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

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

Yesterday, we hiked the 7 mi. roundtrip trail at Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial State Park in Yarnell, Arizona. Memorial plaques, one for each of the 19 Hotshots who gave their lives protecting the community in the Yarnell Hill Fire in 2013, are set in granite along the trail every 600 feet.  The trail ascends to an observation deck and tribute wall. From here, you can descend to the canyon floor where 19 stone-filled gabions encircle the memorial site. The trail recounts the path that the Hotshots took that day. As the State Park website says, the trail helps you to "better understand the experience of these men as well as to appreciate the beauty of the town of Yarnell and the surrounding areas." This trail is moderate to difficult with a 1,200 foot elevation gain. The first 2/3 of the trail is uphill. It flattens out a bit at a saddle, where you'll find the observation deck. The ascent back up from the canyon floor is

There's something mysterious about standing at the far West end of the Grand Canyon, where canyon walls give way to shores and you know that with a bit of ingenuity, humans have been crossing the Colorado here for centuries. You feel you've somehow cheated the Canyon; you've driven far enough to circumnavigate it. Looking upstream, you know how much grander those colorful cliffs will become. Here, at Pearce Ferry, you find a quiet corner of the state seldom seen by visitors who aren't disembarking a raft or occasionally casting a line in the winding waters. We took an Arizona Highways suggested road trip from Kingman to Pearce Ferry via Stockton Hill Road. The Colorado River emerges from the West end of the Grand Canyon at Pearce Ferry en route to Lake Mead. A landing for Canyon rafters, it was a historic river crossing for Mormon settlers and Native Americans. On the way, you pass an incredibly dense joshua tree forest with a unique beauty (espe

  Hackberry General Store is an outpost on the longest continuous section of Route 66 in the nation. It crops up suddenly on the desolate stretch of desert hills and racing trains between Peach Springs and Kingman in Northern Arizona.  From Hackberry, you can take Route 66 on through Peach Springs and the Hualapai Reservation to Kingman, the Black Mountains and town of Oatman (with its wild mining donkeys), and eventually to the terminus of U.S. Route 66 at the Santa Monica Pier in California. Hackberry is a rustic homage to the Hackberry service stations that served Route 66 travelers until Interstate 40 bypassed the town by 16 miles (without an exit) in 1978. Even at dusk, excited travelers snap photos of Hackberry's old-fashioned pumps, rustic signs, and historic vehicles. Some exuberant travelers take a moment to plant themselves in the middle of the highway to point their lenses westward toward their upcoming destinations (I settled for the shoulder 😏)

  Sheep Bridge, spanning the blue-green Verde River in Arizona's high desert, is a place not reached by many. The rugged hour and a half long trek from I-17 feels much like airplane turbulence as the road makes its rust colored, winding descent to the valley floor. Dipping through shady washes, it passes impressive cottonwoods (yellow in fall), and crests foothills dotted with cool green prickly pear and imposing saguaro. Blind curves occasionally give way to an oncoming side by side or other high clearance vehicle. Until you see one, you simply hog the road. The current Sheep Bridge is a replica suspension bridge constructed by the Forest Service in 1989. The original bridge, constructed in 1943 by the Flagstaff Sheep Company, protected sheep from the drive across the river to different grazing ranges and climate zones. The bridge was used for sheep drives until 1978 and demolished ten years later in 1988. Natural hot springs in the area are still used by some. Though remote, th

The Ash Fork Bainbridge Steel Dam (built in 1898), the first large steel dam in the world and only one of 3 built in the United States, lies less than a mile off a long forgotten Route 66 alignment near Ash Fork, Arizona.  A half mile to the east stands Ash Fork Stone Dam, built in 1911. Both were constructed by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad to create a reservoir used to power steam locomotives. Both dams seem untouched by time, minus the corrugated sheet metal backing on the Steel Dam (designed to keep visitors out) which has, for the most part, deteriorated and fallen away. The dams are accessible on the .35 mi. "Stone to Steel Trail," dedicated in 2016, and marked by charming metal signs created by a welding class and pretty stone benches. The trailhead kiosk has several photographs along with information about the creation of the trail, which was obviously done with a great deal of care and enjoyment by volunteers. The dams are also accessible by rough dirt r

The Oatman Highway, Route 66, makes its lonesome trek from Kingman through the Mojave Desert. A gray ribbon shooting up through dusty sky toward the Black Mountains and low sun. Eroded hills and ramshackle structures whiz by as you roll along this narrow and rugged layer of asphalt. Rough edges meeting packed dirt with little margin between road and wilderness. This is a stark land where mineral laden hills gave way to rugged settlement amid sculpted erosion. Absent are the saguaros, prickly pear and greenery of the Sonora. The stretch is lonely, desolate and real. And you kind of love it.  As wind battered Black Mountains roll into sight, Cool Springs Station and Cabins comes into view. You pull up, stretch your legs and survey the surroundings.  Under a wind beaten tarp sit weathered gentleman taking in the incessant wind drafting down from the Black Mountains. The wildly flapping flags point to that ever winding and notorious route up Gold Hill Gr