April 6, Rest Stop in Arizona, morning. The previous night we had tried to get a place to stay in Flagstaff, but the prices scared us off. One hotel clerk said they were getting filled up with vacationing Californians. So we headed on down the road to Camp Verde, which was a very nice, and a little less expensive, stay. In the morning we headed south to Phoenix and stopped at this Rest Stop on I-17. (we are not on Route 66 anymore with the remaining photos). This is definitely one of my top 3 rest stops, the other two being the Wisconsin Welcome Center on US-151 before you get to Dubuque, IA--the dogs LOVE this place because there's a big dewey meadow to run around in early in the morning on our trips to Colorado, and the Iowa Welcome Center in Council Bluffs at exit 1B on I-80 which features natural prairie plantings, a zillion crickets and butterflies and WiFi access. This rest stop overlooks a valley filled with plants that are transitional between the hot desert of Phoenix and the northern forests of Flagstaff. Going south past the rest stop on the other side of the hill, the Pines change to Saguaros. Stan had taken a couple pictures of me, but I was squinting, so I decided to use my picture of him instead.

Labels: Route-66-Part2, Vacation