Discover The Grand Canyon's Gateway At This Small Arizona Town With Unique Retro Charm

With or without a car, Williams, Arizona, is your "Gateway to the Grand Canyon." The city has had a trademark on that phrase since 1984, so it's not just a gateway. It's officially the gateway to one of America's most-visited national parks. If you're driving into downtown Williams, you'll see the phrase on an entrance arch over Route 66, too. It took effect when Williams — a mountain town with a 6,770-foot elevation — became the last town on Route 66 to be bypassed by I-40.

Extend your Los Angeles to Las Vegas road trip to the Grand Canyon, and you'll know you're in the home stretch when you hit Williams (population: 3,202, as of the 2020 census). From here, it's a straight shot of about 60 miles to Grand Canyon National Park. To take the scenic route, you can board the Grand Canyon Railway, which departs for the South Rim from Williams.

Driving in has its benefits, however, particularly if you're interested in the history of Route 66. The famous superhighway, immortalized in the song, "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66," leads directly into the heart of Williams, serving as its main street. At Pete's Route 66 Gas Station Museum, a vintage car sits parked outside a garage filled with "petroliana" — old gas pumps, fuel signs, and memorabilia related to the Mother Road. With buildings that date to the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Williams Historic Business District has put six square blocks of the surrounding downtown area on the National Register of Historic Places.

In addition to the gas station museum, the old-fashioned diners along Route 66 in Williams lend the city a retro feel. The first one you'll encounter after the gateway arch is Goldie's Route 66 Diner, where breakfast is served all day and you can sip a root beer float or malted milkshake for dessert. Just down the road is the Cruisers Route 66 Cafe, where banana splits are on the menu and everything from the checkerboard floor to the decorative '50s road signs celebrates a bygone era. Outside, you can dine under red Coca-Cola umbrellas while the smell of mesquite BBQ fills the air, courtesy of the on-site smoker. Here, they serve pulled pork on top of macaroni with green chili cheese, while the building is lit up at night with eye-catching neon.

Beyond food and car culture, Williams might hold some travel appeal for railfans. The Grand Canyon isn't one of those national parks you can head to on an Amtrak train directly. However, it is possible to reach it by train through Williams. All you need to do is book a ticket on Amtrak's Southwest Chief route, with the Grand Canyon Railway Depot input as your destination.

In Flagstaff, Arizona, you'll disembark the Southwest Chief train and change to a connecting van provided by Amtrak. It will deposit you in Williams, where you'll board a diesel locomotive on the Grand Canyon Railway for the final leg of your journey to the South Rim. Along the way, you'll be serenaded by cowboys, and you might also encounter some train robbers as part of the live entertainment.

If you don't win the lottery to stay below the rim at Phantom Ranch, and you're not ready to glamp at this unique Grand Canyon resort, consider spending the night in Williams. One option for lodging that's prime real estate is the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel, since it's right beside the train depot and only a block from where all the downtown action is. The depot is another spot that's on the National Register of Historic Places, along with the former Fray Marcus Hotel. Built in 1908, the Fray Marcus building is just across the lawn from the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel, which effectively carries on its hospitality legacy.

Williams itself owes its legacy to an intrepid mountain man. It's named after one William Shirley Williams, aka Old Bill, a trapper who first scouted the area ahead of the town's founding in 1881. With its proximity to America's largest ponderosa pine forest, it's only fitting, then, that modern Williams should offer travelers its own array of outdoor activities beyond the obvious Grand Canyon day trips.

Based in the Circle Pines KOA campground, MD Ranch LLC caters to both beginners and experienced riders with its horseback rides through the Kaibab National Forest. In the Bearizona Wildlife Park, you can drive through the forest and see not just bears, but also wolves, bison, bighorn sheep, deer, reindeer, and mountain goats. In 2024, Williams added another perfect portmanteau and offbeat Guinness World Record to its list of attractions with the opening of the Poozeum: home of the world's biggest collection of fossilized feces, including dinosaur dung.