Tourist Town of Williams, AZ

Enjoyed our May meat selection on Tuesday evening in our camper on the Schnebly Hill Vista campsite.  Found some grass-fed beef from Colorado at a local grocery store in Sedona.  Planned to use our small charcoal grill, but that plan was shot by the late evening rain showers.  Ended up cooking inside on the stove top, setting off the smoke alarm a couple times and scaring the cat.  We had also picked up some mahi filets, so we have enjoyed a couple nights of fish sandwiches this week.

The sun came back out on Wednesday while we packed up and departed Sedona.  Had hoped to do more hiking and exploring of the area, but decided to keep moving onto our next destination.  My choice of location for camping in Sedona could have been better.  While the scenery and solitude was nice, there was no easy route into the valley where more of the trails exist.  The only direct route is the severely bumpy and steep Schnebly Hill Road, which we had taken once and that was enough.  Otherwise you have to take the interstate north or south about 20 miles to access the highways into the Sedona Valley.  Other dispersed camping sites north or west of Sedona would have worked out better.

Short drive northwest for us on Wednesday, passing thru Flagstaff and into Williams, AZ.  This is the gateway town into the Grand Canyon Park which is about 50 miles north.  Been a couple weeks since we had a real shower, so we decided it was time to find a real campground with facilities.  Located a KOA on Route 64 which was on the way to GC and had all the amenities we needed.  Setup the camper in our spot and headed over into town to get some info on nearby activities.

Guy at the info desk wasn’t much help for providing options in our request for nearby hiking and biking trails, so we quickly pulled up various options via the all knowing Interwebs.  The forest service has an impressive website providing lots of downloadable maps.  Located a nice gravel road which went up the peak of Bill Williams Mountain.  Decided to drive half of it, then mountain bike the remaining portion.  Took in some great scenery along the way and definitely at the peak from the forest service lookout tower.  Ended up covering about 3 miles each way, obviously the first climb being immensely more difficult, yet the ride down being immensely colder.

Made one more stop on the way back to town.  I had noticed Dogtown lake from the peak and wanted to check it out.  Nothing much going on over there.  Water levels looked to be about 10-15 feet below normal.  Didn’t see any fish, but saw a bunch of deer along the road on the drive.

Continued into town and stopped at Cruisers Bar which I had read was serving a local brewery’s output.  Had a couple tasty beers which went down real easy after our biking session.  As we had heard from others, definitely a marked change in the tourist population around Grand Canyon.  Of about 40 people in the bar, we might have been the only Americans other than the staff.  Seems like a top destination for Europeans who visit the US.

Headed back to the trailer to cook up some dinner and clean up with a hot shower.  We both took extended sessions in the shower before dining on our mahi sandwiches with a side of cheesy rice.  Cindy also did some laundry, so we are all set for another week off the grid!