Williams to Winslow

While we were in Williams we had the opportunity to go over to Winslow to check out the town.  We enjoyed our time so much in Williams we decided to make it a stop on our way East.

So, after we left Williams we drove the ninety minutes to Winslow for a short break and a visit to the famous corner.  The Main Street, again part of the original Route 66, is pretty sparse other than the corner dedicated to the Eagles song.  As we walked down to the spot we could hear a lone busker belting out some blues kitty corner to the monument.  Not much else going on downtown but it was nice to stop off and see. Winslow is more a short stop rather than a destination, although there are some things of interest in the immediate area.  We stopped for about an hour break and were on our way again to our final stop for the day in Albuquerque.

As mentioned in a previous post, the drive East from Williams climbed quickly to a peak of 7,162 feet and the scenery started to change as we began the descent to Flagstaff.  It remained ponderosa and other related pine forest but thinned as we approached.

Flagstaff is in a very pretty location, with mountain peaks very close in on all four sides.  It looks like it would be a nice place to spend some time and we have noted that for a future trip.  By the time we drove through the pass on the East side of Flagstaff it changed to more of a high flat plain with gentle rolling hills, and broadened out the further east we drove.

Thanks for reading.

Walking Around Williams

We have seen a few small towns on the original Route 66 and they are all fairly similar.  There are souvenir shops, bars, saloons, museums, motels and old gas stations.  Williams has a vibrant downtown with quite a number of each of the above, and on the weekend it was quite busy.  I expect most of the tourists walking the streets have either already been on the train or are about to be taking it.  We went downtown early on a weekday so there were not a lot of people.  There are a lot of chain hotels around town as well as some of the original motel styles popular in the 50’s and 60’s.  Our RV park is within easy walking distance so made for an enjoyable day walking around town.

The gas station museum was particularly interesting with all the old memorabilia, and the various signs on the souvenir shops drew Pat in to see about that special something we already have three of - but is a bargain because it says SALE PRICE.  Unfortunately she got herself into trouble trying to haggle on prices and ended up in the local slammer - again.

Fortunately however, she was given a choice of community service for a day or a ride on the local rollercoaster.  With her fear of heights and open grates, she surprisingly chose the coaster.  So we continued our trip down to the East end of town where the Canyon Coaster Adventure Park is located.

We signed the obligatory waivers and paid our $20 each for the thrill of taking a two seat coaster to the top and whizzing down the mountain at breakneck speed.  It was lots of fun and the attached video has Pat yelling at me as we round the corners on the way to the bottom.

Canyon Coaster Ride

After the exhilaration of that we needed a nice walk in a park so drove up to Kaibab Lake.  It is a nice park full of old Ponderosa Pine trees and smaller coniferous trees.  There is a campground loop for RV’s that is open during the summer and some nice walking areas by the lake.  There were a number of fishermen (two drove 125 miles to fish) hoping to catch catfish, bass or rainbow trout.  I was surprised to hear there were rainbow as the water was very muddy, but the guys said they are stocked into that lake.  The water level was very low and it looked like it was probably in the order of 30 feet lower for some reason, and the fishermen said it was due to a few very dry seasons these last few years.  The valves at the end of the lake looked like they hadn’t been touched in years.

On the way back to the RV, we stopped off at the local Grand Canyon Brewery.  This is the largest brewery in the region and supplies satellite stores in Page, Flagstaff and Kingman.  I like beer, and particularly good craft beer, but find it is hard to find in the US.  These guys are the largest in the region, are right across the street from the RV park and manufacture all their products on premise in Williams.  It was happy hour so we enjoyed a flight of their most popular brews to select a few for the road.

Thank for stopping by to read.