Tucson to Williams Arizona

On Monday April 14th, the morning after the air show, we packed up our camp; checked the tires; and fueled the RV at the base gas station (@ $3.22/gal).  Except for rather busy traffic around the Phoenix, the trip northward was uneventful.

In less than three hours we were checked-in at the Cordes Junction Motel and RV park.  Although the park was not fancy with not very level gravel sites; the cooler 70 degree temperatures at the higher 4000ft elevation was a welcome relief from the 90+ degree mid-day temperatures of Tucson.  We had to manually play with the leveling jack control to get the rig close to level.  We enjoyed a couple of quiet evenings at Cordes Junction.  The reviews for the park proved accurate.  The cafe, which is part of the motel, had an outstanding breakfast menu at reasonable cost.

The next day we took a day trip to nearby Prescott to do some exploring and minor shopping.  Prescott appears to be a wonderfully pleasant town with a beautiful park at town center. 

We did a little shopping at several of the downtown shops - antiques, western wear, and the usual tourist memorabilia.  We did not buy anything but enjoyed a very nice lunch at restaurant in a turn of the century hotel.   The ruben sandwich was good and the Artichoke tomato bisk was to die for.

The next day we packed up and headed northward through Prescott arriving about mid-day in Williams at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel and RV park.  Although 50 miles south of the national park, the RV park proved to be an excellent base for visiting the Grand Canyon.   The Passport America discount brought the cost down to less than $24 per day for our entire 7-day stay (a great price for full-hookup sites in a popular tourist area). We also had access to the hotel pool, exercise room and hot tub.

Over the next week we spent two full days visiting the national park and a couple of nearby national monuments taking hundreds of photos.  We opted not to take the Grand Canyon Railroad whose station is part of the hotel/RV park complex.  We thought the round-trip fares to be rather expensive at more than $150 per person. Also the terrain between Williams and the national park is rather unremarkable.  In fact one of the tings that make the Grand Canyon a must see location is the way the canyon overwhelms the senses.  After traveling over 50 some miles of flat scrub range land and 10 miles of ponderosa forest you are suddenly at the edge the enormous canyon.  Like many other western landmarks, photos truly cannot do it justice.  Many of our photos are already on our Flickr photostream site.  

In the next blog posting I'll include a number of the better of our over 200 photos.  I also took a couple of minutes of video using my iPhone at one of the overlooks.  Panning the horizon helps to see the enormous scale of the place.