← All articles · 2026-07-26

Williams

Williams, Arizona in June 2013: Route 66 neon, an evening shootout show on the main street, Grand Canyon Railway steam engines and homemade pie.

Williams, Arizona was our bed for the Grand Canyon leg of the June 2013 road trip, and it turned out to be a stop worth savouring in its own right: the last Route 66 town to be bypassed by the interstate, and the start of the railway line to the canyon's South Rim.

Telephoto view down the main street of Williams, Arizona, crowded with vintage signs including the Grand Canyon Hotel and Cruiser's Cafe 66 — One street, a century of signage. The Grand Canyon Hotel and Cruiser's Cafe 66 are still at it.

Inga holding a signpost under a white Arizona US 66 route shield on the main street of Williams — Getting our kicks, as instructed.

Downtown Williams at dusk with lit shopfronts, a vintage street clock and forested hills behind — The main drag easing into a warm June evening.

High noon at seven pm

Every summer evening the town stages a Wild West show in the middle of the street. The whole of Williams turns out, the cast works the crowd, and then the shooting starts.

Two actors in Wild West costume walking arm in arm past a crowd gathered outside a motor hotel in Williams — The cast making their entrance past the Motor Hotel sign, all frontier finery and mischief.

Costumed outlaws lying flat on the tarmac after the staged gunfight while the crowd looks on — It does not end well for the outlaws. It never does.

Steam to the canyon

Black steam locomotive number 29 of the Grand Canyon Railway on static display, with Inga standing by its driving wheels for scale — Locomotive No. 29 at the Williams depot. Inga for scale.

Builder's plate on the locomotive boiler reading American Locomotive Company, 39637, Pittsburg Works, May 1906 — The builder's plate: American Locomotive Company, Pittsburg Works, May 1906. She is over a century old.

Inga and Dileep standing in front of the Grand Canyon Railway number 29 tender at dusk — By dusk we had the platform to ourselves.

Inga posing beside the Grand Canyon Railway hotel sign with a steam engine painted on it — Our base for the canyon: the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel.

Small town, big appetite

A driver in a cowboy hat taking a horse-drawn carriage with an American flag down a Williams street at dusk — Traffic, Williams style.

Pine Country Restaurant dessert menu listing dozens of homemade pies, propped on a green checked tablecloth — Pine Country's pie list runs longer than some novels. The menu quotes Will Rogers: even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.

Inga next to a carved Smokey Bear statue holding a shovel, beside a fire danger sign at night — Smokey and the fire danger board, both on duty outside the visitor centre.

From here the road pointed two ways: north to the Grand Canyon, and west along old Route 66 to the little town that saved the Mother Road, Seligman.