Williams, Arizona: Route 66's Last Holdout and the Gateway to the Grand Canyon

Why Williams is worth the stop

Williams earned its two titles honestly. It is called the Gateway to the Grand Canyon because the Grand Canyon Railway has carried visitors from its depot to the South Rim since 1901, and it holds the stranger honor of being Route 66's last holdout: when Interstate 40 bypassed the town on October 13, 1984, Williams was the final Route 66 town in America to lose the old road, and Bobby Troup, who wrote the song, came to play it at the new exit. Add a walkable historic downtown, the Bearizona wildlife park, and a haunted resume that runs deeper than a town of a few thousand has any right to, and you have the natural overnight base between Flagstaff and the canyon. We are Arizona tour guides who research haunted history everywhere we go, and Williams sits about half an hour west of our Flagstaff home base, so read this as the local's answer: what to see, where the ghosts are said to be, and how to plan the stop. It is part of our wider haunted Arizona series.

Five stops that define Williams

• The Grand Canyon Railway. Completed on September 17, 1901, retired from passenger service in 1968, and revived on September 17, 1989, exactly 88 years after the first run. The train still departs each morning for the South Rim, a ride of a little over two hours each way.
• The Route 66 main street. Bill Williams Avenue and Railroad Avenue carry the neon signs, the diners, and the curio shops, and the town treats the old road as a working main street rather than a museum piece.
• Bearizona. A 158-acre wildlife park on the east edge of town, opened in 2010. You drive three miles through ponderosa forest past bears, bison, and wolves, then walk the 20-acre Fort Bearizona area for the closer look.
• The Sultana Theatre. Opened in 1912, it screened silent pictures for the region, and its barroom still anchors the block more than a century later.
• The haunted addresses. The Red Garter Inn, an 1897 saloon and bordello turned bed and breakfast, and the 1891 Grand Canyon Hotel both carry long files of reported activity. Our haunted Williams guide covers them stop by stop.

The haunted side of Williams

The stories cluster within two blocks of the tracks. At the Red Garter Inn, guests and staff have reported footsteps on the famously steep stairway, doors that close themselves, and a presence the house calls Eve. At the Sultana, the reports run to figures at the edge of sight in a barroom that has poured since the silent-film era. The Grand Canyon Hotel, taking guests since 1892, draws the kind of reports a building that old tends to earn: cold spots and footsteps in empty halls. All of it is reported rather than promised, which is exactly how we hold it. The full walk-through, address by address, lives in our haunted Williams guide.

Which tour fits you

Williams keeps its evenings small. A costumed evening ghost walk has operated in town in recent seasons, and the visitor center on Railroad Avenue keeps the current schedule; if a walk is running during your stay, it is the closest thing to hearing the Saloon Row stories on the street where they happened. The Grand Canyon Railway owns the daytime. For a regular nightly haunted-history walking tour you will want Flagstaff, about half an hour east: our own guides lead the walks there, and the Flagstaff listing holds a 4.9 TripAdvisor rating across 320+ reviews as of July 2026. Our Prescott and Tucson walks cover the rest of the state, and our guide to the best ghost tours in Arizona ranks every walk we would book, including the towns where we do not operate.

Route 66 turns 100

The highway was commissioned on November 11, 1926, which makes 2026 the centennial year up and down the Mother Road, and no town wears it more visibly than the last one bypassed. If the old road is the reason for your trip, our Flagstaff Route 66 walking tour keeps a stop-by-stop site at flagstaffroute66.com, and our Route 66 centennial guide tells the first hundred years of the Flagstaff story, thirty-some miles of the same road east of here.

Where to sleep with the ghosts

Both of the town's storied stays take overnight guests. The Red Garter Inn rents four rooms above the old saloon, up the same steep stairway the working girls used in the 1890s, and the front desk fields questions about Eve with practiced patience. The Grand Canyon Hotel, built in 1891 and billing itself as Arizona's oldest hotel, reopened in 2005 after decades dark. Neither is a large property and summer nights book out early, so reserve well ahead.

Questions people ask

Is Williams, Arizona haunted?

Williams has a reputation for reported activity that runs deeper than most towns its size, anchored by long-standing accounts at the Red Garter Inn, the Sultana Theatre, and the Grand Canyon Hotel. The historic downtown has changed little since the railroad era, which keeps the stories close to their original addresses.

What are the most haunted places in Williams?

The Red Garter Inn is named most often, with reports of footsteps, closing doors, and a presence called Eve. The Sultana Theatre and the 1891 Grand Canyon Hotel round out the usual list, and all three sit within a short walk of each other downtown.

Is Williams worth visiting on a Grand Canyon trip?

Yes. The Grand Canyon Railway departs each morning and turns the South Rim into a car-free day trip, the drive north on Highway 64 takes about an hour if you would rather steer, and the Route 66 downtown fills the evening when you get back.

How far is Williams from Flagstaff?

About 35 miles, or half an hour west on Interstate 40. The pairing works in either direction: day-trip to Williams for the train and the old road, then walk with our guides in Flagstaff after dark.

Does Freaky Foot Tours run a ghost tour in Williams?

Not currently. The nearest tours our own guides lead are in Flagstaff, with Prescott and Tucson beyond that. If that changes, you will read it here first.