Driving through some of New Mexico and pretty much all of Arizona we found ourselves constantly seeing signs for old Route 66. We even drove on it for a little bit but it crossed through nearly every town we did. Now, being the parent of young children the first thing that I thought about was the movie Cars. We kept telling the boys to look for Lightning McQueen. The scenery was right. 
We even passed by this hotel that reminded me of the Cozy Cone motel in the movie. 
O.K. so I'm a little bit nuts. It was a long trip.
The next stop on our road trip was the Painted Desert & Petrified Forest in Arizona. Don't let the name fool you - there is no forest. At least not a living one. The mountains and desert are beautiful colors. Almost like the Grand Canyon but on a smaller scale. The forest part is all the petrified trees. I didn't read up on what caused it but there are petrified logs throughout the whole place just laying scattered around. Some of those were beautiful colors too. Chris wanted to load up a tree trunk to bring home but (1) you're not allowed to take any out (2) we never could have picked it up and loaded it in our car. This was pretty much a drive through place. We did pull over and take pictures at scenic stops but for the most part the boys watched a movie in the car and didn't even notice.
Not too far from the Painted Desert (and on the way to Flagstaff) was Meteor Crater. This is the 1st crater to be identified as an impact from a meteor and is the best preserved in the world. It was huge. At one time (I don't think anymore) it was used for training NASA astronauts. You can still see the old mine shaft in the middle of the crater. You can't even capture the whole thing in one picture.
One more stop before California - the Grand Canyon!
1 comment:
That's the way I felt about taking pictures when Travis & I went to California and drove Hwy 101! Pictures don't do the experience justice. Hopefully, the Grand Canyon will be in our future! It looked like you all had a great time!
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