Route 66: Holbrook to Williams

First destination was Joseph City, with the famous Jackrabbit that thousands and thousands of kids looked for during their Route 66 journeys.  As we drove we had ongoing views of San Francisco Mountain in the distance with some snow on the top.

We stopped in Winslow, Arizona to see the Take it easy corner.

Drove past the Hopi ruins, then past a meteor crater (which we didn’t get to see, will have to come back for it), to stop at what used to be Mountain Lions community at Two Guns next to Canyon Diablo. Here there was a zoo at some point showing mountain lions, hence the name. But is also the site of a massacre by Navajo Indians of a big group of Apaches. It is also a popular spot with treasure hunters as the legend goes that a group of outlaws hid some valuables in this area when running away from the sheriff.

Next attraction was a derelict petrol station that used to be called Twin arrows and ironically there is a new Chevron across the road.

From here we had a very nice drive to Flagstaff through Winona. The landscape suggests that there’s snow in winter, the houses look like mountain chalets, and there are lots of fir-trees. Flagstaff is a really cute mountain town, with lots of greenery, famous for an Observatory as well which we didn’t get to see (allegedly the Apollo astronauts used to come here to then get to Grand Canyon and learn geology prior to going to the Moon). St Francisco peak is visible in the distance. We enjoyed some nice malts at Galaxy diner to sweeten our journey.

Next stop was Bearizona Park where we saw donkeys, wolfs, bears, elks, a porcupine, a leopard, a black panther, beavers, skunks, racoons, a bobcat and a very cute otter. It was quite a warm day, so most animals chose to rest in the shade. The otters were adorable and loving the tourist attention. The bears were pretty sleepy but just before the gate we saw quite an active one that was bathing and possibly feeding with stuff from the water.

Williams is a touristic but nice little town, with lots of souvenir shops. We drove to the Grand Canyon to be there for the sunset. We first watched a IMAX movie (which had very spectacular footage shot by either a glider or a drone flying through the canyon), then headed onto on the south rim of the Grand Canyon to have dinner with a view to the sound of cicadas in the trees.

A short video of today’s mountain views is here.