One of my favorite places I’ve ever been to in Arizona is the Petrified Forest National Park, which is just off of historic Route 66. In 1857, the United States government hired E. F. Veale to build a wagon road from Fort Defiance, New Mexico to the Colorado River. Beale experimented with using a Camel Corps to build the road.

The Petrified Forest is part of a natural travel corridor that has been used for over 10,000 years, and modern humans travel a similar path.

In 1853, Congress authorized scientific surveys of all practical railroad routes between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean. Lt. Amiel W. Whippele’s expedition surveyed a possible way near the 35th parallel.

Sprouting from this, eventually running from Chicago, IL to Santa Monica, CA was Route 66, which was established in 1926 and was one of the original highways in the U.S. highway system. People hit the road looking for an adventure or to just get away from it all to travel and see places like the Petrified Forest.

Gas was cheap and the magical roadside beckoned you to “Get Your Kicks On Route 66.” Called The Mother Road, Route 66 spans 2,448 miles, crosses three time zones and eight states–Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.