Road Trip: Route 66 to Santa Fe

After spending the night camping at the Grand Canyon, I made my way to Flagstaff to finally start making some real progress eastward. I really wanted to follow Route 66, also known as America’s Main Street and the Mother Road.

Route 66

Route 66 is a 2,451 mile stretch of road from Chicago to Los Angeles and passes through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.  The idea of the road was born in the 1920s, before interstate highways and freeways were in existence. It’s popularity rose throughout the 1950s and 1960s as people headed to vacation in Los Angeles and the West. In 1956, the Interstate Highway Act was signed and Route 66 began to be decommissioned and taken over by the new interstate highways. It is a bit of a chore to try and follow the old route, taking all the exits that point to Historic Route 66 and trying to find the signs and wondering if you are on the right road only to end up back on the interstate. But I am having a blast.

In eastern Arizona I stopped at the last planned National Park of my trip: Petrified Forest National Park. It is the largest concentration of petrified wood in the world. Wood is petrified when it is buried and the organic matter is replaced by silica, creating stone. Some of the organic matter has other elements in it that adds a rainbow of color to the stone. The wood that is preserved in the park was once a part of a swamp-like environment and the trees fell over and into a river. Looking at the Painted Desert that surrounds the park gives you clues to the geologic history of the area. Triassic era fossils have also been found with in the park.

I also hiked among the badlands of the Blue Mesa, which was pretty neat.

I made my first overnight stay of this portion of the trip in Gallup, N. Mex. and stayed at El Rancho Hotel and Motel. The establishment was built by movie mogul D.W. Griffiths’ brother and was the home to a number of big-name, old-time movie stars when they would film out in the desert.

From there I went on to Santa Fe, where I ended up spending three days with a friend from college. I saw the Saturday Farmers’ Market where she works, which was pretty neat, even in the down season of winter. I also made my way over to the Plaza area and went to the New Mexico History Museum, which was super awesome. I really liked how everything from the stories of the Indian tribes, to the Spanish imperialism, to US imperialism, Mexican independence to statehood and modern history were covered. I wish I had had more time to explore there. It did snow while I was in Santa Fe, and dropped at least 4, but probably closer to 6 inches.

Since I spent more time in Santa Fe than I had planned, I boogied my way over to Oklahoma City and didn’t follow much of the old route. I did slide off of I-40 to go through some notable areas like the town of Tucumcari, N. Mex. There was a lot of old neon signs from the old days of the road that are still up. I wish I had been able to see it at night, all lit up.

Most of Route 66 in Oklahoma has become state highway 66, which was pretty easy to follow and a nice alternative to the toll road that is the interstate. The scenery was also not what I expected. I’m not sure what I expected but I figured it had to be better than driving through Nebraska and Iowa again. The gentle rolling hills of the Ozarks, the bucolic scenes and the innumerable water towers as well as the quaint main street facades that I rolled past were wonderful sights to see. I much prefer that drive to the fields of Nebraska and Iowa, where you can see for 50 miles, 100 if you stand on a tuna can.

Stay tuned to find out where I went next.