Route 66, Day 5 – Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Williams, Arizona.

by Keith Morgan on Thursday, November 6th, 2014

Route 66: Day 5

Williams, Arizona – It looks like some alien landscape from a far off planet, but the Petrified Forest is very much of this ancient earth.

A visit to this remarkable U.S. National Park was a highlight of Day 5 of the Nissan Altimate Rogue Trip, which is retracing the old Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica. It’s situated about 40 kilometres east of Holbrook in a semi-desert region and is named for the massive deposits of petrified wood that began forming around 225 million years ago. The rock formations are most unusual and very colourful.

A rusting car marks a connection to one of the earlier lines of the decommissioned highway through the park, and the overheard power lines sit on the exact route.

Entering Arizona, our 2015 Nissan Altima tugged us to the side of the highway into a large tee-pee-like structure where we shopped for examples of local art.

Speaking of tee-pees, the inn bearing that name was the choice for an overnight stay by a Latvian couple, Guntars and Anda Vaishia. They too are exploring the route and couldn’t resist booking in for a night in a wood framed tee-pee!

Tomorrow, we head for the Grand Canyon and on to Kingman, Arizona. Check back for a further installment of this blog tomorrow and look out for an expanded feature in Black Press papers later this month and a full report and picture gallery online at the same time.

keith [dot] morgan [at] drivewaybc [dot] ca

Follow Keith on Twitter @ChangeGears

Learn more about his journey by searching #nissanroute66