Petrified Stones and Route 66

On Sunday morning we left the Navajo "Rez" after an "Indian brunch" with lamb and blue-corn grits with Donovan and stoped at Ganado, at the Hubbell Trading Post (pic). The last days we have only explored places we had never been to before, and Hubbell was the first one we knew from one of our early trips in the 1990ies. That was where I bought moccasins, which I still wear in the house.

In 1878 Hubbell Trading Post was established by John Lorenzo Hubbell with the help of Navajo leader Ganado Mucho. Hubbell was a well-respected trader and former translator for the U.S. Government before he opened up this oldest operating trading post on the Navajo Nation. Interesting mercantile here: groceries, grain, hardware, horse tack, coffee and Native American Art, like the famous blankets in so-called Ganado Red. 1965 the place was declared a National Historic Site.

We left the reservation afterwards, returning to the "white world" again. We noticed later that the supermarket in Flagstaff, where we stopped, was packed with Indians, and, of course, alcohol was being sold and bought here. So much for the sense of the strict alcohol laws on the reservation... Also, it doesn't make sense, that the Indians pay up to 30 c. more for a gallon of gas than outside the border of the reservation...


Slowly we drove down from an elevation of 7,000/6,000 to 5,000 ft (2.300/1.700 m). Though we were not traveling on an itinerary anymore (just gathering info for our guidebook on the West), we decided to visit the Petrified Forest National Park. It's also called Painted Desert, since many colorful bands of sedimentary rock are exposed as a "landscape of time". But it's not all about rocks and geology, also, ruins of an Ancestral Puebloans' late settlement, Puerco Pueblo, were discovered, as well as many petroglyphs (see pics), e.g. on "Newspaper Rock".


The Grand Logs Trail passes many of the large petrified logs in the park. 260 Mio. years ago, trees died and fell into a river, being buried under sand, mud and volcanic ash, which protected the wood and turned it into stone. Fascinating structures (see pics) lying around, under NPS protection now, but not in the past. Then lots of stones were taken away by souvenir hunters.

Also, famous U.S. Route 66 passed through the park and there was the famous Painted Desert Inn, a hotel for travelers en route (pic above), very meticulously renovated on the grounds of the National Park. We continued on Historic Rte. 66 (of which not a whole lot is still left) to Holbrook, where we stopped at the famous Wigwam Motel (pics), a relict of old Rte. 66. It's still a hotel today and classic cars are parked in front, just for show.


In Windslow we had to visit La Posada, the last and most elegant of the Fred Harvey hotels built by the Santa Fe Railroad; architect was a very talented female architect by name Mary Colter, famous guests were John Wayne, Bob Hope or Albert Einstein in the 1950ies. The hotel was shut in 1957 and reopened again in the 21st century. Railroad tracks - used by heavy, loooong freight trains, are running directly behind the hotel and it is an AMTRAK station still.

Approaching Flagstaff, the Twin Arrows Navajo Casino, is the largest of a hand full of Navajo casinos, again in one little parcel of the Rez, had beautiful glass artwork in the lobby.

Flagstaff (65.000 population) - we couldn't remember anything about this city anymore. It lies high up in the mountains and is a university town with the corresponding infrastructure. Little main street, quirky shops and restaurants, it felt like "back into the hustling and bustling of the world". First used-bookstore on our way and four breweries only in the downtown area! Tried the beer in two of them, had some catching-up to do... and ordered a completely unhealthy meal of cheese fries and chicken wings. Glad that we chose to stay overnight in Flagstaff - in a cheap, but pretty decent Rodeway Inn Motel ($ 45 total/40 Euro, with fridge, microwave and breakfast)- instead of Winslow, where not much was offered besides La Posada Hotel.