66 Day Nine: Holbrook, AZ to Grand Canyon, AZ

When you’re ready for a bite to eat, head to Aliberto's, a local chain that serves up authentic Mexican cuisine. If you only order one dish while in Holbrook, make it the green chile plate from Aliberto's—green chile is a local specialty, and after eating here you'll understand why it’s so popular.

This classic Route 66 restaurant is best-known for its homemade red and green chile sauces. Even if you’re not hungry, it’s worth stopping for a photo in front of the building, which features a hand-painted map of Route 66.

Drive through the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park in the late afternoon and then stop at Wigwam Village Motel #6 for the night. The rooms of this charming historic motel—located inside individual concrete and steel teepees—are pure roadside kitsch. There are only three remaining Wigwam Motels, and the vintage cars parked outside of each room make this the best one for photos.

If the Wigwam Motel is full, head across Route 66 to the Globetrotter Lodge. This classic motel features 10 adorable, unique, and cozy rooms with ample parking space for trailers or large RVs.

We don’t know for sure that this is actually the world’s largest petrified tree, but it is definitely big, reportedly weighing 80 tons. Stop for a photo, do a little climbing, and then it’s on to the next stop.

The resurgence of Winslow didn’t start entirely on the corner. During the town’s heyday as a stop for steam locomotives, Fred Harvey wanted to build a landmark hotel in Winslow. With a price tag that would equal nearly $40 million today, La Posada Hotel was completed just after the stock market crash. It would only be open for 27 years, eventually having most of its fine furnishings sold at auction, but efforts to save the Winslow icon were eventually successful.

Facing the threat of demolition for several decades, the La Posada Foundation and the new owners of the property finally restored La Posada Hotel to its former glory as the Jewel of the West. The foundation changed their name to the Standin’ On the Corner Foundation and took on their next project, helping to make the now-famous park a reality.

Thanks to Standin' on the Corner Park, Winslow, Arizona, is back on the map as tourists once again travel through the heart of town. The park features a couple of statues and a mural of a girl in a red Ford truck, with the flatbed perpetually parked across the street. But this perfect photo op is only the beginning of what Winslow has to offer.

Rock Art Ranch is a privately-owned working cattle ranch that was originally a part of the Hashknife Cattle Co. It’s also home to incredible Anasazi dwellings and petroglyphs, and the onsite museum is a labor of love by proprietor Brantley Baird.

Just outside of Flagstaff is one of the weirdest attractions in the West: Meteor Crater. The impact crater formed when a meteor hit Earth about 50,000 years ago and left a massive, almost mile-wide hole in the ground. The visitor center features a museum, videos, and a great observation deck.

Two Guns is located 30 miles east of Flagstaff, on the rim of Canyon Diablo. Legend has it that in 1878, Two Guns was the site of a mass murder. Apaches hid from their Navajo enemies inside a cave; when a fire was lit at the cave's entrance, 42 people were asphyxiated inside. The cave, now called the Apache Death Cave, is still accessible by a rickety wooden ladder.

In 1922, Earle and Louise Cundiff purchased the land and built a store, restaurant, and gas station. Three years later, Harry Miller leased the property from the Cundiffs and added a zoo, gift shop, and post office, and began offering tours of the cave. In 1926, the highway that passed by Two Guns was renamed Route 66—and Miller shot and killed Cundiff during an argument (Cundiff was unarmed, but Miller was acquitted).

In the late '60s, a motel, a tavern, new zoo exhibits, a Shell service station, and a KOA campground were added to the site. The service station burned in 1971 and the site has sat abandoned ever since. The buildings are in various states of ruin and the kidney-shaped swimming pool is covered in colorful graffiti, making it a great place for photos. There are rumors that the site also contains buried treasure and more than one dead body. While we can neither confirm nor deny these claims, you might want to bring a metal detector just in case.

This KOA has standard RV and tenting accommodations, but also teepees and deluxe cabins. The scenic campground is full of ponderosa pines, and is located less than an hour from the Red Rocks of Sedona.