Day 5 Meteorite Crater, Snow Bowl & Williams

Its east this morning to the best meteorite impact site on earth, you can even see this from your plane coming and going from Phoenix, which gives you some kind of scale to go by. Then up to the Snow Bowl for a chair lift to the top to admire the wonderful view,don`t worry there will not be any snow in the area. Then the evening is spent in the old route 66 town of Williams

October 13, 1984 the last remaining stretch of Route 66 was bypassed by the opening of a six mile segment of nearby Interstate 40. But Williams lives on. It is another true Route 66 town. Williams not only survived but is at the heart of a Route 66 revival. The downtown area has been cleaned up; new streetlights, fresh paint, and sidewalks have brought the town back to life. The community takes pride in its special relationship to the Mother Road and it shows.




Williams was named for one of the most colorful of all Mountain Men, Old Bill Williams. Though it is debated whether he ever was in the area of the town and mountain that bears his name, it is a well known fact that he was "acquainted with every inch of the Far West" as he would have put it. Williams was founded in 1876 and nothing much happened here until the railroad arrived in 1882. In 1901 the Santa Fe Railroad laid tracks from Williams to the Grand Canyon and insured Williams' claim as Gateway to the Grand Canyon.








The Grand Canyon Railroad reopened in the late 1980's and started running train tours to the Grand Canyon from the beautiful Frey Marcos Harvey House and Depot which has been restored to its former grandeur. The Grand Canyon has always been a Route 66 destination though it is located 50 miles from the Mother Road. Route 66 was always the primary highway vacationers used to get there.