Historic Route 66 from Holbrook to Albuquerque

 Today we completed 4 of the 6 Adventure Labs highlighting the Historic Route 66 from Holbrook to Albuquerque. One of the two in AZ highlighted and emphasized the Native culture along The Mother Road.

Weather Rock

always fun to read

As I mentioned yesterday, this area of AZ focuses on dinosaurs, petrified wood, and the culture of the Natives who live in this area. This is the first blue dinosaur I have seen. Who says dinosaurs were green or brown? Maybe they were blue!

and more wigwams (or teepees)

More beautiful petrified wood. My personal thought: how tragic it is to see amount of petrified wood that was taken from the petrified wood now national park prior to it being recognized as a landmark that should be saved. We have driven through part of the national park and there is not many fallen trees to show it was once a forest area. 

typical green dinosaurs

Querino Canyon Bridge

This bridge over the Querino Canyon was built in 1929 as part of a grand rehabilitation and relocation of Route 66 across northern AZ. It was just one of several bridges, drainage construction, and at least 25 miles of roadway.

The bridge is a concrete decked steel trestle with three Pratt deck trusses supported by steel piers. Concrete abutments support the 77 feet long, 20 feet wide bridge from below.

It had a beautiful view of the Querino Canyon, but as you can tell by the first photo the road is not paved. This is a section of Route 66 which has not been preserved, but is an important connection for the native communities north of I-40.

Gallup, New Mexico

R.E. "Griff" Griffith, the brother of the famous movie director D.W. Griffith visited Gallup in the 1930s, fell in love with it, and in 1936 commissioned Joe Massaglia to build a hotel. The result is the three-story structure of brick, stone and wood on Historic Route 66 that feels like a cross between a Southern mansion and rustic hunting lodge. Employees were trained by the Fred Harvey Company.

From the day of its inception, the hotels been linked to the film industry, serving as a filming location for Billy the Kid (1930), The Sea of Grass (1947), Four Faces West (1948), Only the Valiant and Ace in the Hole (1951), escape from Fort Bravo (1953) and The Hallelujah Trail (1965), among others.

During its glory years, the El Rancho was the definition of luxury and included many amenities that were lacking in other typical tourist hotels of the day. With the opening of Interstate 40, the property fell into decline. Armand Ortega bought the hotel at a bankruptcy auction and restored the property. The Ortega family has a long history dealing in Native American jewelry and artwork in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The hotel is open and rooms can be booked. We noticed some renovating going on on the outside of the hotel. If you chose to stay at El Rancho you would be joining such film starts as John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Errol Flynn, Kirk Douglas, Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracey, Mae West, Lucille Ball and Joan Crawford (and probably many others) who also signed the guest book at El Rancho.

We did not take the time to go inside to see this historic stop.