The Grand Canyon Hotel and Railroad have the art of
presenting a tour to the visitors like a science. The hotel
even takes care of your luggage to your next hotel at the South Rim. There’s a cowboy show followed by the 2.5
hour ride through the ponderosa pines. Our
guide told us to smell the ponderosa when off the train. He claimed that you’ll either smell vanilla
or butterscotch. Ponderosa doesn’t smell
like a pine tree. I'll have to put that to the test.
According to NPR, "Scientists don't know why a closely sniffed Ponderosa smells like baking cookies. The aroma may arise from a chemical in the sap being warmed by the sun.
The ride, to make it interesting, had performers. Our car had a “singing cowboy” who was working
for the tips he could get from the passengers.
Our car didn’t have a robbery like many of the other cars. There were no kids in our car, so why waste
that experience on a bunch of old folks.
The train arrived at the Grand Canyon South Rim Railroad
Depot, and I was off to see the Grand Canyon.
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| Outside the hotel, there's a set for a 15 minute pre-railroad trip cowboy show. |
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| The cowboys like to show off a few tricks. This horse could do the "Michael Jackson moonwalk." |
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| This train car performer's songs, selected from the catalogs of Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, and Kenny Rogers. focused on cowboys. These were the songs my Dad often played, too. |
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| The train ride was slow, and it took about 2.5 hours to go the roughly 80 miles of ponderosas. You can only get a quick glance of the Grand Canyon from the train upon entering the village. |
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| The Grand Canyon Railroad Depot was where everyone disembarked the train. |
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| My hotel was right behind the depot, but it was all uphill. That's tough to do when it's already 7000 ft. in elevation here. I was huffing and puffing, but I made it! |
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| El Tovar from the back: I had lunch in the dining room at lunch. Those windows give diners a beautiful view of the south rim of the canyon. I had a reservation; the popularity of the dining room makes it a challenge to get a seat. |
