The South West Chief was late and got to Flagstaff at about 5am, instead of 4am. I was not complaining, at least it was light then.
Quite a few of us disembarked – or detrained as they say in the US – including someone who used to work at a diner in Flagstaff. She lead me there across the tracks to buy coffee at 6am. (One can usually find coffee from 6am). On the way back we had to wait for at least 10 mins while a freight train thundered by. Many of the lines in the US, this one in particular, carry lots of freight and the trains can be miles long. I think most of the oil also goes by rail.
My Arizona shuttle to the canyon arrived around 8am and it took about 2 hours to get there going via Williams which looks to be a charming small town from which you can catch a steam train to the canyon.
The Grand Canyon
When people ask what was the highlight of my trip, I usually say the Grand Canyon and it was really impressive. I did not do a tour, but relied on the free shuttle busses which ply the south rim to get about. Although I was there for about 5 hours, I did not see all there is to see on the rim, let alone venture down into the canyon, but I walked between some of the lookout points and got a good feeling for the magnificence of the place. I also saw some of the tame elk.
One cannot help wonder what the first colonists must have felt when they rode up to the edge and found oops they could not go further. There is no barrier and I see from the internet that 2 or 3 people go over the rim annually.
I think is is rather sad that the tribe who lived down in the canyon are no longer there. It must have been a very special place to call home.
Long day to Denver
I got the same shuttle back to Flagstaff and spent the night there, getting up soon after 3am and making my way through the deserted streets to catch the the SW chief again at 4am to proceed up the line to Raton. This was my 7th train and the mid point in my trip.
Flagstaff is high, about 2 100 m above sea level and the vegetation around Flagstaff consists of open pine forests – the Ponderosa pine? However on this trip one is soon back in arid landscapes and further up the track is an area with spectacular red cliffs. Much of this land belongs to Native Americans.
The plan was to get off at Raton at 5pm and catch a greyhound bus to Denver, getting there at 9:30pm. However, this train also started running late and having engine trouble, so they “detrained” those us making the Greyhound connection at Albuquerque instead, to catch the bus. This is several stations before Raton and as a result I missed seeing the scenic Apache Canyon from the train.
I had a great burger and fries prepared by a lady who singlehandedly ran the entire diner at the Albuquerque station. Travel wise this was a bad day as the bus also set off an hour late and we had a driver who confessed this was the first time he had driven the route so a passenger had to read his typed instructions on how to get to the various city drop off points. We finally made it to Denver after midnight. It was a long day!
Denver
Denver was a pleasant city with a free shuttle bus in the downtown area. I had one day there and first visited the botanical garden which was small, but great, full of charming individual areas and even saw some SA vygies growing at that high altitude. It was easy to get there by bus.
I enquired at the Denver art museum if they had any Hoppers on view, but when they said no, I decided against visiting (I was getting picky about my museums at this stage!) It was another of the museums where a lot of the collection was in storage. I wandered past a nice park and stately administrative buildings.
There must have been Dutch settlers in Denver as one of the streets was called Wynkoop, pronounced “wincoop” in Denver – didn’t see any bottle shops there though.
My airbnb was close to the station and the lovely Tattered cover bookshop where I stocked up on books to read on the train.
Early next morning I was back at the station to catch my 8th train, the Californian Zephyr to Emeryville, the station for San Francisco.
Read about the Californian Zephyr and San Francisco
Grand Canyon & Denver Gallery
