Missions Accomplished
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Day 18: October 19, 2024 Missions Accomplished Comment via blog |
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I had my room booked in Albuquerque and planned to spend today driving
there and abandoning my side trips. At some point, I realized that didn't
have to be. Today was predicted to just be cloudy (although that proved
to not be quite true) so I moved my Albuquerque reservation back one day
and booked a room in Springerville, AZ. I could get in the side trips and
still reach there today.
My first destination was about thirty miles northeast of Holbrook. The Painted Desert Trading Post was connected with US-66 but not with the National Old Trails Road. The two had taken different paths out of Holbrook but would meet again in Albuquerque. A co-op formed in 2018 saved the isolated post from certain collapse and have established a procedure to permit visiting. There is a Route 66 Painted Desert Trading Post group on Facebook. About a mile of unpaved Pinta Road leads to a locked gate. A short text conversation allowed me to unlock the gate and drive through and onto a one time Route 66 alignment. Here and there, small scraps of evidence prove that this was once paved. My first sight of the post came after about a mile and a half and I recorded it with a long lens. |
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I've seen pictures of the post both before and after the restoration but
this is my first time at the site. The two things that hit me the most was
the location's current complete isolation and the effort that co-op
members and volunteers put into saving something they love.
Here is a picture of that inscribed cement slab
from both sides and here is one of those many
pages of information displayed on the walls. Of course, I
took some proof that I was there and I
left some too.
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I had seen this message displayed several times over the last couple of
days but the first picture I managed to grab was on the way back to
Holbrook.
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This photo from yesterday is being substituted for a photo I intended to
take later today. I'm not sure that I can make it make sense but I'll try.
Popular alignments of US-66 and the NOTR enter Holbrook together from the
west on Hopi Drive. US-66 turned north on Navajo Boulevard where the NOTR
had turned south past where these dinosaurs now stand. The 1925 NOTR then
turned east about 3/4 mile south of the intersection. Before the NOTR was
moved to run through Holbrook on Hopi, it had connected directly to that
east running road on a road that crossed the bridge Jim Hinckley had
inspired me to go looking for. I had in mind that after visiting the
bridge, I would return to the 1925 NOTR alignment on Hopi Drive and grab a
picture of these dinosaurs when I passed them en route to the eastward
traveling bit. That did not, as you are about to see, happen.
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After driving on gravel for more than a dozen miles, I definitely was not
expecting to see a semi coming off of the century old
Chevelon Creek Bridge when I arrived but neither did I
place any special significance on it at the time. Although the bridge was
on the National Old Trails Road, it was built in 1913 by the brand new
state of Arizona because of its importance in connecting Winslow and
Holbrook. It was renovated in 2013-14.
The people on the rock in the third picture arrived shortly after I did and from the same direction. For a while, after the semi had passed, we were the only people there. But more vehicles came through heading east as I walked to and across the bridge. A string of eight to ten crossed the bridge while I was on it taking pictures and hugging the guard rail. By the time I returned to my car and crossed the bridge myself, the flow had became almost constant. I really wanted to ask the people in those cars and trucks where they were headed and finally got my chance when one of the drivers waved me to a stop to ask if the road went through. I verified that it did, asked what was going on, and was told a hazmat incident had closed I-40. Several more drivers stopped me to ask about the road behind me and it eventually sunk in that I was headed toward what they were fleeing. One of drivers had mentioned that it was Google that sent them down the dirt road so I fired up Google Maps myself to see how it would route me to Holbrook. It initially looked as if there was no problem but zooming out revealed that it was directing me to the end of the dirt just so it could tell me to make a U-turn on pavement. I turned around with a cluster of vehicles on the other side of some signs at pavement's end. |
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I now made a side trip from my side trip. I had noted "ROCK ART
RANCH" signs on yesterday's aborted drive toward the bridge and since
then had read enough to learn two things: this was
the wondrous place I had heard about in a podcast and
reservations are required. I decided to drive two
miles to take a picture of a locked gate. I found the gate unlocked so
continued to the cluster of buildings almost another mile beyond. There I
found a very friendly Brantley Baird and a tour group saying their
goodbyes. I chatted briefly with Mr. Baird and some of the others before
leaving. I regret not touring the place but am now even more intrigued
by it.
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As I turned to my original side trip, I could see a line of trucks that
had just crossed that historic bridge. I have no idea why I took no
pictures of the line of vehicles I passed earlier while driving the other
way. I joined the line of traffic and kept my eye on the dark skies. Rain
did come. The first drops hit my windshield just as I reached pavement.
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Traffic moved along quite well until we entered Holbrook. There everyone
wanted to turn left to pass those dinosaurs and get back on I-40. Everyone
but me, that is. Since I could continue my NOTR drive by going straight
through the intersection, that's what I did. And that is why my two side
trips are separated by a day old picture of dinosaurs.
Within ten miles, the pavement and my windshield were dry, and by the time I approached Springerville, the skies were blue and beckoning. |
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