Winslow, Arizona, is famous for a song. In 1972, the Eagles released Take It Easy, with the line about standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, and today a small park on the main street has a statue and a mural, and tourists line up to take their picture on the corner. The town sits on the old Route 66, on the high plateau of northern Arizona, beside the Little Colorado River, with a population of about nine and a half thousand, and a long railway history that shaped it.
The great building is La Posada, a hotel built in 1930 by the Santa Fe Railway and the Fred Harvey Company, and designed by the architect Mary Colter in the style of a Spanish hacienda. It was the last of the great Harvey House hotels, and after it closed in the 1950s it was nearly demolished, but it was rescued and restored by a private owner and reopened as a hotel with gardens, a restaurant and an art collection. Even if you are not staying, a walk through the gardens and lobby is a pleasure. Meteor Crater, a huge impact crater about fifty kilometres to the west, is almost a mile across and 550 feet deep, and the Petrified Forest National Park lies to the east.
The riding on the old road is long, straight and easy, with wide-open desert and few cars, and the surface is generally good, with some rough patches. The wind is a constant companion, and the heat in summer is strong, with thunderstorms in July and August, while winter brings cold and occasional snow. The best times are spring and autumn, when the light is clear and the temperatures mild. North of town the Navajo Nation begins, with high mesas and painted desert.
Fuel, food and coffee are easy in Winslow, which has many petrol stations, diners and motels along its main street. Holbrook, to the east, has the Wigwam Motel, where guests sleep in concrete tepees, and Flagstaff, to the west, is a larger mountain town. Diners serve burgers, green chile and Navajo tacos, a regional favourite on fry bread.
Take your photograph on the corner, have a coffee, and then walk to La Posada, where the quiet gardens and old rooms give a sense of how travel once felt.