Grand Canyon Trip - Day 4 Part 1 - Bearizona

This morning we gathered for breakfast and to officially celebrate Barbara's birthday. We've been celebrating it all along, but today is the actual day.  We all met in the Cafe and got in line for the wonderful omelets . . .

Omelet Bar

Happy Birthday B-Lo

Linda, Tina, Joy, Seema, Carol N, Annie, Debbie, Chris & Barbara
enjoying Barbara's Birthday breakfast.

This is the last day our whole group will be together.  After breakfast, Tina, Linda and Annie are extending their trip so they can visit some of Linda's family, shop thru some quilt stores, and tour beautiful Sedona and Jerome before heading home.  The rest of us are heading in the general direction of home, and will be making a few stops along the way, but first we have a very important mission that must be taken care of . . .

Sometime in the night on Saturday, Debbie found herself in excruciating pain from her back.  She doesn't know what she did, but it's awful.  She is such a trooper and didn't want to spoil anything for the rest or us, or for herself, so she toughed it out all of yesterday as best she could.  But now, something must be done!  After asking around last night, we learned there isn't a chiropractor in Williams, but Chris got hold of a friend who lives in Flagstaff (just 35 miles away and the biggest town near here) and got the phone number for a chiropractor that she highly recommended.  This morning Debbie was able to get an appointment for this afternoon, and contacted her regular chiropractor so that he could call the one in Flagstaff and together they could figure out how to fix Debbie's back.  So we are heading to Flagstaff to get this all taken care of.

The appointment isn't until 2:00 this afternoon, and Flagstaff is only about an hour away, so we had plenty of time to make a visit to Bearizona which is just outside Williams, and is one of the places we had planned to see today anyway. And we're so glad we did . . . this place is so much fun . . . And since it's a "drive-thru" wildlife preserve, Debbie could just relax in the car as we enjoyed all the animals . . .

Bearizona Entrance

Bearizona is a wild-life park that houses many different species of animals, all in their natural environment.  The best part is a three-mile scenic drive in our own cars where we got to see lots of animals very up close and personal.  At the entrance we were given an audio tour that told us about the animals as we drove through the various enclosures.  Here are some of the animals we encountered . . .

Rocky Mountain Goat

Dahl Sheep

Elk (I think).
This guy came right up to the car for a very personal visit

Another elk was munching on some grass beside the road

Deer

It had been drizzling and this cute little guy was happily
licking the raindrops off the rear bumper

American Burros 

Alaska Tundra Wolf

Another Alaska Tundra Wolf

Arctic Wolf 

Watch out -we have you surrounded

Throughout the enclosures are "homes" for the animals -
Very representative of where they would sleep in the wild

Jr. Black Bears - The "Teenagers"
(1-3 years old)

This guy was our favorite

OK, if you won't come down to play,
I'm going home

More "teenage" bears

Yep - that's what they're doing!

We asked if they were just "practicing".  Nope, it's the real thing!

American White Bison

A closer look

And a baby

I've never seen a white bison before!  Have you?  I've only seen these guys . . .

American Bison

This pic gives you some idea of how big these enclosures are

They look really shaggy because they are losing
their heavy winter coats to get ready for summer

Big Horn Sheep

Closer look

Black Bear

Taking a stroll

Sharing the bird seed

This guy was happily enjoying a mid-day nap

Until the keepers threw out some apples - Yum!

Another sleeping spot - this one for the bears

We really wanted to drive thru again, but we also wanted to at least check out the walk-thru area . . .

Entrance to the Walk-Thru Area

It's really pretty, like strolling through the forest, except the pathways are paved.

The "stroll it" area of Bearizona

And if you get tired, you can make use of these . . .

Unique benches

We only walked thru one little portion.  Along the way we saw . . .

A prickly porcupine

and cute little otters

And then we came to the main attraction . . .

The baby bears

So cute and playful

Just in case anyone is worried

We really really enjoyed Bearizona and hope to come again when we have more time.  But now it's time to head to Flagstaff . . . 

Beautiful sky and snow covered mountains
The San Francisco Peaks again maybe?

Stay tuned for the rest of our day . . .

Grand Canyon Trip - Day 3 - More of the Canyon

This morning after breakfast six of us (Carol N, Debbie, Barbara, Chris, Seema and Joy) are headed off for our helicopter tour over the Grand Canyon, while Annie, Tina and Linda are having a relaxing day of shopping their way through all the hotels and little stores in the Village.  It's a dark, cloudy day with rain threatening, but we are hopeful that this won't impact our flight.  The van arrives and whisks us off to the heliport for the check-in and pre-flight briefing.  We are each asked for our photo I.D., we are weighed in, and then given a waiver to sign so no one is responsible in case of death . . . you know, the usual. And then we are told to take a seat and wait for further instructions.

It's been drizzling off and on and they have a helicopter in the air checking out the situation with the weather, and the pilot is communicating with a helicopter from another tour company which is doing the same thing.  Before long we are told that due to the impending rain, and the very large probability of thunder storms and hail, it is not safe to fly and our flight has been cancelled.  NO!!!! This was to be the highlight of our trip and something we were all looking forward to for the last 18 months!  It can't be true!  But it is, and the reality is that it's way better to be safe than sorry.  Definitely wouldn't want to be in a helicopter and get hit by lightning!  Everyone was really nice and very apologetic (as if it's anyone's fault!) and they assured us that our money would be refunded immediately.  That's all good, but we can't help but be very disappointed.

But there is magic in those red hats!  For sure!  One of the ladies behind the desk calls me aside and hands me a DVD of one of the flights.  It seems they record each and every flight - all the conversations inside the helicopter and all the places you fly over and everything you see.  And then they offer to sell the DVD to you at the end of your flight.  They keep extra copies, and she gave us one so we could at least have a sampling of what we would have experienced.  She definitely didn't have to do that!  So nice!!!  Which reminds me, we have to set up a date to watch it!!!!

Outside the little flight office we could see the helicopter still covered to protect it from the rain. We asked if it would be possible to at least go outside and take a photo with the helicopter.  They not only said yes, they ran outside, uncovered the helicopter, and two of the pilots came out to pose with us while a third handled the camera.  Wow!

Us with our "almost" helicopter

They opened the door so we could see inside

One of the pilots hamming it up.

Our van arrived to take us back to the hotel.  The driver was so nice and friendly and was willing to drop us off anywhere we wanted.  While we decided what we wanted to see, he gave us a little impromptu tour of the area.  

Re-entering Grand Canyon National Park

Elk along the highway

We finally decided to be dropped off in the Village so we could see the Kolb Studio, which is located at the Bright Angel Trail head.  He drove right up and dropped us practically at the front door.  Talk about service!!!

Kolb Studio

This place was really interesting.  The Kolb Brothers, Emery and Ellsworth, were hearty, adventuresome and courageous pioneers who navigated, explored, photographed and made the first motion picture of the Colorado River in the very early 1900's through some amazing and seemingly impossible situations.  They built their first studio on this site in 1905, and started showing their movie of the river in 1911, and it can still be seen here today.   This Victorian Home was expanded and enlarged several times and today it is a friendly gift shop full of Grand Canyon artwork and a space for traveling exhibits.  And it sits right on the edge of the canyon at the start of the Bright Angel Trail . . .

Perilous to be sure . . . but what a view!

Inside there is an awesome display of some of their old cameras and the original movie projector used to show their movie of the Colorado River . . .

Original Movie Projector

Info about the projector

One of the canoes used in their exploration of the Colorado River

And their life preserver!  No thanks!

Information about the expansion of their home/studio

View from the Kolb Studio

Bright Angel Trail

Another view of Bright Angel Trail,
all the way down to the bottom of the Canyon

We saw a lot of people hiking the trail today.  And we heard many stories from others who had been out on the trail earlier and were caught in the heavy rainstorms and hail that had been predicted by the helicopter people.  All the stores were celebrating because lots of people who were soaked to the skin were buying complete changes of clothing.  Made us a little less disappointed in our cancelled flight.

We consoled ourselves with ice cream!  Yum!

Soon it was time to board the train for our return trip to Williams.  Again we were entertained along the way . . .

By the roaming cowboy singer . . .
This guy was even more fun than the first one

And we paid a little more attention to the scenery this time . . .

Desert in the foreground -
San Francisco Peaks in the distance

The San Francisco Peaks are located north of Flagstaff and are ancient volcanoes that sort of imploded into themselves instead of flowing outward to form a crater.  The highest is Humphrey's Peak which tops out at 12,633 ft. high.

We were also watching the sky and the clouds, which changed from . . .

Dark and stormy . . . 

to blue and fluffy

Uh oh!  The conductor just announced that some bandits have escaped from the local jail and are headed our way.  We looked out the window and  . . .

Oh No!  Here comes one . . . . 

And here's another one . . . 

They're getting off their horses . . . What should we do?

Not much we can do - no where to go and no where to hide!  Pretty soon they jumped onto the train . . .

Scaring everyone - especially our hostesses . . . 

They had bandannas covering their faces, and they came through the cars demanding our valuables and money . . .

Don't we all look terrified?

But not to worry . . . The Sheriff is hot on the trail and soon came through the car asking for information and descriptions. . . 

We're safe now!  The danger is over!  Thank goodness!
The bandits were apprehended and hustled back to jail!
Whew!

When we arrived at the Williams station, we were treated to another beautiful . . 

Rainbow

We checked into the hotel, got settled in our rooms, and headed over to the Cafe for dinner.  Again, we enjoyed the buffet and the yummy pasta bar, and . . . 

The fun and friendly chef who fixed our meals

Each night there is entertainment in the dining room.   The first night we weren't especially impressed, but tonight the singer has an amazing voice and sang lots of songs we knew and could sing along with, including . . . 

"Puff the Magic Dragon" especially for Debbie.

Right now I can't remember his name - can anyone help me?  During his break he stopped by our table.  It turns out that he is a pastor at a local church in Williams, is also a sheriff, knows everybody in town (naturally) and in his spare time he entertains at the Cafe. And what's even more amazing, he used to live in Chino Hills, is very familiar with Inland Hills Church, and knows about Pastor Dave. What a small small world we live in!

Time to turn in for the night.  More adventures await tomorrow!  G'nite!