Gribblenation

Back in 2012, I stopped in at Petrified Forest National Park on the Colorado Plateau which used to be crossed by US Route 66 in addition to Arizona State Route 63. Petrified Forest National Park is mostly known for fossilized trees from the Late Triassic Period about 225 million years ago.  Petrified Forest National Park spans much of the border along the Navajo County and Apache County line between I-40 south to US 180.  Petrified Forest was set aside as a National Monument in 1906 to protect the fossils from theft and was elevated to a National Park in 1962.  Given that US Route 66 ran through Petrified Forest National Park, it has become associated with the highway.  From I-40, access to the Painted Desert Visitor Center and the Park itself is fairly straightforward. The northern annex of Petrified Forest contains several vistas of the Painted Desert.  The Painted Desert consists of a series of Badlands on the Colorado Plateau running from the east...

The famous Jack Rabbit Trading Post and billboard - Adam Prince, April 2010. HERE IT IS!!! On the western outskirts of Joseph City in Navajo County on the north bank of the Little Colorado River is an old US Route 66 stop known as the Jack Rabbit Trading Post .  Finding the Jack Rabbit Trading Post is obvious - given there is a giant billboard denoting the site. If you have never stopped at Jack Rabbit, what "it is" is a large statue of a jack rabbit out front of Jack Rabbit Trade Post. The Jack Rabbit statue - Tom Fearer, 2011 In operation since 1949, the Jack Rabbit Trading Post is the creation of Jim Taylor.  Taylor had a small statue of a black rabbit that tourists enjoyed taking photos of.  With a catch yellow and black billboard and a 'tourist attraction', Taylor set up shop in a former AT & SF Railroad Building.  Jack Rabbit Trading Post - Tom Fearer, 2011. The Jack Rabbit statue on site today is a fiberglass construction and has been replaced numer...

Eleven miles east of the ruins of the Twin Arrows Trade Post at I-40/US 180 exit 230 is the ruins of Two Guns on the rim of Canyon Diablo.  The Two Guns Trade Post predates even US Route 66 being on an old alignment of the National Old Trails Road.  The Canyon Diablo Bridge located in Two Guns dates 1915 and spans the canyon of the same name.  A store was set up near the Canyon Diablo Bridge in 1922 and eventually grew to a small community that became known as Two Guns.  In 1926 US Route 66 was commissioned to run through Arizona on the alignment of the National Old Trails Road. In 1938 the 1915 Canyon Diablo Bridge was replaced by a more modernized span which was located near the current eastbound lanes of I-40/US 180 Canyon Diablo.  The Canyon Diablo Trade Post grew in size during the heyday of Route 66 and eventually had a small zoo in addition to a campground.  I'm to understand the service station in Two Guns burned in 1971 which probably did...