We headed out to Williams, AZ, otherwise known as the “Gateway to the Grand Canyon”. We were caravanning with family as the nephews were to ski race that weekend at Snowbowl. My SIL decided why not leave a couple days early and go to the Grand Canyon. Why not, indeed. Williams is an old cowboy town that still has a number of buildings from the 1900’s. Route 66 also goes through town and with the Grand Canyon only an hours drive away it’s a great place to start your Grand Canyon adventure. You can also ride the train into straight into the Grand Canyon Villiage from Williams as well. That’s what part of our group was planning on doing.
We went to dinner at the South Rim Wine and Beer Garage. Really cool atmosphere as it was an old gas station/garage. They have a restored Pontiac GTO in the restaurant up on the racks. Service was really slow, but the food was tasty.
While I was out taking some pictures a quick stop was made at Dollar General to shop. Yes, some things were forgotten which led to most of the males in our group sporting swim wear from Dollar General’s 2020 Fashion Collection at the pool that night.
The next morning we headed out on the train. It was a nice ride that takes a little over 2 hours and right into the center of the village. There’s a snack car on the train and entertainment as well. You also may learn a lot of interesting facts about the train and/or the Grand Canyon. The boys really enjoyed the train a lot and were sad that they were only taking it one-way.
After exploring the rim area around the village for a bit and meeting back up with Will and Margaret who were driving up our vehicles, we headed to Hermit’s Rest. There’s a trail from there that goes down into the canyon. It was a beautiful day for a hike, but some of the shady sections were icy. We navigated through a few icy patches before we decided to turn back around. Wish we had remembered our ice spikes, but it was nice to get out for the day and enjoy the sunshine.
Carlos screwing around. 
Wildlife 
Margaret had managed to score Will and I a rim cabin at the Bright Angel Lodge. Kudos to Margaret; it was great to be so close. We had dinner reservations that night at the El Tovar Lodge. It’s still one of the premier lodges at the Grand Canyon that opened to the public back in 1905. Excellent food and if you get a chance don’t pass up having a meal here.
Woke up the next morning for a beautiful sunrise. Breakfast again at the El Tovar, (the prime rib hash is excellent). Then it was on to a stop at the geology museum to learn the history of the canyon and a walk along the time-line trail that goes along the rim. We then headed out of the park to catch the IMAX movie about the Grand Canyon. They had used replica boats of those used by the team first to navigate the Colorado River in 1869 to film the movie. Before that time it was thought that the river couldn’t be run.
Our next stop was a step back in time to one of Will’s childhood memories at the Flintstone campground. He remembered going there as a kid. We got there just in time to visit Bedrock. This place will soon become a wildlife raptor sanctuary and many of the Flintstone pieces will be sold. Another kitschy roadside attraction gone. The boys have never seen the cartoon, but had a lot of fun running around and checking everything out.
Had to check out the Dino slide myself. 
We moved on to Flagstaff as we had tickets to ski the next day at Snowbowl. We got to the ski hill the next morning to find strong winds and two of the larger lifts on a wind hold. Luckily, the wind hold was cleared right as well started skiing, which help with the lift lines immensely. Little Silas was ready to go. He was a dynamo and skied the whole day. The older two spent the afternoon training with their team for the races the next day.
Everyone was up early the next day for the races. Being a Saturday, Snowbowl was crowded. And we didn’t have time to ski before watching the boys race. I somehow managed to strain my knee, so sitting on the sidelines watching the boys was probably for the best anyway. The boys did great Jojo got a 2nd and a 3rd. And Jeffrey got a 2nd after catching a gate in the first race.
The next morning the boys were off to race again and Will joined them. That left us girls and little Silas. We decided to take a detour home and check out Canyon de Chelly. It’s located on the Navajo reservation. This canyon has been inhabited for almost 5,000 years. It’s a beautiful canyon that doesn’t attract the crowds, mainly because of it’s remote location. There’s a nice visitor center with a movie and some exhibits about the canyon and the lives of the native people. We drove the south rim drive and made just a couple of the overlook stops. With a 3 year old you base your travel on their schedule. It’s a beautiful place and Margaret and I decided we do need to come back and do some more exploring when we have more time. There are numerous guides that offer jeep rides through the canyon. The guides are all Navajo and licensed concessioners by the Park Service. The White House trail is a 3 mile round trip trail to the canyon floor. This trail is the only option to reach the canyon floor without a guide. The canyon walls start out about 30 feet tall and quickly rise to 1,000 feet above the floor.
We also managed to visit another historical site, the Hubbell Trading Post in Ganado, AZ. It was right along our route and is the oldest continuously operating trading post in the Southwest. The visitor’s center was closed, but the trading post was open. So, we stopped in and got to also visit some animals on the farm, including a few of the Navajo-Churro sheep. The fleece of the sheep is so soft when it’s combed out and is used in making some of the beautiful Navajo rugs sold at the trading post.
Rambo
The boys did another great job on their races with Jojo scoring two 2nd place finishes and Jeffrey walked out with a 1st and a 3rd. Great job, boys! What a fun week we had.