FORGOTTEN AMERICA: ROUTE 66-THE PETRIFIED FOREST

 

Gallup is a fun buzzing city but my stay there felt like a whirlwind. It was my last stop in New Mexico and I was looking forward to crossing over into Arizona and Petrified Forest National Park. I was already off to a late start and that is the worst way to visit a national park.

Still, El Rancho Hotel is a must see and I’m glad I made time for it. Built in 1937 by R.E. Griffith, the brother of film pioneer D.W. Griffith, and in the ensuing decades welcomed an impressive roster of A-listers from Hollywood’s golden age such as Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. Despite its splendor during the studio-era, however, the El Rancho lost much of its glamour when Interstate 40 bypassed Gallup. It was saved from dilapidation, however, when local real-estate magnet Armand Ortega, bought the property in 1989 and restored it to its former glory.

                                                                    El Rancho Hotel

Before leaving Gallup I had to visit the city’s own legendary muffler man, the “Dude Man” Cowboy who has towered over John’s Used Cars for years. With that, I made my way into the Grand Canyon State. My first stop, once crossing the border was the TeePee Trading Post in Lupton which specializes in Navajo crafts and blankets. The TeePee and the neighboring shops have become popular destinations onto themselves, undoubtedly helped by the breathtaking mountains that surround them.

                                                      "Dude Man" Cowboy Muffler Man

All things considered I arrived at Petrified Forest in good time. As is often the case for me when visiting national parks the excitement began tingling the moment I drove past the welcome sign and was contained during the first few minutes of the drive when the only aspects in view was the shrubbery scattered across the badlands. And then, without warning, the sheer majesty of our nation’s wildlands takes your breath away.

The Painted Desert, a stretch of land running through the park and beyond, is a marvel of nature unlike any other. Dotting this desert are teepee-shaped sandstones formed during the Late Triassic Period. Over the millions of years since these formations were deposited from a river, the iron in the sediments have created an array of colors encircling the stones making for an unforgettable vista.

Of course, the petrified wood scattered throughout the park can also tell us stories millions of years old. This rock-solid would saw dinosaurs, changes in the landscape, the first human settlements and the First Nations of the region. Rangers took great pains to preserve this ancient habitat, creating walking trails and look-out points that would not disturb the ecosystem. As in most cases, however, there are limits to what national park staff can do, a sad fact I expect will only get worse with the shortage of staff. In just this one visit I witnessed the consequences of this as parents placed their children atop samples of this prehistoric wood for the sake of pictures.

As always, a sad realization emerges. If we lose our wilderness it will not be through the logger nor the developer, for so grand, so evident is their work it cannot help but be regulated. Rather, it will succumb to the actions of those who profess to love it most; the visitor not content to take it in on its own terms, but in a fine-tuned adaptation suited to his own needs, pleasure and edification and the self-titled conservationist enamored only with nature’s beauty and not its, often untidy, importance.

Petrified wood by the road

The Petrified Forest also contains remnants of more recent history. Route 66 once traversed through the badlands until it was bypassed in 1958. However, the faint outline of where the Mother Road once ran through can still be seen, an area well known for the rusty carcass of a 1932 Studebaker that has marked the alignment of the road for decades.

                                            The rusted old Studebaker shell, one of the last surviving witnesses to the  days when the park and the Mother Road met

I took some time to visit the Painted Desert Inn within the park which, like the El Rancho, was also built in 1937. After WWII, architect Mary Jane Colter renovated the building and it went under the management of the Fred Harvey Company until its closure in 1963. A decade later the abandoned Inn faced the threat of demolition but was saved from its fate by the upcoming Bicentennial, when it reopened its doors for the first time in over a decade. In 1987 it was declared a National Historic Landmark and today is thriving with visitors hosting a museum, a shop and rooms.

                                                           The Painted Desert Inn

I would be spending the night in the city of Holbrook some twenty miles from the park. Once in Holbrook I stopped for dinner at would be my favorite dinning experience on this trip. Butterfield Stage Co. Steakhouse may look like a typical Western tavern on the outside but once inside, it is impossible not to be swept up into the atmosphere of the Old West. Some of this is kitschy foolery, sure. Cowboy dummies sit behind counters, and outlaw mannequins can be seen rotting brooding behind jailcells, but what caught my attention was the period detail. Most everything here is real wood and the lighting is very much what would have been available to stagecoach travelers in the days of westward expansion. I cannot speak highly enough of the quality here. I don’t eat a lot of red meat anymore and given how rare a well-cooked steak is this seems just as well. Butterfield, however, makes a steak in a way that has largely been forgotten. The past is preserved in many ways on Route 66, including the lost art of a prime sizzling steak.

                                       If you Get Your Kicks on Route 66, Get Your Steaks at Butterfield!