Holbrook is a small town on Interstate 40 in northern Arizona, a place that still looks like the postcard for old Route 66. About five thousand people live here, among sunbaked streets, neon signs and dusty sidewalks. The Wigwam Motel, a ring of concrete teepees with vintage cars parked outside, opened in the 1950s and is a favourite photo stop. Across the street, curio shops sell turquoise jewellery and rubber tomahawks, and the diners offer big breakfasts and tall milkshakes.
The town grew with the railroad in the 1880s and became a lawless cattle town, with a reputation for gunfights and the notorious Hashknife outfit, a vast ranch whose cowboys left plenty of stories. Today it is the county seat of Navajo County and a gateway to the Petrified Forest National Park, about twenty miles east, where logs of ancient stone, turned to quartz and agate, lie scattered across the Painted Desert's banded hills. The landscape is wide, empty and glowing, with layered colours of rose, grey and lavender in the evening light.
For a rider on Route 66, Holbrook is a prime stop. The old road survives in sections, parallel to the interstate, and it carries nostalgic traffic and a lot of European tourists on rented Harleys. The riding here is mostly straight and flat, with long views, big skies and strong crosswinds. Summer heat is intense, so start early and drink water, and thunderstorms in July and August can bring flash floods across low points. Winter is cold, with the occasional snowfall at this altitude of about a thousand five hundred metres.
Fuel is easy in town, and so are motels. Eat something local, perhaps Navajo tacos or a steak, and then walk the main street at sundown, when the neon flickers on and the heat eases. The Little Colorado River, normally dry, runs sandy and red through the landscape. Go early to the Petrified Forest to see the light on the rocks, and keep an eye out for pronghorn on the open range. It is a place that rewards slowing down.