A Pher's guide to ROute 66 part 8 ARIZONA
Discussion
Arizona is very rich in Route 66 lore, and had some of the most magnificent scenery on the entire journey.
PAINTED DESERT NATIONAL PARK
So called because the sky and ground interact to often give the impression that the desert had been sprayed with colour. Route 66 ran across the park, but has ben pulled up. A marker commemorates it, though there is a complete abandoned trading post and an abandoned, crumbling stretch of 66 out there which I have not yet been able to locate.
The Painted Desert Inn, once a hostelry, is now preserved as an information centre
Once, Route 66 ran right through the Painted Desert. Now grown over, the shell of a car marks the site where millions of people once travelled…
At one point in time Route 66 was the most important road in the US but the interstate system bypassed it gradually until it was decommissioned, the last stub in the early seventies. Most of it was gone in there sixties. Over its life from 1926 it followed different instances at different times.
The Painted Desert in AZ is a beautiful but challenging place and in the late forties the Painted Desert Trading Post supplied gas and souvenirs to travellers on what was then Route 66; it never had mains water or electricity and the owner lived there in the blazing heat of summer with no A/C.
This is our destination. It is on private land on a long abandoned section of Route 66
Some period photos of Dotch Windsor and the building then :
Every time we have tried we have been unable to access it...there are no directions. Exiting I-40 on Pinta Road you are greeted with a no exit sign.
We headed down the exit and turn onto a dirt track ) tried this once before and it is basically impassable if wet...superslick mud. About a mile in we come to a locked gate.
There are instructions on the gate and it can be opened remotely.
Once through the gate we are on original Route 66. Very hard to imagine that this was the most important road in the US once......
and then in the distance there is a small building..........
We approach the Painted Desert trading Post, loneliest place on Route 66:
The dog approves:
The building was near collapse when a group of Route 66 volunteers including Roamin'Rich got together to save it- nothing else on this strip has survived. There is concern that people ,might want to take souvenirs or vandalize the place which would be a tragedy.
JACKRABBIT TRADING POST
Quick stop at the Jackrabbit Trading post …typical tat:
HOLBROOK
IN Holbrooke AZ sits the Wigwam Motel. Originally part of a chin of six, only two survive. The Wigwams are made of concrete and have survived very well. A variety of elderly American cars are scattered around the parking lot. Rumour has it that the rooms are not too comfortable, however.
A quite restorable diner sits abandoned there, and I also spotted a car that I can no longer remember..was it an Australian-built Ford Capri??.
Weirdly Holbrook has a superb Sake producer from Japan:
I read somewhere that a Japanese man and his wife had moved to Winslow and started to make Sake. Holbrook is small so I went to the liquor store at the gas station. Felt a bit idiotic when I asked the girl for sake, but she did not bat an eyelid:
" Third cooler on the left"....
Turns out that this sake is so good that it won prizes in Tokyo
GERONIMO TRADING POST
Coming into Arizona the usual tourist trading posts show up...Geronimo is one that has plastic tepees and lots of tat, mixing perfectly with magnificent and very real petrified wood:
Most of the petrified wood shops use plastic dinosaurs to attract buyers.....
WINSLOW
We do a short run to Winslow Arizona of Eagles fame ( though they apparently never visited the place). A new statue of Glenn Frey has been placed on the “standin’ on the corner” tableau. I
and lots of tat here too...
2016: In Winslow is the best of the traditional Route 66 Railroad hotels.
La Posada is magnificently restored with a superb restaurant. You DO need to book accommodation in advance. The passengers train still stops. Get a room facing aways from the tracks. First class place..beautiful:
METEOR CITY
TWO GUNS
We stop at Two Guns AZ , once a thriving trading post and recreation area..now nothing remains, and the bridge that once took Route 66 traffic leads to nowhere…..
TWIN ARROWS
The Navajo casino in Twin Arrows, was surprisingly good…and had a not unpleasant view from the window..
FLAGSTAFF
We drove onwards to Flagstaff, where 66 ran right along the side of the track. We wait for the Santa Fe Intermodal train to go by:
2016: In Flagstaff sits the Galaxie Diner, a traditional and proper place on Route 66:
TWO SIDE TRIPS
(1) Monument Valley is a stunningly beautiful place at sunset, worth a stopover:
(2) Sedona is just South of FLagstaff and well worth it for the scenery
WILLIAMS - geteway to the Grand Canyon
Onwards from Flagstaff lies the gateway village of Williams. on the way to the Grand Canyon I think it was always touristy. It has the distinction of being the very last place in which Route 66 was decommissioned in 1974.
The diner here is the real thing, dating back to 1963 and run by a brother-sister team, and dates back to 1963, with great road food:
GRAND CANYON SIDE TRIP
The Grand Canyon is a cliche, but no matter how much we have all heard of it, and even visited it, it remains an incredibly impressive sight. A mile deep, ten miles wide and over 200 miles long,it feels like the world's largest cathedral, and makes humans invisible. I have never photographed it well. It takes a lot more skill than mine.
We are staying at El Tovar, one of the very few hotels that sit on the Canyon rim. It is an old log structure with tiny rooms indifferent food, and a thronged lobby with day trippers. However, you can simply walk outside and you are right there on the rim.
People like to sit on the rim, which is unprotected. Now and then one falls in:
Here are a few shots:
If you are doing the whole area its only a few hours to Canyon de Chelly, a magnificent place to visit as a side trip:
We decided to detour to Canyon de Chelly, surely one of the most underrated sights in Arizona. The trouble with AZ and Utah is that there is so much to see, and much of it is bypassed by the tourist trade for time reasons. This canyon is on the vast Navajo reserve and can only be entered by vehicles operated by the licensed Navajo guides.
Link here:
http://www.nps.gov/CACH/planyourvisit/index.htm
The tour normally takes four hours by a short wheelbase Jeep Wrangler fitted with proper off road tires. The first part of the tour is across fine, flour-like sand, but as you get deeper there are gullies that require full time 4WD and sometimes take several run to get over.
In the Canyon the White House ruins data from around 11th century:
There are a few families still living there
..and other creatures:
The Fall colours, the cottonwoods, and the range of stone shades is amazing:
About 15 miles into the canyon sits Spider Rock, an 800 ft tall freestanding tower, ofern seen in old Western movies, as was the whole area:
We were short of time,but this area demands a lot more exploration. All my pics were taken from a moving and very bumpy 4x4 so not nearly as good as they could be.
Back to the 66 trip..after Williams you come to:
ASH FORK
The first one, Ash Fork, is barely hanging on. Its main industry is flagstone mining, but once, 66 went right through town and things were booming. It has a magnificent hotel in the twenties which has since burnt down,as did much of the town. Yet, there are still traces of 66:
The old motels are partially abandoned:
The diner has been closed:
And so has the beauty salon:
Even the pawn shop was closed:
as was the barbecue
Many cars could be found:
and of course Obama is not popular here:
Not sure how long the DeSoto on the roof will be there:
Lots of buildings abandoned or for sale:
Heading out of Ash Fork there is a 20 mile unbroken stretch of the original Route 66 ..no towns are services but beautiful scenery
The locomotive engineer obligingly tooted the horn as I waved to him:
SELIGMAN
Seligman is there the whole Route 66 revival began, and has a lot of the original buildings. Nearly all are motels ,food, or souvenirs. ( which of course it was in its heyday)........
THRUXTON
HACKBERRY
The next stop was Hackberry, here there is a fascinating store, with a huge collection of derelict cars out behind it:
West of HAckberry
You will find Giganticus Headicus, a fairly new 66 artifact.........and in 2022 some big additions:
Antares Point, just east of Kingman is really thing but an old motel, and like many things on 66 it has a draw for the tourists. This year is added to its Gigantic Headicus with a new sculpture…
Welcome to the Spirit of Route 66. Of course there is always lots of automotive lore around:
KINGMAN
Here, an old Santa Fe passenger loco sits quietly, long retired. Once, it stopped here. Weighing 468,000lbs it ran at 60 mph. This was not one of the glamorous streamliners, but a rural working passenger loco. Now, the old Santa Fe depot is still standing, nicely restored, but Santa Fe does not run passenger trains any more, and the giant freight trains do not stop as they pass the old building. Kingman is to remote to have been gentrified. The broad main street looks much as it did in the heyday of 66, and the local Kingman Club bar still offers shuffleboard. We stop for an excellent burger at Mr D's diner, which makes me want to trade the Cayenne immediately for a '57 Chevy convertible.
2022: A few new additions:
They have added some street sculptures and a drive through for the selfie generation…but the old Hotel Beale is still closed. When the station still had passenger trains it was the natural place to stay, but at least it still has a spot next door if you need your Packard repaired.
The lizard is a Chuckwalla, a large Iguana (15-30" long that is native to the desert and widely spread. Harmless to humans it has a party trick. When threatened it jams itself into a crack in the rock and inflates its lungs so it cannot be extracted (not my pic of the real Chuckwalla)
OATMAN
Heading out towards the Western border, 66 becomes very hilly and remote, past the single building of Crystal Springs into Oatman. An old mining town which was abandoned, the local burros from the mines have gone wild and still wander the town which was revived as a tourist destination. The Oatman hotel was the honeymoon destination of Gable and Lombard, but no longer offers accommodation. It is now a bar:
TOPOCK
Travelling West to California, Route 66 no long exists. The bridge that was the entry to California on 66 still exists but is not used for a pipeline. Here, during the Depression, California stopped the migrants and sent them back if they had insufficient funds. Now the only was across is on Highway 40.
PAINTED DESERT NATIONAL PARK
So called because the sky and ground interact to often give the impression that the desert had been sprayed with colour. Route 66 ran across the park, but has ben pulled up. A marker commemorates it, though there is a complete abandoned trading post and an abandoned, crumbling stretch of 66 out there which I have not yet been able to locate.
The Painted Desert Inn, once a hostelry, is now preserved as an information centre
Once, Route 66 ran right through the Painted Desert. Now grown over, the shell of a car marks the site where millions of people once travelled…
At one point in time Route 66 was the most important road in the US but the interstate system bypassed it gradually until it was decommissioned, the last stub in the early seventies. Most of it was gone in there sixties. Over its life from 1926 it followed different instances at different times.
The Painted Desert in AZ is a beautiful but challenging place and in the late forties the Painted Desert Trading Post supplied gas and souvenirs to travellers on what was then Route 66; it never had mains water or electricity and the owner lived there in the blazing heat of summer with no A/C.
This is our destination. It is on private land on a long abandoned section of Route 66
Some period photos of Dotch Windsor and the building then :
Every time we have tried we have been unable to access it...there are no directions. Exiting I-40 on Pinta Road you are greeted with a no exit sign.
We headed down the exit and turn onto a dirt track ) tried this once before and it is basically impassable if wet...superslick mud. About a mile in we come to a locked gate.
There are instructions on the gate and it can be opened remotely.
Once through the gate we are on original Route 66. Very hard to imagine that this was the most important road in the US once......
and then in the distance there is a small building..........
We approach the Painted Desert trading Post, loneliest place on Route 66:
The dog approves:
The building was near collapse when a group of Route 66 volunteers including Roamin'Rich got together to save it- nothing else on this strip has survived. There is concern that people ,might want to take souvenirs or vandalize the place which would be a tragedy.
JACKRABBIT TRADING POST
Quick stop at the Jackrabbit Trading post …typical tat:
HOLBROOK
IN Holbrooke AZ sits the Wigwam Motel. Originally part of a chin of six, only two survive. The Wigwams are made of concrete and have survived very well. A variety of elderly American cars are scattered around the parking lot. Rumour has it that the rooms are not too comfortable, however.
A quite restorable diner sits abandoned there, and I also spotted a car that I can no longer remember..was it an Australian-built Ford Capri??.
Weirdly Holbrook has a superb Sake producer from Japan:
I read somewhere that a Japanese man and his wife had moved to Winslow and started to make Sake. Holbrook is small so I went to the liquor store at the gas station. Felt a bit idiotic when I asked the girl for sake, but she did not bat an eyelid:
" Third cooler on the left"....
Turns out that this sake is so good that it won prizes in Tokyo
GERONIMO TRADING POST
Coming into Arizona the usual tourist trading posts show up...Geronimo is one that has plastic tepees and lots of tat, mixing perfectly with magnificent and very real petrified wood:
Most of the petrified wood shops use plastic dinosaurs to attract buyers.....
WINSLOW
We do a short run to Winslow Arizona of Eagles fame ( though they apparently never visited the place). A new statue of Glenn Frey has been placed on the “standin’ on the corner” tableau. I
and lots of tat here too...
2016: In Winslow is the best of the traditional Route 66 Railroad hotels.
La Posada is magnificently restored with a superb restaurant. You DO need to book accommodation in advance. The passengers train still stops. Get a room facing aways from the tracks. First class place..beautiful:
METEOR CITY
TWO GUNS
We stop at Two Guns AZ , once a thriving trading post and recreation area..now nothing remains, and the bridge that once took Route 66 traffic leads to nowhere…..
TWIN ARROWS
The Navajo casino in Twin Arrows, was surprisingly good…and had a not unpleasant view from the window..
FLAGSTAFF
We drove onwards to Flagstaff, where 66 ran right along the side of the track. We wait for the Santa Fe Intermodal train to go by:
2016: In Flagstaff sits the Galaxie Diner, a traditional and proper place on Route 66:
TWO SIDE TRIPS
(1) Monument Valley is a stunningly beautiful place at sunset, worth a stopover:
(2) Sedona is just South of FLagstaff and well worth it for the scenery
WILLIAMS - geteway to the Grand Canyon
Onwards from Flagstaff lies the gateway village of Williams. on the way to the Grand Canyon I think it was always touristy. It has the distinction of being the very last place in which Route 66 was decommissioned in 1974.
The diner here is the real thing, dating back to 1963 and run by a brother-sister team, and dates back to 1963, with great road food:
GRAND CANYON SIDE TRIP
The Grand Canyon is a cliche, but no matter how much we have all heard of it, and even visited it, it remains an incredibly impressive sight. A mile deep, ten miles wide and over 200 miles long,it feels like the world's largest cathedral, and makes humans invisible. I have never photographed it well. It takes a lot more skill than mine.
We are staying at El Tovar, one of the very few hotels that sit on the Canyon rim. It is an old log structure with tiny rooms indifferent food, and a thronged lobby with day trippers. However, you can simply walk outside and you are right there on the rim.
People like to sit on the rim, which is unprotected. Now and then one falls in:
Here are a few shots:
If you are doing the whole area its only a few hours to Canyon de Chelly, a magnificent place to visit as a side trip:
We decided to detour to Canyon de Chelly, surely one of the most underrated sights in Arizona. The trouble with AZ and Utah is that there is so much to see, and much of it is bypassed by the tourist trade for time reasons. This canyon is on the vast Navajo reserve and can only be entered by vehicles operated by the licensed Navajo guides.
Link here:
http://www.nps.gov/CACH/planyourvisit/index.htm
The tour normally takes four hours by a short wheelbase Jeep Wrangler fitted with proper off road tires. The first part of the tour is across fine, flour-like sand, but as you get deeper there are gullies that require full time 4WD and sometimes take several run to get over.
In the Canyon the White House ruins data from around 11th century:
There are a few families still living there
..and other creatures:
The Fall colours, the cottonwoods, and the range of stone shades is amazing:
About 15 miles into the canyon sits Spider Rock, an 800 ft tall freestanding tower, ofern seen in old Western movies, as was the whole area:
We were short of time,but this area demands a lot more exploration. All my pics were taken from a moving and very bumpy 4x4 so not nearly as good as they could be.
Back to the 66 trip..after Williams you come to:
ASH FORK
The first one, Ash Fork, is barely hanging on. Its main industry is flagstone mining, but once, 66 went right through town and things were booming. It has a magnificent hotel in the twenties which has since burnt down,as did much of the town. Yet, there are still traces of 66:
The old motels are partially abandoned:
The diner has been closed:
And so has the beauty salon:
Even the pawn shop was closed:
as was the barbecue
Many cars could be found:
and of course Obama is not popular here:
Not sure how long the DeSoto on the roof will be there:
Lots of buildings abandoned or for sale:
Heading out of Ash Fork there is a 20 mile unbroken stretch of the original Route 66 ..no towns are services but beautiful scenery
The locomotive engineer obligingly tooted the horn as I waved to him:
SELIGMAN
Seligman is there the whole Route 66 revival began, and has a lot of the original buildings. Nearly all are motels ,food, or souvenirs. ( which of course it was in its heyday)........
THRUXTON
HACKBERRY
The next stop was Hackberry, here there is a fascinating store, with a huge collection of derelict cars out behind it:
West of HAckberry
You will find Giganticus Headicus, a fairly new 66 artifact.........and in 2022 some big additions:
Antares Point, just east of Kingman is really thing but an old motel, and like many things on 66 it has a draw for the tourists. This year is added to its Gigantic Headicus with a new sculpture…
Welcome to the Spirit of Route 66. Of course there is always lots of automotive lore around:
KINGMAN
Here, an old Santa Fe passenger loco sits quietly, long retired. Once, it stopped here. Weighing 468,000lbs it ran at 60 mph. This was not one of the glamorous streamliners, but a rural working passenger loco. Now, the old Santa Fe depot is still standing, nicely restored, but Santa Fe does not run passenger trains any more, and the giant freight trains do not stop as they pass the old building. Kingman is to remote to have been gentrified. The broad main street looks much as it did in the heyday of 66, and the local Kingman Club bar still offers shuffleboard. We stop for an excellent burger at Mr D's diner, which makes me want to trade the Cayenne immediately for a '57 Chevy convertible.
2022: A few new additions:
They have added some street sculptures and a drive through for the selfie generation…but the old Hotel Beale is still closed. When the station still had passenger trains it was the natural place to stay, but at least it still has a spot next door if you need your Packard repaired.
The lizard is a Chuckwalla, a large Iguana (15-30" long that is native to the desert and widely spread. Harmless to humans it has a party trick. When threatened it jams itself into a crack in the rock and inflates its lungs so it cannot be extracted (not my pic of the real Chuckwalla)
OATMAN
Heading out towards the Western border, 66 becomes very hilly and remote, past the single building of Crystal Springs into Oatman. An old mining town which was abandoned, the local burros from the mines have gone wild and still wander the town which was revived as a tourist destination. The Oatman hotel was the honeymoon destination of Gable and Lombard, but no longer offers accommodation. It is now a bar:
TOPOCK
Travelling West to California, Route 66 no long exists. The bridge that was the entry to California on 66 still exists but is not used for a pipeline. Here, during the Depression, California stopped the migrants and sent them back if they had insufficient funds. Now the only was across is on Highway 40.
Edited by RDMcG on Sunday 21st May 18:04
Edited by RDMcG on Sunday 21st May 19:23
Edited by RDMcG on Thursday 3rd February 14:37
Edited by RDMcG on Thursday 3rd February 14:44
Next ( and final) section is part 9: California
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=140...
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=140...
mike13 said:
Hi Ronan
Loving these trip reports and your style,we stayed at El Tovar in 2011,have to say it was disappointing to say the least,food was awful.Charging high due to location no doubt,keep these reports coming!
Did not eat there but the lobby was a zoo at times. ..pity, as the location is spectacular.Loving these trip reports and your style,we stayed at El Tovar in 2011,have to say it was disappointing to say the least,food was awful.Charging high due to location no doubt,keep these reports coming!
RDMcG said:
mike13 said:
Hi Ronan
Loving these trip reports and your style,we stayed at El Tovar in 2011,have to say it was disappointing to say the least,food was awful.Charging high due to location no doubt,keep these reports coming!
Did not eat there but the lobby was a zoo at times. ..pity, as the location is spectacular.Loving these trip reports and your style,we stayed at El Tovar in 2011,have to say it was disappointing to say the least,food was awful.Charging high due to location no doubt,keep these reports coming!
mike13 said:
I'm just back from The Badlands, Mt Rushmore etc, have you ever toured there?
Nope, but Porsche Parade is rumoured to be up there in 2015 and if it does not interfere Euro delivery of my 991RS I will attend. Always wanted to tour around there. I generally pick up cars to coincide with the Nurburgring 24, which is in June, so with a bit of luck can do both
.Ah damnit. We got back on Sunday and this trip report would have been ideal. That said, we visited quite a few of the places you've been to and thoroughly enjoyed the drive.
To add a slightly different spin, we stayed and ate at El Tovar and I thought it was fantastic. Service was great and my steak was delicious! On the flip side, we styled at The View in monument valley (which was amazing) but the food was not great! You're a captive audience as there is no food for miles so we just had to get on with it before heading off to Zion Park in the morning.
To add a slightly different spin, we stayed and ate at El Tovar and I thought it was fantastic. Service was great and my steak was delicious! On the flip side, we styled at The View in monument valley (which was amazing) but the food was not great! You're a captive audience as there is no food for miles so we just had to get on with it before heading off to Zion Park in the morning.
Robatr0n said:
Ah damnit. We got back on Sunday and this trip report would have been ideal. That said, we visited quite a few of the places you've been to and thoroughly enjoyed the drive.
To add a slightly different spin, we stayed and ate at El Tovar and I thought it was fantastic. Service was great and my steak was delicious! On the flip side, we styled at The View in monument valley (which was amazing) but the food was not great! You're a captive audience as there is no food for miles so we just had to get on with it before heading off to Zion Park in the morning.
In Monument Valley I usually bring my own food and rent a house ( and of course bring my own wine since it is dry). It is some of the very greatest scenery though. Glad you had a good trip!To add a slightly different spin, we stayed and ate at El Tovar and I thought it was fantastic. Service was great and my steak was delicious! On the flip side, we styled at The View in monument valley (which was amazing) but the food was not great! You're a captive audience as there is no food for miles so we just had to get on with it before heading off to Zion Park in the morning.
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