We had 3 nights in Williams as our “Gateway to the Grand Canyon”, as the sign says on entering the town.
The first day in Williams was a write off. There was a fresh foot of snow. Despite the plows already in full force the roads look treacherous. Dad and I headed out to see how bad they were in the 2WD van, complete with all season tires. It took 50m to stop doing 30kph… not idea for highway driving. A sage lady at the hotel said “I’ll go another day, the Canyon will be there tomorrow”. Wise words from a woman whose advanced age precluded me from being able to say the same about her. Instead we drove around town looking for appropriate snow gear. Luckily we found some boots for the boys and some Wellington boots for Hanika.
We bundled everyone up as best we could and headed for the shops on foot. In addition to the boots we bought a sled to pull the boys around in. I had visions of a leisurely stroll through fresh snow… wrong. Within a block both boys were tossed off by the narrowly shovelled sidewalks! We made it another block before we found a cafe. On the way back the wind picked up and was blowing ice crystals around. Poor Moose was being battered. Defeated, we headed back to the room to play Monopoly.
It was Thanksgiving that day so we went out for dinner at the local Mexican restaurant. They happened to be serving a ham and turkey dinner. We got both boy a plate off the kids menu. At less than half the price of the adult dish we figured it would fill them nicely. I won’t lie, it was the size of the adult meal! Lucky for us we had some Tupperware in the car so we ended up with tomorrow’s lunch at a fraction of the cost!
Over the day and second night a few more inches of snow fell. The road conditions were reported as good. I must admit, for what I consider a pretty remote part of America the plows were great. The roads were in excellent condition apart from scattered slush. The slowest part of the drive as getting INTO the park! I missed the turn off for prepaid vehicles so we were stuck in the slow moving line.
We unpacked everyone from the van and onto the sled and started walking around the South Rim. I’m not sure what it looks like in summer but the Grand Canyon is beautiful in winter. The size of the canyon can’t be overstated. I’ve never seen anything like it. We managed a bit of a walk with the sled before the boys got too cold and we had to turn back. Everyone looked jealous of our setup, especially the poor parents trying to push strollers and wagons through snow! One downside was that snow was piling into the sled and the boys only had sweatpants on.
We had one last dinner at a classic Route 66 diner before setting off the next day for Kanab, UT.
