Winslow, AZ (4/11/2019)

"Well, I'm a standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona

Such a fine sight to see

It's a girl, my Lord, in a flat-bed Ford

Slowin' down to take a look at me"

"Take It Easy", the Eagles first hit, was co-written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey in 1972.  Seemingly timeless, the song is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and still resonates today.

When I drove through Winslow in 2007, I was on a mission to find the Whispering Giant sculpted by Peter Toth.  I was unaware of "Standin' On The Corner Park" created by the town in 1999.  It was only later that I learned of it and promised myself I'd return some day to see it.  Twelve years later, I did just that.

The park has a statue of a young man (not meant to be anyone in particular) standing by a lamp post, holding a guitar.  The adjacent building has a mural showing the reflection of a flatbed Ford truck with a blonde woman inside.  Two second story windows have an eagle perched on one, while a man and woman can be seen through another.  An actual Ford truck is parked on the street.  In 2016, they added a statue of Glenn Frey as he looked in the 1970s.  Across the street, a gift shop specializes in Eagles memorabilia and plays Eagles songs loud enough to be heard at the park, adding to the ambiance.

And, speaking of the Whispering Giant, here's a photo of it.  It's too bad they placed the sculpture so the sun and the rail yard are behind the figure, making it difficult to get a suitable image.

Winslow is also home to La Posada Hotel, the last of the Harvey Houses that were built across the West, primarily along the railroad and Route 66.  Fred Harvey immigrated from England in 1853 at the age of 17 and worked as a busboy and pot scrubber for a New York City restaurant.  He learned the business as he progressed to more responsible positions, especially the value of quality food and service.  After several restaurants with bad partners, he contracted with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad to provide the first restaurant chain in the U.S.  His restaurants became famous for  good food, good value and fast service provided by waitresses known as "Harvey Girls".  Their story was told in a 1942 novel and 1946 movie musical starring Judy Garland.  Young women flocked from all over to work for the Harvey Company.  Despite strict rules and hard work, they were paid well and took great pride in their work.

A plaque on the hotel credits Mary Jane Colter for its design, and the National Park Service claims she was the architect for several iconic buildings at Grand Canyon.  I had always heard of her as the preeminent architect of the "Southwest Style".  Recently, a book was published that asserts she was a fraud, claiming credit for the work of others.  It's hard to see how that could have been done, but the book reportedly has some creditable evidence.  In any case, La Posada is a splendid building with beautiful art and furnishings.  I had a nice lunch in the Turquoise Room, served by a lovely young Navajo woman.

The gift/jewelry shop contains high quality merchandise, and the interior design of the building is outstanding.

The principal artist on display is a woman named Tina Mion, who actually owns La Posada with her husband.  They restored the hotel after it had suffered many years of neglect.  Ms. Mion has lived an extraordinarily chaotic life (including part of her childhood spent living in an abandoned mortuary), which is reflected in her art.  Several paintings associate people (some famous, some infamous) with spoons, which may seem a little strange, but not as strange as some of her other works.  I encourage you to check out her web site and read all about her life and study her work.  To call her, or her work, eccentric could be the understatement of the century.  Click on Tina Mion.

My stay in Arizona finished with a very nice sunset.

Now that I'm back in Colorado for a while, there will be a break in the travelogue.  I do have plans for a quick trip to Florida in May, and a family cruise to Alaska in June.  Beyond that, we'll have to see.

Holbrook, AZ (4/9 & 4/10/2019)

One of the reasons I came to Holbrook was to visit the Rock Art Ranch, as it is called locally.  The owner, a man named Brantley Baird, came here with his parents in 1945 and has been here ever since.  He will soon be 84 years old and looks as fit as someone much younger.  His 3000 acre ranch is sparsely covered with sage brush and not much else.  The grazing is so poor, he can only support 35-40 head of cattle, which doesn't bring in much revenue for a spread that size.  Brantley supplements his income by allowing visitors to tour his "museum" and enter the Chevelon Canyon where it runs through his property, for a fee of course.  I declined the chance to see his museum, but did go into the canyon.

After leading me to the canyon rim, which has a shelter so people can rest and have a picnic, Brantley told me I would be welcome back at any time with no charge.  He even showed me where he hides the key to the gate.  There is a handrail to help people negotiate the stone "stairway" to the bottom, and a kind of sketchy bridge across Chevelon Creek.  I quickly learned to step on the bridge's cross members, since the metal lathe doesn't seem capable of carrying my weight.

The petroglyphs are said to extend about a mile in each direction on both  sides of the creek.  However, high water at this time makes it impossible to go that far without getting  wet.  I saw thousands of figures, but there are many thousands more that I was unable to see.  Based on debris stuck high in the trees, it was evident that the creek has recently been much higher.  Even the bridge would have been under water.

I won't bore you with all the photos I took, but will show only a few of the more impressive or unusual images.

Birthing Scene

Cinderella

Despite not being able to see all the art, the solitude and beauty in the canyon made it a very worthwhile experience.  I'll definitely return when I'm in that area again.

Brantley mentioned the trail ends at a swimming hole, where in the old days they went "skinny dipping".  Now, he says, they can only go "chunky dunking".

Here's a view of the area along the edge of the canyon, complete with an "outhouse" for customer use.

The lady who runs the RV park gave me several ideas of places to visit, one of which is known to locals as The Cracks.  She couldn't tell me how to get there, but I found some directions on the internet.  Turns out it isn't far from the Rock Art Ranch.  

The Cracks is a geologic anomaly caused by salt fields left behind when the area was under the sea.  Eventually covered by thick layers of sandstone, the salt is under great pressure and begins to move and finally starts to dissipate.  The brittle sandstone is no longer supported evenly, so begins to crack.  The process takes millions of years, and is similar to the creation of the arches in Arches National Park.  

The first recorded exploration of The Cracks was in 1891.  An engineer was lowered some 275 feet into a large crack and didn't reach bottom.  Various animal skeletons have been found in some cracks, including those of cattle, camels, hyenas and desert bighorns.  I read there are cracks as wide as twenty feet, but I didn't find any that large.  Covering a four-square-mile area was more than I had time for.

The trail crosses several cracks, going around those too large to easily pass over.

Holbrook, AZ (4/8/2019)

After a week in Snowflake, I moved to Holbrook a mere thirty miles away.  Being thirty miles closer saved me sixty miles round trip for each of the several sights I wanted to see along I-40, so it made sense to move.  Besides, I moved to a park that not only has good WIFI, but also cable TV.  This was important to me with the Masters golf tournament coming up that week-end.

Holbrook is a town of just over 5000 population, located on the old Route 66, the new I-40 and the original railroad that helped settle the west.  In fact, the town was founded in 1881 when the railroad arrived and was named for the railroad's Chief Engineer.  Early settlers were either associated with the railroad or cattle ranches.  Outlaws and lawmen soon followed.  (Sheriff Commodore Perry Owens became famous in a shootout in which he shot four men and a horse without sustaining injury himself.)  Of course, the area had been home to the Anasazi, Navajo and Apache Indians for hundreds of years.

Like most towns along the "Mother Road", as Route 66 was known, Holbrook tried to capitalize on tourist travel with motels, restaurants, gift shops and other "attractions" that now appear to be cheesy.  Many of those businesses still operate in hopes their Route 66 charm will attract customers.  Being close to Petrified Forest National Park, and with lots of petrified wood available on private land, there are quite a few rock shops selling petrified wood and other stones from the area.

Teddy Roosevelt spent time in the area, recruiting cowboys and lawmen for his "Rough Riders" Army unit that fought in Cuba.  As President, he designated the Petrified Forest as a National Monument in 1906.

One popular cafe on Route 66 is Joe & Aggie's Cafe.  I enjoyed a great green chili cheeseburger there, and had the pleasure of meeting Joe & Aggie's grand-daughter who now manages the restaurant.

A mural in town reflects the origin of Holbrook, its railroad depot.  I took a photo of the depot in its current state, apparently not being used.  The trains I saw, and some sixty go through each day, never even slow down.

The Wigwam Motel advertises "you can sleep in a wigwam".  I wonder how well one can sleep, given that it is less than one block from the railroad tracks.  The vintage automobiles were fun to check out, however.

Fossils of dinosaurs and other pre-historic critters have been found nearby,  along with the petrified wood and other stones.  Somehow I don't think that is a thriving business to be in .

Although I had visited Petrified Forest N P a couple times before, I went back in hopes of getting sunset photos at some scenic location in the park.  I was disappointed to learn the park closes at 5 pm, a couple hours before sunset.  So, I made short visits to a few of the park's viewpoints.

Petrified wood resulted when volcanic ash covered forest land, followed by mineral rich water flowing through the ash replacing wood fibers with minerals.  This did not happen overnight, mind you.  The petrified wood was then exposed through erosion, mostly by the constant winds in this area.

In addition to petrified wood lying all about, the park has some colorful badlands.  When Coronado came through in 1540, he called the area El Desierto Pintada, The Painted Desert, and it still goes by that name.

The Painted Desert Inn, originally called the Stone Tree House, was built around 1920 of petrified wood and other area stone.  It was a lodging place for early visitors to the park.  In the 1930s, the inn was modified to an adobe structure by the Civilian Conservation Corps and re-named.  For a time, it was owned by the Fred Harvey Company, part of their chain of restaurants and hotels along the railroad.  Now a museum, the "inn" contains one of the most famous petroglyphs known, a large incised mountain lion.  It would be illegal to remove it today.

The park also has some interesting petroglyphs and ruins.

Although Mormons had tried to settle near here, they found the town to be too rough and sinful for their tastes, so moved south to settle Snowflake and Taylor.  For many years, there was no church in Holbrook.  Now, there is a Mormon church and a Catholic church, Our Lady of Guadalupe.  I went inside, but no lights were on and it was too dark to photograph.  I liked the Mosaic on the entry wall, so took a photo of it.