Grand Canyon

Via Grand Canyon Railway from Williams, Arizona

We travelled from Williams Arizona via the Grand Canyon Railway to the Grand Canyon. We stayed three days at Maswik Lodge and returned on the train. In previous trips to the canyon we primitive camped just outside the canyon. In contrast this was a much more luxurious trip with the train travel and nice accomodations at the Grand Canyon Village.

This trip was partially an anniversary trip for us and also a celebration of Marla’s birthday. The focus was decidedly not on photography but I did plan to take some serious images. It’s the Grand Canyon after all.

As such and as a winter trip our ability to travel around the canyon were more limited but also more comfortable and relaxed. Likewise opportunities for photography were also limited and less prioritized. Here’s an account of our trip.

We arrived at Williams the evening before our train voyage to the Grand Canyon. We spent the night at the Grand Canyon Railroad Lodge and had dinner at the Fred Harvey resturant there. Afterwards we walked around downtown Williams which is very lively and touristy, leveraging it’s Route 66 legacy.

Early the next morning we enjoyed a “Wild West” show prior to boarding the train (it was included in our package). It was silly but fun and worth sitting out in the cold to enjoy. I had some fun taking photos of the show. I always enjoy having a chance to shoot some event photos for a change. Here’s a sampling.

The train voyage lasted about 2 hours. We had snacks and beverages and were comfortable seated in the first class section. At various times our car conductor would give historic and geologic information about the landscape we were traveling through. A performer dressed in old-west garb also came through the car telling jokes and playing fiddle music.

After arriving we had a couple hours bus tour around the south rim and lunch. Afterward we mostly rested and walked around the south rim scouting out locations to shoot at sunrise the following day. I didn’t take any photographs with my serous camera this evening but I did shoot a few sunset snapshots with my cell phone.

The following morning we got up well before sunrise and hike the three miles to Yavapai point. I had a spot planned to shoot from and we managed to find it in the pitch black darkness. I set up my camera and tripod in the dark and soon the sky to the east started to brighten up. Over the next hour I did my usual sunrise program shooting several images with different compositions as the light changed. The following images are the ones I like from that session.

Later that day, rather than make detailed plans for sunset photographs I just shot the easy location from the Grand Canyon Village. I’ve shot from there in previous trips when I had better conditions for photography so on this trip I made one image worth posting but this is not as good an image as I have shot from this location before.

The following day we slept in and enjoyed a late breakfast at the Fred Harvey restaurant. I wasn’t particularly motivated to work at photography in the few hours we had left before we needed to board our train back to Williams. We took a leisurely hike out to Maricopa Point where I took one good image before returning to the village to board our train.

After boarding the train and having a light snack we went out onto the observation platform at the back of the train and watched the forest roll past.

After a couple hours we noticed a group of horsemen following the train. The conductor made an announcement that the “Cataract Creek” gang had disabled the train (we were told by shooting out a tire!) and we were about to be robbed but the robbery was full consensual. If we wanted to be robbed we could hide some money on our person and one of the robbers would search us and find it. Marla volunteered to be robbed of a few dollars.

We arrived back in Williams and, as it was New Year’s Eve, we immediately headed for home so we could arrive in time to celebrate the holiday with family. Needless to say, we stared the New Year tired and ready for some relaxed home time.