Here’s a trivia question for you: What was the last town along Historic Route 66 bypassed by Interstate 40? Bonus points for when.
Answer: Williams, Arizona on October 13, 1984.
Williams is known as the gateway to the Grand Canyon. Highway 64 will take you north from Williams to the South Rim entrance.
The Grand Canyon Railway train departs daily taking hundreds of people to the South Rim. It’s a must do, or like us, a must do it a few times.
Adjacent to the Grand Canyon train station sits the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park. It’s been on our radar for a while; I’m so glad we finally made a reservation.
The sites are large and paved with a variety of pull-through and back-in. We didn’t bring the Jeep and opted for a back-in space.
The park has a nice ramada area in the center with lots of picnic tables and BBQs that would make a great group dinner area. I pictured families meeting here for dinner after their Grand Canyon train ride. Also in the park center sits are large laundry/shower facility. It was a busy place.
There is a long dog walking path that spans the perimeter of the park. If you’re at the park to take the train to the South Rim, the office has a dog kennel ready for your pooch to be taken care of while you’re gone. I haven’t seen many parks with this perk.
Speaking of perks, you can take advantage of the hotel pool during your stay. It’s inside and open year round.
We spent the weekend here to work on the coach. Mark wanted to clean out and reorganize the basement storage and I wanted to do the same inside. It was hot at home so we decided to escape the desert heat to get this done.
But first, I wanted to see the gun fight before the train left the station. It’s changed since our last train ride. It’s a bigger show now with audience participation that ends with a gun fight. You don’t need a train ticket to watch, so be sure to grab a seat in the bleachers at 9am. We watched as all the people boarded the train and it pulled away.
Time to work. I should have taken a before and after picture of Mark’s magic with the basement storage. The onboard vacuum wasn’t sucking properly so Mark worked his magic to get it sucking strong again. We finished faster than either of us expected. We had a clean and organized camper, inside and out. Yeah us.
We walked over to Frontier BBQ & Beer Garden that was a short walk passed the railroad tracks. We could see it from our campsite and heard music while eating dinner the night before. Not loud and disturbing but, inviting music. There was a lady singing so we grabbed a spot in the shade. We didn’t get any food but it sure looked good. We walked up and down Historic Route 66 peeking in stores and enjoying patio time. It was a nice reward for our earlier chores on a beautiful Saturday.
Cruisers Route 66 Café also has music on the patio most weekends. Station 66 Italian has good food and Historic Brewing Barrel + Bottle House are must stops for us.
One thing to be mindful of, there is a set of tracks next to the park. Our space backed to the tracks, Mark heard one train overnight and the first train in the morning was just after 6am. There were a handful of trains during the day and none of this would deter us from staying again.
We pulled out Sunday morning excited to come back with our new granddaughter for her first Grand Canyon train ride and stay here again.