When Herman Rarebell wrote the lyrics to “Arizona” on the Scorpions classic 1982 album “Blackout” he was thinking of the wild times he had with drink, drugs and women while he was there. I’m not sure he spent much time in the desert in Northern Arizona as the chances of finding any of those three is extremely unlikely.
Northern Arizona is full of interesting things. To start with Route 66, the famous “America’s Main Street’ that ran from Chicago to Los Angeles until the 1980s can still be found (in parts). One part goes from Kingman:
to Seligman:
Now there’s not much to see along this bit of Route 66. One thing you will see is signs like this:
This is the last of a group of signs spaced about 100 yards apart that said:
At intersection
Look each way
A harp sounds nice
But it's
Hard to play
Burma-Shave
These signs for Burma Shave (shaving cream of course) were very common for many years on roads like Route 66. They disappeared as higher speed highways started to become more common. These ones are not originals though, as back then Burma Shave considered there to be too few drivers in Arizona to warrant advertising like this.
One very famous bit of Northern Arizona is the Grand Canyon. A great place to stay if visiting the Grand Canyon is Williams. Williams dates back to 1881 and hasn’t changed much since then.
This was the last place on Route 66 to be bypassed (in 1984). Here is a bit of Route 66 in Williams as it looks today:
Williams is home to the Grand Canyon Railroad which provides a 65 mile service to the South Rim of the Canyon:
The Canyon was carved out by the Colorado river, which we have already seen back at the Hoover Dam. You can’t see it here because its too far down.
However, if you travel back into California you can get a great view of the river from another old Route 66 place, Needles:
Here you can sere the effect of the Hoover Dam on the quality of the water. Without the dam this river would be a muddy red color (Rio Colorado or Red River was once its full name). Now its crystal clear. It still moves very fast though, so no quick dips here (unless you want to end up in the Bay of California).
