Getting our kicks on Route 66 in Williams, AZ

Williams, AZ is a small town of just over 3000 residents. Compare that to nearby Flagstaff, which boasts nearly 77,000! Yet, both of these towns are well-known for their proximity to the Grand Canyon, being an hour and 90 minutes away, respectively. The Grand Canyon was at the top of our list for places to visit in 2023. We had big plans to find some boondocking spots and enjoy our first real dispersed camping adventure. Well, life had other plans. We ended up looking at campgrounds closer to town and to the interstate, for a couple of reasons. First, I had read an article discussing the potential wildfire risks in springtime. The Department of Agriculture wasn't even sure if they'd allow dispersed camping in the northern Arizona national forests in April, because most of the wildfires are started by humans during that time of year. I simply couldn't risk not having a place to camp in April. I needed to see the Grand Canyon. The other reason for looking along I-40 was that we suspected that Tanner might need a vet appointment. In his old age, he has a tendency to get benign cysts, which usually aren't a problem, unless he starts to lick and bite them, because then they risk becoming infected. We noticed a few gnarly cysts pop up and expected that he'd need them removed. This is a time-consuming process even at his home vet, but to take him to a totally new vet would mean a likely biopsy, then removal, and then possibly a follow-up or stitch removal. We'd need to be in one place for a long time. We had been moving fast this year until the Grand Canyon. Finally, we could spend ample time in one place. So I researched vet clinics and found a reputable one in Williams, as well as a few in Flagstaff. We decided to put our dispersed camping plans on hold and opt for a full hookup site at the KOA in Williams, right off I-40.

Turns out, Tanner left his new cysts alone and didn't need a vet appointment after all. And as for the wildfires? The extra early spring snowfall and lack of high winds made for a low fire risk the entire time we were in the area. Dispersed campsites were not rescinded in April.

We wouldn't say our full hookup site was for nothing, though. That early spring snowstorm brought some insanely cold weather and overcast days. We were happy to be able to run all the appliances we desired and not worry about replenishing our solar. We also had propane refill right on site for those days we needed to run our furnace nonstop.

KOA also delivered with its location. We were just minutes from downtown Williams, where there was lots to do for a small town. They certainly cater to the tourists who pass through on their Grand Canyon excursions. As we mentioned in the last post, we had lots of fun animal adventures which we'd definitely recommend, but Williams is also a really cool place to just walk around. It's located on the Historic Route 66 and has that Americana/Western vibe you'd expect from the region. There are no shortage of gift shops, art galleries, restaurants, and fun attractions. I decided to plan a "Williams Walk" for one of our free days, thinking it would be a nice way to get steps while seeing the town. I created a map of some of the places I thought we'd enjoy. Those would be our waypoints. The rest of the time, we were free to window shop and venture in and out of any store we wished.

Eventually, the winter weather subsided and we started getting some beautiful spring days. Perfect for our Williams adventures. We began with something we were looking forward to since our arrival: The Canyon Coaster. This is Arizona's only mountain coaster, and if you read our Smokies blog series, you know we love a good mountain coaster - "good" being the operative word. We often find ourselves disappointed by the experience, through no fault of the coaster itself (except you, Anakeesta), but because we get stuck behind people who don't know how to operate their coaster or are too scared to go more than 10mph. Every time we drove by Canyon Coaster, there was hardly anyone there. It was cusp season, where they were switching their snow tubing back to summer mountain tubing, but the coaster is open year-round. We made this our first stop so we could go fairly early, in case the crowds picked up later in the day. Sure enough, there were only a couple of people in front of us, and we were able to smoothly glide along the rails at our chosen speed. It was extra fun getting to coaster in a place where there was still snow on the ground. We hadn't had that on a mountain coaster before!

We were ready to fuel our adrenaline even more, so next we headed over to the Route 66 Zipline. It's a vintage car-inspired zipline that would surely give us the Route 66 vibe. Unfortunately, it was closed. The hours online said they'd be open, but the place looked like it hadn't been open for a while. Oh well. The zipline was right next to a public parking lot, the Williams Visitor Center, and the Grand Canyon Railway depot. There was lots to see and it turned out to be a great jumping off point for our walk around downtown.

My map creation has us walking up Railroad Ave, but we decided to cut over to Route 66 so we could walk up one side and then back down the other. Route 66 in Williams is a divided road, with each side being one way. It's the main stretch where you'll find the majority of the shops and restaurants. We headed up towards the Route 66 Museum and Gift Shop, which is an old vintage gas station façade and screams Route 66 vibes. On the inside, though, we were dazzled with an extraordinary amount of gemstones and rocks. Amethysts bigger than chairs, the shiniest quartz crystals, and more. There was also an impressive showcase of Native American handcrafted jewelry, as well as a Minnetonka moccasin display in the back. We were pleasantly surprised, as our taste is much more in line with gems and less with Americana. This gift shop was the first of many that we visited, and it set a good precedent.

We then spent most of the rest of our walk taking pictures of history (like the Dairy Queen with the 1960s sign still proudly displayed), while we popped in and out of a bunch of the shops. The Williams gift shops are all incredible. There is a blend of vintage Americana, Western, holistic, and rustic decorative items. Half the shops we walked into smelled like BBQ from their adjacent restaurants, and the other half like incense - both appealing in their own, smoky ways. I of course gravitated toward all the holistic items, most locally made and high quality. There was also no shortage of gemstone jewelry, particularly turquoise. If you haven't noticed, Williams was and still is in a big mining region.

Just when we thought we were nearing the end of our ramble, we passed by a shop that had no sign yet, but a banner with "GRAND OPENING" printed on it, along with writing in the window that said it sold one of our favorite things: Olive oil! I didn't even turn to Anthony to see if he wanted to go in. It doesn't need to be discussed; we never pass up an olive oil shop. To our very pleasant surprise, we were greeted with a table of their best selling oils and balsamic vinegars, and there were little cups so we could sample anything we wished. We then found out that they use the same balsamic distributer as our all-time favorite. How can I explain this in RVer terms? While other RVers carefully travel with glass wine bottles, we take special care of our glass balsamic bottles. This company has really clean, all natural infusions, so we can get fruit infused balsamic. Put that on a salad and you barely need any oil. It tastes awesome. So that became our shopping goal: find some fruit-infused balsamics for summer salads. This store's variety was unprecedented. We couldn't believe all their unique flavors, from cranberry pear, to plum, to lavender, to coffee!

The store is called Olive the Best, and it has had a location in Flagstaff for 5 years. After a long hunt for a prime location in Williams, this beautiful downtown storefront became available. The owners decorated it to a tee and are very proud, as they should be. We spent far more time in the shop than we expected, chatting with father and son owners Scott and Scotty, hearing their story, telling them about RVing, and sharing our uses for balsamic vinegars. Scott even turned us onto a surprisingly delicious concoction: Fruit-infused balsamic in water. He claimed it has most of the same health benefits as apple cider vinegar but tastes way better. I tasted the peach. Scott was right. Later, I looked up the health benefits of balsamic. Scott was right about that too.

We didn't buy any olive oils while we were there, but we did get a vanilla cinnamon maple syrup in addition to our balsamic loot. If you're ever in Williams or Flagstaff, stop by Olive the Best, especially if you're a clean eating foodie like we are. Or, they have online ordering with free shipping in the US on purchases over $39! No, we're not sponsored by them...but a girl can dream.

We ended our Williams walk on a high note and were even inspired to pop over to Safeway to buy some produce for salads with our new balsamics...which means we can't say much about the restaurants in downtown Williams. We did go to Goldie's Route 66 Diner on a different day, but we can't recommend it. It wasn't bad tasting, but the food didn't sit right with us. All we can say is, check reviews diligently. Many of the restaurants seem to be rated highly because the old-timers go often and it's nostalgic for them. The Mexican restaurants seem to have the best ratings, so that might be a good place to start. Oh, and we hear that the Starbucks located in the Safeway has fresh baked donuts daily. You're welcome.

Although our reasons for staying in Williams fell away and we could have stayed closer to the Grand Canyon, we don't regret our 2.5 weeks getting to know this quaint Western town. We love being able to relax in nature with a National Park right outside our doorstep, but as we've said many times before, the KOA life is great too. We were lucky that, in addition to its close proximity to civilization, this KOA was also on the boundary of the Kaibab National Forest, with a mountain trailhead located right at the back of the campground. So we still got our favorite amenity: A convenient hiking trail within walking distance from our campsite.  We really did get the best of both worlds during our stay in Williams.

Campground:

• Williams/Exit 167/Circle Pines KOA, Williams AZ
• Site 47, 30amp electric, water and sewer
• Picnic table and firepit
• Campground recommended? Yes
• Site recommended? Yes