and he wasn’t far wrong.
Having had a look at the Bright Angel Trail that was closest to our Hotel, we were initially terrified. The trail looked narrow, steep and icy with perilous drops into the Canyon. There was only one other option and that was the Kaibab Trail- a trail that got a bit more sun and so was likely to be less icy, so that is what we started with.
There is no getting away from it, going down into the Canyon is very steep, but the views are a great distraction- as long as you don’t look down for too long! As we set off on the Kaibab trail, we met a Ranger coming up…with his gun…which is pretty standard in these parts. Not something that we tend to see in the Yorkshire Dales! Having negotiated the very steep start of the trail, we were then met by 3 mule riders heading up the path we had just come down. Watching them negotiate the narrow and steep switchbacks up the rock face was a sight to behold. We both vowed that we would never have the nerve to ride a mule up such terrain.
After a really enjoyable trip down and back- we felt confident to have a go at the Bright Angel trail the following day. It didn’t disappoint and was not as terrifying as we first feared- a more appropriate description for the trail would be exhilarating. The Bright Angel actually was more picturesque than the Kaibab trail- getting better light and dropping far deeper into the canyon- allowing us to walk through a range of different rock formations. Getting back out from the 3 mile point was a challenge, but also really enjoyable. There is something simply satisfying about physical toil and we both enjoyed the route out.
Sunrises and sunsets
We have witnessed some truly awe inspiring surprises and sunsets this week. One of my personal goals for this year is to see many more of these events and our time at the Grand Canyon has supplied them in bucket loads.
As always, if you want to get away from the crowds and find the hidden places, you only need to go 10 minutes walk from any car park. The official lookout spots are crowded and rather unappealing venues to witness such magical and mesmerising events. I am not a massive fan of crowds anyway, so getting a bit of space to watch the day start and end has been a priority for us.
Manners cost nothing
We are not regular users of hotels or restaurants, but this week we have seen our fair share of them. The one thing that has struck us is how rude, or unappreciative some people can be of other people's work. We have purposely made sure that we are polite and respectful to all the staff we have met. A number of them have mentioned how nice it has been to have pleasant conversations with customers. We have witnessed first hand some simply rude people. Some people definitely have a sense of entitlement when they are paying for a service and seem to forget their manners or forget that they are dealing with fellow human beings. If it was not for all the workers in bars, restaurants and hotels, we would not be able to enjoy such lovely places. It costs nothing to use a please or thank you or to take time out to chat with staff and to let them know how appreciated they are.
So that’s it, another week gone. As I type, we are preparing for our last day at the Grand Canyon before moving on. It has been a blast, but we are looking forward for what is to come.
Have a brilliant week,
Richard and Jackie
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