Rand's Web Page
Fall 2022 RV Trip (page 4)
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On Friday we headed south on a very scenic drive to Flagstaff. We passed through the town of Mexican Hat named after this geologic formation. |
| We came along this stretch of road featured in Forrest Gump. |
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I saw this interesting desert bloom along the roadside. |
| This is the most famous part of Monument Valley. |
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We arrived in Flagstaff Friday October 28th. Becky was sick so our first outing Saturday was to an urgent care clinic. Then I headed out to see some sights. This was the site of Twin Arrows on the old Route 66. One of the arrows has degraded and fallen down. The station was gutted and the exterior painted in graffiti. |
| Walnut Canyon National Monument was a good trip. The canyon is spectacular unto itself. |
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But more remarkably, the cliffs supported a people for 300 years up until around 1200. |
| They made homes in the cliffs under overhangs. They farmed and hunted in the flat land above and lived in these houses. They protected against the heat as well as the cold. |
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Although water flowed in the base of the canyon at times it is only seasonal. And it may be flash floods rather than a steady stream. Therefore, the people developed water storage systems (mainly large clay jars). |
| Both walls of the canyon had these homes so there must have been hundreds of people living there. Unfortunately, the sites were looted in the late 1800s by tourists so much of their story is unknown. |
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Our KOA campground had a trail at the back end. I decided to check it out. It is a rugged and steep uphill climb. The trail goes to the top of the mountain. |
| I made it about half way up (the sun was going down). I started at 7000 feet and ended at 7700 feet. I am not in good enough shape for that. Even though I didn't make it to the top I was higher than all the other mountains I could see. |
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On Monday we hit the road again. Much of our route was along Route 66. As this picture shows, the route is not continuous anymore. |
| We stopped in Ash Fork at the Route 66 museum there. |
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Ash Fork had its heydey in the age of rail. This is a model of the Hotel Escalante. It was one of many Harvey houses. It adapted well to Route 66 but didn't survive I-40. |
| This stage coach reminds us of the days before the rail when the predecessor of Route 66 was the Old Trails Road. |
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Next stop was Kingman AZ. This town is full of Route 66 history including this museum. |
| One area was dedicated to the description of the migration of the Okies during the dust bowl as described by John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath. |
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| Then it told of more modern conveyances. |
| They had an electric car museum that featured a very early model Tesla. |
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| We had to make a stop at Jack in the Box. I know it is just fast food but we don't get it in Minnesota. |
| We spent our night in Needles. After we set up camp we drove to Lake Havasu and saw the London Bridge. This version of the London Bridge was built in the 1830s. |
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| It was taken apart and moved to Arizona in 1968 by Robert McCulloch to promote his development of Havasu City. Each stone was cut down 6-8 inches to accommodate the size needed. It was rebuilt on land and then the canal was dredged out from under it. |
