Itinerary: Amarillo, Texas to Zion
Like Nat King Cole sang, you can get your “kicks on Route 66,” starting in Amarillo, as you head west toward the slickrock country of northern Arizona and southern Utah. Along the way, you’ll cross the panhandle of Texas and north-central New Mexico, with a rich history and culture that goes back to the conquistadors.
Amarillo’s justifiably famous in cowboy history — Charles Goodnight had a nearby ranch (he invented the chuckwagon for his famous cattle drives), and the city hosts the World Championship Ranch Rodeo each November and the World Championship Chuckwagon Roundup the first weekend in June.
For car buffs and public art fans alike, check out Cadillac Ranch — wildly painted Cadillacs buried nose first in a field. (Anyone who has seen the animated film “Cars” will quickly understand the Disney/Pixar homage to Cadillac Ranch.)
You have a pretty straight shot west on I-40 to Albuquerque, famed for high-tech research, museums, hot-air balloons and a fusion cuisine based on Native American, Mexican and Spanish ingredients and culinary arts. Just up I-25 is Santa Fe, the second-oldest city in the country, oldest state capital and home of the world-famous Santa Fe Opera, not to mention 300 art galleries.
True West Magazine has given its top Western Museums Award to the New Mexico History Museum. The museum’s large campus includes the Palace of the Governors, Fray Angélico Chávez History Library and Native American Artisans Portal Program. The Pueblo Revolt exhibit includes 300 arrows dangling from the ceiling. In that 1680 revolt, the Pueblo natives drove the Spanish out of the region, which was reconquered by 1700.
Driving up Highway 550 to the northwest corner of New Mexico, you’ll find Farmington, a great base for exploring Anasazi ruins in Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon, or visit the one place in the country where you can be in four states at once, the Four Corners Monument where New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona all meet (Note: Four Corners Monument will be closed March 1 – July 29, 2010 for renovations.).
You’re surrounded by Native American culture and homelands in the Four Corners area — the Navajo, Jicarilla Apache, Southern Ute, Ute Mountain Ute and Hopi tribes. Here you can explore the Trail of the Ancients, in continuous use since around 900 A.D. The Trail introduces you to exploration routes and settlements by Pueblo and Navajo peoples, Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. explorers and settlers.
Skip on over to Monument Valley in southeastern Utah — the setting for more Western movies than any other site in the United States. Director John Ford loved Monument Valley as a setting for “Stagecoach,” “Fort Apache” and “How the West was Won,” plus many other movies. Hovenweep, Natural Bridges and Rainbow Bridge national monuments are all in the region.
Next is Page, Arizona near Glen Canyon Dam. Highway 89 will take you past the Vermillion Cliffs of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, over to Kanab — famous for numerous western TV shows and movies. From Kanab, it is a short drive over to Mt. Carmel Junction and thence to the Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel — one of the engineering marvels of the last century — and on into Zion National Park. If you’re driving a big RV rig, be sure and make advance arrangements for a guided escort through the tunnel.
