Williams, Arizona

Gateway to the Grand Canyon

The Town of Williams is known to be the gateway to the Grand Canyon, so we decided to stop here on the way to our Grand Canyon Vacation. Unfortunately, I did not elect to stay here again on the way out, but I wish I had. This is the first entry in the series on our Upper Grand Canyon Rafting Trip.

This was one of the coolest vacations I’ve ever been on. I can’t recommend this experience highly enough! Outdoors Unlimited is the only company offering full paddling, and this series of posts will show you that this is the only way to go!

Saturday: Drive to Williams, AZ

Why Williams?

There were several reasons that we made a stop off in Williams, AZ. Outdoors Unlimited was excellent with it’s email communications trying to prepare us for the trip and some of the questions related to where we were going to leave our car, and how we were going to return to our car after travelling 88 miles down the Colorado River.

I decided that after the strenuous hike out of the Grand Canyon, I would want to have access to my car right away. Therefore, I chose to take the TransCanyon Shuttle from the South Rim to Marble Canyon, but you have to board the shuttle at 1pm. (Please verify as schedules are always subject to change.) We thought it would be a long and unforgiving day to drive 8 hours from California, meet the 1pm deadline to board to the shuttle, and then travel several more hours to Marble Canyon. So we broke up the driving a little bit and spent the night nearby the South Rim in Williams.

Where to Stay

The town of Williams is located off of the Historic Route 66. In 1901 the town was incorporated and a railway line extended from Williams to the South Rim to the Grand Canyon. There are lots of cool historical buildings and American memorabilia about Route 66.

The Grand Canyon Hotel

We chose Williams because our travel planner Chris and his wife were going to stay at the Grand Canyon Hotel. This hotel was build in 1891!! The rooms are very quaint and very cheap. Although that hotel is cool, and old, and we had the opportunity to walk around inside when we were there, it didn’t seem like something David would enjoy.

The Sheridan House

I knew that we were going to be sleeping on the ground for days, and I didn’t know what the conditions would be like at the Marble Canyon Hotel the night before the trip, so I wanted to give David the opportunity to have one more night of luxury…and it certainly was luxurious.

I booked this reservation through Hotels.com, but I highly recommend you book directly through the website of the Bed and Breakfast known as The Sheridan House Inn. We had an amazing breakfast on our way out!

Where to Eat

Kicks on Route 66

We stopped here for lunch, as soon as we got into town. One of the reasons for this is that it was really the first restaurant that showed up on the map as we entered into town, and it had decent reviews on Yelp.

It was totally empty. It was around noon and we ordered lunch. I had a couple glasses of house wine that had very generous pours. I ordered the Buffalo Chicken Salad and it was everything I could have hoped for.

The Red Raven

This was the restaurant that looked like the awesome dinner spot. And it was. We met up with our traveling companions and sat by the window. That was probably a mistake. Although the people watching was cool, the setting sun was really bright and distracting. After we reviewed the menu, it was nice to see there were several bottles of wine from Paso Robles. However the final selection ended up being from Lodi. We ended up enjoying the Periano Estates “The Immortal Zin.” Wine prices were surprisingly reasonable.

I know that we shared a fried zucchini appetizer with really thick slices just the way I love them. I had filet mignon with veggies and asparagus. It was delicious, and we considered staying longer and having another bottle of wine, but we had a show to see.

Things to Do

Street Performances

During the summer, if you hear gunshots ringing out at 7pm, you should head towards them. There is a performance on the streets, at different locations every day. Known as the Cataract Creek Gang, they play alternating, family friendly performances all over the town of Williams. We arrived a bit late, we enjoyed the crowd of onlookers. The performance was really cheesy. Like, almost bad. I don’t know if I recommend it or not, but I also think that if you are just passing through you might as well enjoy the cheese.

Bearizona

Bearizona Wildlife Park is a breath of fresh air! It’s a drive through zoo that took about an hour to get through, but you could also stay longer if you want. After being on the 40 for endless mind numbingly boring hours, you should definitely go hang out with a bear, or a wolf. If only for the scenery.

Chris kept telling me that Williams had a really cool Train Station, but it was only after I figured out that Bearizona was in Williams that I ever agreed to stay here. You have to know your audience, right?

David balked and said that Bearizona was “The most touristy thing he had ever done in his life.” I love this stuff. I think it was $25/person, which David also thought was horrible, but I loved it! I spent more time here when I was with my mom years ago, but we saw lots of bears. Bears being lazy, bears sleeping, bears crossing the road, and even some bears making future bear babies.

Drinking in Williams, AZ

The Grand Canyon Brewing and Distillery

This is a restaurant and a brewing company and distillery. It was crowded when we got here and the bartender was really overwhelmed. We ordered flights of the spirits that they sold and had some pretty surprising opinions about what we were served.

I, Amy, started with the plain vodka. I love vodka, but I did not love this vodka. It had a very big flavor, and reminded me of Tito’s vodka, which I do not care for. I prefer vodka to taste more like water, like Costco’s brand.

Then we tried the Gin. I do not like gin, but this gin was good. So now we are in another dimension.

Then we hit the Prickly Pear Vodka. This stuff was amazing. Smooth, not too sweet, had a flavor, it was exceptional. David even bought a bottle. And now he’s been telling me to save it for special occasions and company.

I think we also tried a whiskey that wasn’t ready yet. It reminded me of the distillery we went to in Bishop, they had a young and old whiskey and the young whiskey they have here is going to turn out better in a few years.

Grand Canyon Wine Co.

This was the last stop of the night in Williams. We came in with just enough time to have one glass of wine, but the owner was super polite to us and said that she would stay open as long as we were there and wouldn’t boot us out at closing time.

There are lots of board games here and we played two very stressful rounds of jenga and we had a blast!

Tomorrow we continued our travels to The South Rim and Marble Canyon