Welcome to the Grand Canyon!

First of all, three people have died recently by falling into the canyon. But I took this selfie from well within the safety area, and you can get incredible shots of the canyon, so there is NO reason for people to venture out to the edge!

It’s considered one of the seven wonders of the world. It stretches lengthwise for 277 miles and is 18 miles wide! And I am standing at the south rim of the Grand Canyon National Park, and the natural beauty is unrelenting…so how did I get here?

All Aboard!

It all begins in the town of Williams, Arizona, located about 65 miles south of the Grand Canyon. Instead of fighting traffic, why not let the Grand Canyon Railway do the driving? You climb onboard a series of beautifully refurbished railway cars for a 2 hour and 15 minute ride through beautiful scenery…

Once you arrive, it’s literally a 5-minute walk until you see this – a series of views that are breathtaking and so immense you can’t possibly capture it on film, but I tried – here is what you see from the southern rim of the Grand Canyon:

Note the bird flying just right of dead center in the picture: there are Eagles, hawks, and even condors up here – yes, condors!

There is also wildlife all around the park as well, and you are warned repeatedly not to feed the elk, moose, deer or even squirrels, who are apparently very aggressive up here and will climb on you to get your food!

Here I am again trying to give perspective on the incredible beauty and scope of what is behind me – and you can also see the shot of the bottom of the canyon, which you can actually hike down to and spend the night in a night lodge there – more on that in my “hiking the Grand Canyon” post still to come!

You get more than three hours to explore, or you can stay overnight at one of the many hotels at the southern rim and return on the train the next day – that way you can see spectacular sunsets and sunrises as well…then it’s back on the train for the return trip, where you see more incredible beauty outside your train window:

The Grand Canyon train is a lot of fun: they begin the day with a short wild west show and those same “outlaws” rob the train on the way back – helps keep the ride fun…

I have more to come about the trip, including my short hike down into the canyon as well – let me know if you’ve ever gone to The Grand Canyon!

Categories: documentary films, Exotic Travel, Memoirs, nature, Pop Culture, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Memoir, Uncategorized

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