Gettin’ our kicks on Route 66!

Saturday, October 8, 2016

We spent two nights in Holbrook, AZ. right on Route 66!   Everywhere you look it’s Route 66!  We stopped at a Dairy Queen for an “extra” kick, which included a Dilly Bar, and a soft serve cone—loved the old-time sign. 

We visited Meteor Crater, a fascinating place, not too far from “standing on a corner in Winslow, AZ, such a fine sight to see”.  It’s quite an interesting story--this is a family owned national landmark.  The family obtained ownership because they obtained the mining rights to the area back in the early 1900’s.  There was some controversy about whether this was an impact site, or volcanic residue.  An impact site would have a lot of iron from the meteor, which would bring value, so there was mining done at the site, which generated a lot of information and helped prove it was an impact. Most of the meteor disintegrated. The largest piece of the meteor is on display, and  too heavy to lift  but Jim gave it a try! It is estimated the meteor was travelling at 26,000 mph when it hit the earth 50,000 years ago!  It created a giant bowl-shaped cavity, 700 ft deep and 4,000 ft across!  Meteor Crater is the first proven and best preserved impact site on earth.  NASA has done training at the site for its astronauts so they would know how to collect material on cratered regions on the moon!  Pretty interesting stuff…guess we’ll be ready for the next meteor that comes this way.

Then we visited the Petrified National Forest—Route 66 used to run right through it. An antelope greeted us as we entered—it ran across the road right in front of us!   The national park is part of a natural travel corridor that has been used for over 10,000 years.  Even today, a railroad track runs through the area.  Petrified Forest is the only national park that preserves a section of Route 66.  Roosevelt designated it as a national monument in 1906 and it became a national park in 1962. 

There was so much to see—it is a huge park featuring trees from 200 million years ago that have been petrified by silica from volcanic ash that turned the wood to stone.  The pieces of trees look like rainbow granite sprinkled around the area!   It is against the law to take anything from the park, although it was tempting to take a shiny rock!

 

Spot enjoyed the views of the Painted Desert!  The layers of sedimentary rock create a spectacular and colorful display of the landscape. Justwish the pictures would show how beautiful the area is.

At one overlook we were able to see prehistoric petroglyphs, thought to be as old as 2,000 years!  It’s hard to believe that people inhabited this vast, lonely area so many years ago.  I wonder what they were trying to tell us from these markings—were they marking trails?  --marking events, or days?  --telling a story?  Hmmmm….or trying to get their kicks on Route 66?