ARIZONA
Arizona was the next state over the horizon.�� The huge rock face to the left is basically on the border of New Mexico and Arizona.�� Below it sits a huge tourist trap.�� Its a Native American Trading Post store and is basically full of touristy gifts.�� It was fairly large and busy so it appeared to be doing quite well.
The picture at right is of an old tourist shop that did not fair as well.�� Ellas Frontier was probably some sort of wild west shop judging by its look.�� Just another of the numerous abandoned buildings along route 66.�� Hopefully this won't happen to many more along the route.
Our first overnight stop in Arizona was in Holbrook, which is home of the famous Wigwam Hotel.�� These were pretty cool to see and I'm sure they are popular with all Route 66 travelers.�� Us being exceedingly poor however chose to only look around and snap a couple pictures.�� I don't think these were very expensive though, we were just in cheap mode.
The next day we headed out and rolled through Two Guns, Arizona.� It is a ghost town and the area is full of history dating all the way back to early 19th century battles between the Navajos and Apaches.� From what I have gathered it was at one time a wild west town as well.�� It basically was a place of great bloodshed.�� The 20th century changed all that and it became a thriving stop along 66 with a gas station, motel, food emporium, and even a zoo.�� With the introduction of I40, Two Guns all but vanished, leaving behind modern day ruins.�� To the right is whats left of the gas
station, just some rusty, bullet ridden pumps.�� The area is fenced off and private property, but we just walked in and looked around and luckily no one said anything to us.� To the left and below is whats left of the zoo area.�� Not sure what type of animals they had other than the mountain lions but it was probably a wide array to bring in the tourists.�� It was a pretty desolate area to say the least.
The next spot on the map we passed was Twin Arrows.�� What you see to your left is all that there is in Twin Arrows, plus a gas station.�� We didn't bother to stop and explore this wonderous area, we just snapped a picture as we passed.
We then started seeing the ever famous "Here It Is" sign for the Jack Rabbit Trading Post dotting the highway.�� When we finally arrived I realized where all there money goes-advertising.�� The actual store itself is just another small little tourist trap, but all those signs worked, we just had to stop and look around:)
We snapped another funny picture of Scott at the Jack Rabbit Trading Post.�� To the left he rides a giant Jack Rabbit.�� I'm sure he's very happy about it being posted here.�� Sorry Scott:)�� Next stop was Winslow, Arizona where we stopped for the night and grabbed a nice shower.��
Thanks to the Eagles song, we of course had to have our pictures taken "Standin' on the corner in Winslow Arizona"�� I was waiting for a girl in a flat bed Ford to go by, but all we could find was a guy in a Dodge not paying much attention to me.
To the left is Jeff� doing the same thing as me.�� The town was actually pretty run down and small.�� It wasn't what I had expected of a town made famous by a song, but it was interesting none the less.
This is just a very cool Arizona sunset, I believe taken in Winslow.�� The west has some amazing sunsets.�� The next day we were to venture off Route 66 and head up to see the Grand Canyon.
The Grand Canyon has to be one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.�� I always knew that it was absolutely huge and I had seen pictures, but I don't think anything can prepare you for the size of it.�� It was absolutely breathtaking.�� The picture to the left has Jeff and myself standing literally on the edge of a cliff, nothing but a few hundred feet straight down behind us.�� It was pretty cool just to sit on the edge and take it all in.
The only downside to the Grand Canyon was the amount of people there.�� It was absolutely packed and most of the people seemed very pushy.�� It would have been nice to check out a more non-touristy section of the canyon and have a few days to explore.�� It really looks like it just goes on forever.->
Just another shot of the canyon.�� if you have a nice monitor you can probably see just a small blue spot in the middle of the picture which is the river.�� For everyone else you'll just have to trust me.
Just another shot of the canyon.�� We looked around for quite a while, made ourselves a nice lunch and headed out.�� Next stop was Las Vegas.
On the way to Vegas, we passed by the Hoover dam.�� Its pretty huge.�� We didn't take any dam tour or anything, we just took some dam photos since it was so damn hot that day!�� This was one of the areas that Goatfolks got a little hot.� It overheated on the way into Vegas.
