Today we headed east to Winslow. We decided to get back to our rock roots by taking it easy while standing on the corner in Winslow, AZ, and such a fine sight to see, it’s a girl my lord in a flatbed Ford, Slowin ‘ down to take a look at me.
Yes, we stepped back in time to 1972 and into an Eagles song. This was the Eagles first hit. Jackson Browne and Glen Frey wrote the song together. They say that Jackson Brown was driving along Route 66 and actually broke down in Winslow Az and was most likely standing on a corner waiting for a tow truck and the rest is history. There are a couple of gift stores around the park and they both play Eagles music. As we were standing there Take it Easy actually was playing, it was kind of surreal.
There is a statue of a fellow leaning up against the light post is supposed to be Jackson Brown, the second statue is Glen Frey, how he looked back in 1972 and they added the flatbed truck in the last few years. The building that is the background is the remains of a drug store that had burnt down. It was purchased by the town to make the Standin’ On the Corner Park.
Our next stop was Jack Rabbit. Jack Rabbit is a stop on Historic Route 66, this little gift store has been there for over 50 years. They stiff advertise by using yellow signs with a black jack rabbit on it saying Here it is. It was an advertising ploy to get people to ask what is it and when you got there, Here it is.
They have the world’s largest jackrabbit that you can sit on, of course I made Len take a ride.
The next stop was Holbrook, which is also on Route 66, it is home to a number of petrified wood rock shops. We stopped at the Rainbow Rock shop and met the owner Adam Moon he has run this shop for over 50 years as well.
Here is an example of what Petrified wood looks like. The colours are amazing.
We had lots to choose from, picked up a number of smaller rocks to tumble.
Also in Holbrook is the Wig Wam Motel. This is the motel that the movie Cars used to make the Cozy Cone Motel.
You can still stay there, I checked inside one and they are pretty basic but they were very clean.
After visiting the Wig Wams, we headed to the Petrified Forest and Painted Dessert national park. Some 180 to 200 million years ago during the Triassic period Arizona was a great flood plain laced by many stagnant streams. It was lunch with plant and animal life. Many of these plants were carried downstream to swampy areas and they were buried in the mud. Over time volcanos also added ash to the mud and these deposits formed what is called Chinle rock. Compounds of iron, manganese, uranium, copper and carbon were present as well as Silica in the water were deposited in the wood turning it to agate and jasper gemstone, thus petrifying or fossilizing it. As you drive the trail the petrified wood is just lying all over the park. Your are not allowed to pick any rock in the park, all the rock you see in the rock shops are all found on private land.
A log just balance on top of a larger rock formation
A petrified bridge that they have added support below
Large piece just lying around
They polished the top of this log, look at the the colours and designs the minerals make.
The painted dessert part comes from the different layers of minerals that were deposited over millions of years.
This area was called Newspaper rock because of over 800 different pictographs that have been found.
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