Another Change in Plans

We would have liked to stay in Prescott longer, because we still had more hikes that fellow hikers had recommended to us.  But this was the only time since we left home that we had reservations for our next stop.  We had an appointment with the Grand Canyon!  As we headed north, Mark commented that this was our first time as far north as I-40 since we left Weatherford three and a half months ago.

Because we were hiking down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon on the 26th, we wanted to be in Williams, Arizona on the 24th.  That would give us the day of the 25th to travel to the Grand Canyon National Park and make the last minute check in that is required before overnight hiking.  Everything had been carefully planned and we had done our research.

We have been anxiously watching the weather forecast for the Grand Canyon.  This hike can be brutal if it is hot, or it can be tough if it is windy.  One thing that we hadn't considered (perhaps because we have been in the desert so long) is how uncomfortable it would be if it rained.  There is almost no shelter on the hike, so hiking in the rain would be miserable.

Originally the forecast for the 26th was cool, but a storm front stalled out over Arizona and we were suddenly faced with a forecast for the morning that we would start hiking that looked like this:

Yikes!  80% chance of snow and temperatures that feels like 21 degrees! We started going through all our winter clothes in the motorhome, trying to come up with something that would shed water and keep us insulated from the cold.  Where are our gloves?  What about wearing trash bags over our hiking pants?  Where is the insulated underwear?  Being wet and very cold on a windy, stormy day for hours on a long hike doesn't really sound like much fun!

This hike has been on our bucket list for a very long time.  It has been something we have been looking forward to, and now we were both dreading it!  We were praying for another change in plans.

We got on the phone with the company that handles all the reservations for lodging at the bottom of the canyon.  We couldn't change our hiking date to the 27th or the 28th, but they could change us to the 29th!  The forecast for the  29th (and the 30th when we hike out) would be warm and sunny.

We feel so blessed that we have the time to sit tight in Williams for an additional 3 days and have the opportunity to make the hike under better circumstances!  In the meantime, we are making the best of the rainy, cold, windy days.  We have cooked big meals, checked out the movie channel, caught up on blogging, and we are trying to plan our next stop. 

We checked out main street Williams, and got rained on before we circled back to the car.  We took refuge from the rain in the jailhouse, but it was a little crowded.

The town of Williams is a little touristy complete with a mock western town with old facades and a fake jail.   But the town really cashes in on the fact that it is on Route 66.  You can see "66" on most of the signs of Main Street. There's a Route 66 Diner,  a Route 66 Gift Shop, a Route 66 Bar, a Route 66 . . .  Since we lived a couple miles from Route 66 for the last 35 years, this felt like a little piece of home to us.

In between rain and sleet storms, we explored some of the Coconino National Forest Roads.  Made of the bright red native rock, the forest roads were actually pretty with Williams Mountain in the background.

We started a very pretty hike into the mountains, trying to keep up some exercise regimen.  We started at a park on the edge of town, and were immediately in a boulder strewn pine forest.

But when the rain started again we ran all the way back to the car.  We guess that we did get a little cardio exercise in that wet dash back to cover.  We have seen several sleet storms among the rain storms, and the view from our side window looks like this.  (You might note from the picture that we were blessed with the corner site here at the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park.  So we got a view of the open field on the other side of the fence--as well as the lone pine tree that they had to make a special jog in the fence to accommodate.)

But the real trump to the miserable weather came on Saturday night when it started snowing.  We thought when we moved into a home on wheels we wouldn't be seeing any more snow.  But it was coming down in snowball-size flakes that quickly covered the ground and our car.  Mark ran outside to take a quick picture, and this is what he looked like when he returned. 


In fact, we had two inches of snow on the car when we woke up for church on Sunday morning.

The mountains we can see from the motorhome got a good dusting of snow, and it was still white on the mountain tops on Sunday afternoon.

Weren't we just running away from the desert because it was getting too hot?