Road Trip Studios: Family-Friendly Adventures on Route 66 and Beyond in the Great Southwest

An inky river of asphalt, high speed metal and gripping tires, the Black Canyon Freeway, I-17, races from desert floor to alpine country, ascending over a vertical mile from Phoenix to Flagstaff. The highway cuts a path through the lush desert hills of New River, adorned with large, green saguaros and generous palo verde, affording sunset vistas worthy of the Wild West.  It grinds upward, past Rock Spring's ever warm and crusty pies, as it makes its determined climb to Black Canyon City. Here, skirting blast cut cliffs, semis grind in low gears past guardrails and steep overhangs against a backdrop of soaring Bradshaw Mountains. A downward glance offers a glimpse of the southbound serpentine stretch of asphalt, where calculated curves replace what would otherwise have been a steeper grade.  Shooting past ominous signs of Deadman's Wash, Horse Thief Basin and Bloody Basin, to wonderfully colorful towns of Rock Springs, Crown King and Bumble Bee, the traff

Rolling through Dewey-Humboldt on Highway 69 toward Prescott, behind the Shell station where the highway intersects Main Street, there's a small strip mall adorned with the conspicuously false and decorative facade of an old Western town. Here you'll find the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office, Town Hall, a boutique and variety of small businesses. The large Sheriff's SUV perpetually parked outside of the "Glassy Garden Gift Boutique" might make you smile. The small town of Dewey-Humboldt erected this tribute to its pioneer days. Continue down Main Street, however, and you step back into history where turn of the century buildings still stand with renewed purpose.  The old Humboldt Main Street is vacant, but for a few cars. The 1906 Humboldt smelter barricaded at the end of the road, bricks spiraling up toward the sky, looms in the distance. Behind warning signs for the now superfund site, it's an ironic and melancholy reminder of the

The once ornate Gold King Mansion lies all but forgotten in the Hualapai Mountains south of Kingman. The concrete structure, with its unusual poured concrete ceiling, fireplace and elegant molding, dates back to 1929, having outlasted less permanent mining structures. Now remote, the Mansion was once connected to a county highway by a "splendid road," frequented by Cadillac. The mining corp owner's secretary rode shotgun (literally) as they carried the miners' payroll from LA. Today, the Mansion is accessible by the rugged Moss Wash OHV Trail or by hiking 1.5 mi. in from Blake Ranch Road (an "easy dirt road", partially unpaved, a high-clearance vehicle is recommended; four-wheel drive not necessary in good weather, per Arizona Highways "Arizona Ghost Towns"). In its day, the Mansion boasted copper screens on the windows and a fishing pond. When the mining corp struck a 3-foot-wide by 11-foot-long lead and gold vein in 1929,

Stopped in the interesting semi-ghost, artsy mining town of Chloride, just outside of Kingman on Highway 93. Established in 1860, it is the oldest continuously inhabitated mining town in the state. The town is the home to the Chloride Cliff murals, painted by artist Roy Purcell in 1966 and touched up by Purcell in 1970 and again in 2006 when he was 70 years old (when you see the height of these boulders one wonders how he accomplished this task!).  From the highway it seemed there was nothing out there, but the town (population 352) has a couple restaurants, a hotel and several art/antique/curio shops. Every resident who happens to be outside will wave to you as you pass through 😊.  Las Vegas Journal - Chloride Plan Your Trip Explore Kingman Arizona Highways: Ghost Towns Road Trip Studios: Unique Mementos and Gifts