Day 10 - Monday, May 21st - Flagstaff to Holbrook, AZ

Distance: 93.1 miles

Elevation Gain: +1260 ft. or 13.5 ft./mile

Net elevation change: -1709 ft.

No ride along today. Corrupted data file.

After three days in the mountains on somewhat narrow and winding roads we are back to the Interstate shoulder. We spent nearly the entire day on I-40 heading southeast to Holbrook.  We started the day at an elevation of just over 6900 feet and finished up at at about 5200 feet. We started under cloudy skies and a brisk 45͒ F. Many of us started with jackets and other layers that were shed along the way as we finished up the day under sunny skies in the low 80's.

About three miles from the hotel we got on I-40 which replaces large portions of Route 66, also known as the Will Rogers Highway, the Main Street of America and the Mother Road. It was one of the original highways in the US Highway System. Established in 1926, it became one of the most famous roads in the US running from Chicago, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, before ending in Santa Monica, California. It was a major byway for those heading west especially after the dust bowl. With the advent of the Interstate system, Route 66 was removed from the National Highway System in 1985 and changed the fortunes of many towns and businesses along the way.

The change in the topography is noticeable immediately as we are now in the desert plains. Lot's of brown scrub grass, small bushes and virtually no trees.

 At about mile 10 we passed the turn off for the Walnut Canyon National Monument and at mile 15 we crossed over the Walnut Canyon. The monument features ancient ruins of cliff dwellings of the Sinagua Indians who lived in the area between 1100 and 1250 AD.  Sinnagua is Spanish for “without water” and is an acknowledgement that these people were able to live in such a dry area and become experts at water conservation and dealing with droughts. Walnut Canyon was declared a national monument in 1915 by President Woodrow Wilson to preserve the cliff dwellings. 

Shortly after this we passed south of Winona and left the Coconino National Forest at about mile 22.  At mile 25 we passed over the Padre Canyon and then passed the Twin Arrows Navajo Trading Post ruins at mile 25 

We passed the Two Guns Ghost Town and Apache Death Cave at exit 230 and mile 35. The Ghost Town and Death Cave appear to be joined at the hip. As white settlers populated the area in the mid-1800s, Two Guns was recognized as an ideal place to cross Canyon Diablo. Two Guns was also the site of a mass murder of Apaches by the Navajos in 1878.  A group of Apaches had hidden in a cave and the Navajos found them, built a fire at the cave exit and proceeded to shoot any Apache trying to escape. A total of 42 Apache suffocated in the Death Cave.  Ed Randolph was the first settler at Two Guns and he built a store next to the death cave. He sold the property in 1922 to Ed Cundiff who added a restaurant and gas pumps. He leased the property to Harry Miller in 1925. Miller wanted to capitalize on the passing tourists so he began extensive construction adding a zoo along the canyon rim. Miller added fake cliff dwellings and cleaned out the death cave selling Apache skulls as souvenirs. In 1926 Miller and Cundiff had a dispute about the lease and Miller shot and killed Cundiff, though he was later acquitted. Cundiff’s widow opened a competing store, and in 1929 after the interior of Miller’s store burned, Miller left the state. Two Guns have several other incarnations but a fire destroyed the gas station in 1971. Today it is nothing but ruins.  These pics are in the area of the Ghost Town and Death Cave, but would appear to be remnants of the gas station and of other Route 66 businesses the ultimately failed when I-40 replaced Route 66.

Canyon Diablo

Just a few more miles down the road we passed the turn off for the Meteor Crater National Landmark which is privately owned by the family of Daniel Barringer, a geologist who is best known for proving the existence of an impact crater on earth.  The crater is about 3900 feet in diameter and 560 feet deep. The crater was created about 50,000 years ago when the area was open grassland with occasional woodlands populated by woolly mammoths and giant ground sloths. Berringer was also a mining engineer and businessman who believed that the floor of the crater covered a large deposit of “meteoric iron” of some 100 million tons and would have been worth more than one billion 1903 dollars. He spent 27 years searching for the deposit. The science of impact physics wasn’t fully developed at the time and he didn’t know that most of the meteorite had vaporized on impact.  Seems that the Crater has its' own radio station to lure you off the interstate

At mile 40 we entered the Meteor Crater rest area for our first of two SAG stops

At about mile 54 we reached the outskirts of Winslow (aka West Winslow) and at mile 57 we get off the interstate and get on a section of Historic Route 66 and head to the Standin’ on the Corner Park at about mile 59.

Winslow is a community of about 9,700 people and, according to Wikipedia, it is either named after either General Edward Winslow the owner of the St Louis San Francisco Railroad or a local prospector by the name of Tom Winslow. I couldn’t find any other source for Tom Winslow so I’m betting on the General and railroad owner. Winslow prospered as a railroad town until Route 66 was basically replaced by I-40 in 1977 and the railroad left town in 1994. 

Winslow gained national attention in 1972 because of the Eagles/Jackson Browne song Take it Easy” which has that line “standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona”.  The song was written by Glenn Frey and Jackson Browne and peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 100.  Browne began writing the song in 1971 but was having trouble finishing the second verse that started with “Well, I'm a-standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona...” Frey provided the closer with "It's a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowin' down to take a look at me."  It seems that this verse may refer to a time when Browne’s car broke down in Winslow on a trip to Sedona. In 1999, the city erected a life-size bronze statue and mural commemorating the song at the Standin' on the Corner Park. The statue stands near a lamp post, the male statue is holding an acoustic guitar. A metal sign, shaped like a U.S. Route shield, displays the words "Standin' on the corner". The mural on the wall behind the statue contains a storefront that has a reflection of a red flatbed Ford pickup truck driven by a blonde-haired woman.   A life-sized statue of Glenn Frey was added to the park in October of 2016.

Me with Jackson and the girl in the flatbed ford in the background window reflection.

Glenn Frey

Stopped and got a homemade milkshake. Excellent!

After another 3 miles Route 66 merges back onto I-40 where we crossed the Little Colorado River at about mile 64. Not much of a river at the moment

The wind became increasingly problematic at this point. What had been a tailwind to the first SAG changed to more of a crosswind from there to Winslow. Now that crosswind increased dramatically with gusts between 25 and 35 mph.  This slowed everyone down and was making it difficult at times to hold a straight line with the wind blowing you to the traffic and the wake of passing trucks pushing you the other way. This continued through the end of the ride and made the last 30-35 miles pretty difficult. 

At mile 75 we took exit 269 towards our second SAG at the Jackrabbit Trading Post in Joseph City, a settlement of about 1400. The first settlers were Mormons in 1876. Originally named Allen’s Camp after the leader of the 73 original settlers the name was changed to St Joseph to honor the founder of the Mormons. It was subsequently changed to Joseph in 1923 at the request of the railroad because of mail and freight confusions with St Joseph’s Missouri. The biggest challenge for the settlers was getting water which led to them building dams to tame the Little Colorado River. The river would destroy during the flooding season and over 18 years, 10 dams were built and destroyed. The eleventh dam lasted 29 years until it was destroyed in 1923. The twelfth dam is still standing.

 

We get back on I-40 and 16 miles later get back on Route 66 and enter Holbrook where we passed the historic Wigwam Motel before getting to our hotel for the night.

Sneak Peek at Tomorrow

Tomorrow's 94 mile ride to Gallup, NM is almost a mirror image of today as we travel northeast and have a net elevation increase of 1300 feet. We enter the mountain time zone and cross our second state line.

Gallup is a small city of nearly 22,000 people that was founded in 1881 as a rail head for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad and named after a railroad paymaster named David Gallup. With about 40%+ of the population being descendants of the Navajo, Hopi and Zuni tribes and being located on the edge of the Navajo Nation Reservation, Gallup is known as “Heart of Indian Country”. Because of the rugged terrain, the area was popular with the movie makers in the 40's and 50's for shooting Westerns. The most surprising movie listed as having been on location for at least some of the movie was Superman in 1980.