Skip to main content

Cross Country Roadtrip - Day 4 Part 1 - Arizona 66 - 04/20/2010

The second half of Day 4 was exploring parts of Old US 66 in Arizona.  We stopped at old 66 towns like Winslow, Holbrook, Jackrabbit, and Joseph City.

The whole photo set (88 in total) is located here on flickr.

We'll start with the Interstate 40 part of the trip.  First within Navajo County, there are still plenty of button copy guide signs.

IMG_5624

Button copy guide sign - I-40 West Exit 255

This is where we turned around - Exit 245:

IMG_5586

The mountains and Flagstaff will have to wait another trip.

IMG_5588

It's all east from here:

IMG_5589

Now for the fun..Old US 66 - First stop - Winslow:

Standin' on the Corner....

"...such a fine sight to see.  It's a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford..."

The town of Winslow has very much embraced its place in Americana with a park commemorating US 66 and also the song that will make forever famous, The Eagles, "Take it Easy."

IMG_5594

There's also a replica US 66 shield.  Some will like, some won't:

IMG_5597

From Winslow, it was on to Jackrabbit.  It's Route 66 lure comes from signs advertising the Jack Rabbit Trading Post.

IMG_5618

There it is...and there's not much else there, either.

IMG_5620

There is an abandoned gas station and campground at the exit.  It must have been an old Texaco Station as the old pumps read Super Chief.

IMG_5613

IMG_5616

In Jackrabbit, the Mother Road heading westward returns to gravel and dirt before dying at the Interstate.

IMG_5611

Joseph City was next.  Though there wasn't much of photographic interest there.  It is a great example of how US 66 was four lanes through even the smallest of desert towns.

Holbrook is the last old 66 Arizona town we visited.  Not only is Holbrook home to some more classic neon signs for motels, restaurants, liquor stores, among others.

IMG_5560

It is also home to the Wigwam Motel.  Which you can still stay at today!

IMG_5564

The Wigwams were built in 1950 and have been in a unique lodging experience every since!  With the exception of between 1982-1988 when it was closed.

IMG_5566

From there it was pretty much I-40 back to Albuquerque.  We saw enough of Route 66, where you want to come back revisit the places you enjoyed and see more.  I know I certainly want to go back.

So what's next...Day 5 will most likely be broken up into two sets.  White Sands National Park and photos from the drive from Albuquerque to Midland, Texas.  US 82 through Lincoln National Forest is something you will want to see!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Paper Highways: The Unbuilt New Orleans Bypass (Proposed I-410)

  There are many examples around the United States of proposed freeway corridors in urban areas that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. They all fall somewhere in between the little-known and the infamous and from the mundane to the spectacular. One of the more obscure and interesting examples of such a project is the short-lived idea to construct a southern beltway for the New Orleans metropolitan area in the 1960s and 70s. Greater New Orleans and its surrounding area grew rapidly in the years after World War II, as suburban sprawl encroached on the historically rural downriver parishes around the city. In response to the development of the region’s Westbank and the emergence of communities in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes as viable suburban communities during this period, regional planners began to consider concepts for new infrastructure projects to serve this growing population.  The idea for a circular freeway around the southern perimeter of t

Hernando de Soto Bridge (Memphis, TN)

The newest of the bridges that span the lower Mississippi River at Memphis, the Hernando de Soto Bridge was completed in 1973 and carries Interstate 40 between downtown Memphis and West Memphis, AR. The bridge’s signature M-shaped superstructure makes it an instantly recognizable landmark in the city and one of the most visually unique bridges on the Mississippi River. As early as 1953, Memphis city planners recommended the construction of a second highway bridge across the Mississippi River to connect the city with West Memphis, AR. The Memphis & Arkansas Bridge had been completed only four years earlier a couple miles downriver from downtown, however it was expected that long-term growth in the metro area would warrant the construction of an additional bridge, the fourth crossing of the Mississippi River to be built at Memphis, in the not-too-distant future. Unlike the previous three Mississippi River bridges to be built the city, the location chosen for this bridge was about two

Huey P. Long Bridge (New Orleans, LA)

Located on the lower Mississippi River a few miles west of New Orleans, the Huey P. Long Bridge is an enormous steel truss bridge that carries both road and rail traffic on an old-time structure that is a fascinating example of a bridge that has evolved in recent years to meet the traffic and safety demands of modern times. While officially located in suburban Jefferson Parish near the unincorporated community of Bridge City, this bridge’s location is most often associated with New Orleans, given that it’s the largest and most recognizable incorporated population center in the nearby vicinity. For this reason, this blog article considers the bridge’s location to be in New Orleans, even though this isn’t 100% geographically correct. Completed in 1935 as the first bridge across the Mississippi River in Louisiana and the first to be built in the New Orleans area, this bridge is one of two bridges on the Mississippi named for Huey P. Long, a Louisiana politician who served as the 40th Gove