One Dusty Track

Driving Route 66 on the way to Holbrook.

After 28 miles on US 180 from the south exit of the Petrified Forest National Park and rejoining Route 66, we came to the town of Holbrook and the 5,000 good folk who live there.

Established by 1882, the town was, at first, home mostly to cowboys, cattle ranchers and railroaders and had all the vices of a typical wild west town. Law and order was non-existent, gambling was the most popular game in town, "ladies of the night" were far more numerous than "proper women" and there were saloons along every street. The most popular saloon was named, "Bucket of Blood," which should give an idea of the type of town it was. It was said that most of the men there were wanted, or men that weren't wanted anywhere else. It was often referred to as "The town too tough for women and children" as no self-respecting family would settle there. In 1895, Holbrook became the county seat of Navajo County and until 1914 was known as "The town too tough for churches" because it was the only county seat in America without a church.

On the evening of July 19, 1912 at 7:15pm, a large, very bright fireball flew across the sky above Holbrook. Several loud explosions were heard which frightened people and animals alike as approximately 16,000 pea-sized stones fell from the heavens. It is one of the largest, most well-documented observed meteorite falls in the world and even today, the town receives many meteorite hunters looking for any remaining Holbrook meteorites.

By the time Route 66 came through town, Holbrook had mostly settle down. The days of the open range and rough and tumble cowboys were over. Service stations, motor courts, trading posts, stores and cafe's selling supplies and food to the travelers sprang up almost overnight and Holbrook became a major stop along the Mother Road. Remnants of these businesses can still be found through town.

Wigwam Motel complete with period cars.

One of the most interesting and probably most photographed of the old Route 66 attractions is the Wigwam Motel. Opened in 1950 and fully renovated in 1988, it is one of only two wigwam motels still open on the Route (the other is in San Bernardino, CA). Its slogan, "Sleep in a Wigwam" enticed many a kid to harass mom and dad into spending the night. The Wigwam Motel in California has a different slogan - "Do it in a Wigwam" and no doubt, entices a different clientele.

Wish we could have stayed here!

The Wigwam Motel turned out to be a disappointment for Youngest-daughter and I. Not because it didn't live up to our expectations or anything like that though. We had planned to spend the night there and it was something we both were looking forward to, but when we called the day before trying to make a reservation, the phone went unanswered and when we arrived, we found the place closed for renovation. Whatever renovation was going on, it appeared to be nearly finished as the place looked clean and ready for business. We took a few pictures and went on down the road. If we ever get back there again, we'll try again to "sleep in a wigwam!"

Geronimo Trading Post

About 5 miles on down the road is another remnant of the Route 66 heydays which is still going strong - Geronimo Trading Post. I'll admit I'm a bit torn by these trading posts - some are in-your-face tourist traps with a lot of cheap crap labeled "Made in China," but some are pretty cool places with good quality items at very reasonable prices. I especially like the hand-made Indian items and have a hard time not purchasing many more than I need or would be healthy to my wallet. Geronimo has a lot of good stuff in spite of looking like one of the tourist trap places on the outside. It is particularly well stocked with Route 66 memorabilia. Youngest-daughter can spend hours in one of these places, but somehow I managed to scoot her out in less than 30 minutes and we escaped with only a sack of road food and a pretty little geode.

Outside of the Geronimo Trading Post

Just three miles further west and we came to Joseph City, a town of 1,500 which was first settled by Mormons in 1876. A nice little town, but we went on through to stop 8 miles later at the famous Jackrabbit Trading Post off I-40 at exit 269.

Here it is!

In 1949, James Taylor purchased an asphalt-shingled shack that had been used previously as a snake farm. He didn't exactly endear himself to the neighbors when he simply opened the cages and turned loose all the snakes. He began fixing up the shack and then painted dancing Indian chiefs on one side, a large jack rabbit on the other side, and installed thirty 12-inch tall hopping rabbits around the roof line. He also installed a 3-foot high composition jackrabbit with yellow eyes just inside the door. Many a child in those days had their picture taken atop the yellow-eyed jackrabbit. In addition to selling food and cold drinks, the shelves were filled with petrified wood, pretty rocks, turquoise jewelry, Indian souvenirs, knick-knacks, and post cards.

Jackrabbit Trading Post

During that time though, there seemed to be a trading post every couple of miles so with all of the competition, James had to do something to make his stand out. He teamed up with his friend Wayne Troutner, the owner of the For Men Only clothing store in Winslow and they traveled along Route 66 all the way east to Springfield, Missouri leasing and plastering billboards along the whole route. Hopping jackrabbits paired up with a dancing cowgirl for over 1,000 miles enticing travelers to stop at the Jackrabbit and the Men's Only Clothing Store. After all those signs for mile after mile, it was almost impossible for travelers to not stop when they arrived at the huge yellow sign which simply said, "Here it is."

Petrified wood and hand-painted sign next to the entrance.

Obviously the effort paid off as the place is still in business. While we were there, we were the only customers. Hopefully, it doesn't take many for the owners to remain open as this is an icon of the old Route 66. And hopefully our purchase of a cool rock, a couple of other souvenir's, a couple of post cards and a couple of cold drinks helped some. We still had cokes from the Geronimo Trading Post, but we threw our new ones into the cooler in the back seat and set out for Winslow and a famous corner to stand on.

Old DeSoto being slowly consumed by the elements as it sits
along Route 66 near the Jackrabbit Trading Post.

Go to the first Route 66 entry here.

Or go to the first entry of each state:

Illinois Missouri Kansas Oklahoma Texas New Mexico Arizona California

On west-bound I-40 coming into Arizona.

Just about 20 miles from Gallup lies the Arizona state line. In my humble opinion, if you could only travel Route 66 through one state, Arizona would be it. With some of the most breathtaking landscapes in all of America, be sure your camera battery is charged and you have lots of room on the photo card. Here you will encounter the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, Canyon Diablo, Meteor Crater, beautiful mountains and thick pine forests. Numerous ghost towns and abandoned trading posts are located all along Route 66 as it winds its way through colorful sands and between looming buttes. The population here is light and the air is clean and fresh. This is the place where with just a little bit of trying, you can get away from it all, sit back, enjoy the wide open spaces and breathe easy.

Indian City in Allantown.

After stopping at Indian City in Allantown (on the Navajo Indian Reservation) for cold drinks and to let Youngest-daughter get a shopping fix, we continued our journey west. (Side note: this is also the area where Fort Courage is located, a mocked up version of the fort from F-Troop, the TV show that began in 1965. Just my opinion, but there is no need to stop here - tourist trap big time with cheap, hokey F-Troop souvenirs. Sad.) Route 66 from the state line to exit 311 runs right next to I-40; sometimes serving as the southern frontage road and then crossing over to serve as the northern frontage road and then sometimes joining and becoming I-40. The old road is now mostly broken blacktop with some rough stretches of gravel or just plain dirt and some sections simply disappear or lie on private property. It is not advised to try this if it has recently rained. Since we could see the road running mostly right along beside us, rather than spend the extra time driving slowly and crossing back and forth for no reason other than to say we actually drove on that particular roadway, we decided to stay on I-40 until we arrived at the Petrified Forest National Park.

Entrance to the Petrified Forest National Park.

The park actually consists of 2 separate areas, the Painted Desert region which contains the north entrance to the Petrified Forest National Park and the National Park itself, which lies to the south. A 28-mile park road provides overlooks and parking areas for access to trails and picnic areas. There is a very early, dirt road version of Route 66 which cuts through a corner of the Painted Desert region, but you cannot drive it.

The story of the petrified remains of trees that are millions of years old started when logs in the area were washed into the low-lying swamp that used to cover this region. As volcanoes to the west spewed tons of ash into the area, the logs were buried in the sediment. Then, water passing over the buried logs caused the silica in the ash to dissolve into the logs which replaced the cell walls and crystallized into mineral quartz. Minerals rich in iron combined with the quartz to produce the brilliant colors we see today.

Petrified logs laying about doing what petrified logs do.

A much better story though comes from the Indians. According to them, a goddess was tired and hungry as she walked through the area. She killed a rabbit and attempted to build a fire with the logs that were laying on the ground, but the logs were soaked and would not ignite. In her anger, the Goddess turned the logs to stone.

Plan to spend at least a couple of hours driving through the park, another hour or more for the visitor centers, and then another 30 minutes or more driving west on Hwy 180 at the southern end of the park to return to I-40 and Route 66. If you do not have 1/2 a day to delay your trip, feel free to take a pass on the parks, but you may wish later you had taken the time. One more thing - don't even think about taking a piece of petrified wood from the park. There is a federal law which prohibits it, a phone number for people to call if they see someone pocketing a piece, and the park rangers will ask you if you took anything as you exit the park. If they even think you are lying, they have the right and they will require you to pull over and they will search your car. It's the right thing to do - with thousands of visitors to the park every year, if everyone took a piece of wood with them, there would soon be none left for our grand-kids to look at. Besides, there are dozens of rock shops and trading posts that will sell you a piece of wood that wasn't collected in the park. One of the shops Youngest-daughter and I stopped at had a "Buy one, get one free" sell so we both legally took back home the perfect rock we each hand picked - for about $5.